In 1922, Montreal Canadiens owner Leo Dandurand pulled off one of the biggest trades in the young history of the National Hockey League by trading superstar Newsy Lalonde to the Saskatoon Crescents of the West Coast Hockey League for a young unknown by the name of Aurele Joliat. The trade was so big and shocking that the other teams tried tirelessly to block it, and several changes to the rules were introduced to prevent it from happening again. Here is the story of that trade.
The Messy Lalonde/Joliat trade: Part l
“For the first two periods the visitors battled tooth and nail and were holding their opponents, but in the last period the locals outplayed them from every angle, scoring four goals in ten minutes.” So wrote the Sault Star on the morning of Wednesday, February 23, 1921 following Iroquois Falls’ 6-4 loss to Timmins in the Northern Ontario Hockey Association (NOHA).
The win secured the group championship for Timmins, a playoff against Sault Ste. Marie for the league championship, and a shot at the Allan Cup. The game itself saw an unusual amount of bets being placed favouring an Iroquois Falls win, leading to a lot of money lost to some shady bookies. A few weeks later, allegations of match fixing were brought to the NOHA executive committee. After an extensive investigation, a youngster from Ottawa, Aurele Joliat, was among two Iroquois Falls players to be expelled from amateur hockey for accepting a payoff to throw the game.
Joliat told his side of the story in an interview with the Montreal Gazette in 1984: “Before a game against Timmins, we were told, (Billy) Boucher and me, that Spiff Campbell, who played with us, had talked to Timmins’ goaler Roy Worters, and that if we lost the game, Worters would give us $200 each. Boucher and I each scored a goal but we lost. After the game, Boucher and I went to a little shack, about 10 miles from Timmins, in which Worters lived. We found him lying on his bed with a bottle in each hand. We said: ‘Where’s the money, Roy?’ He laughed and answered: ‘Who the hell told you that I had some money for you? You’ll never get any money here. I think you guys were fooled. Goodnight.”
Although he claims to have never received the money, Joliat’s career was severely jeopardized over the situation, and complicated the return in Montreal’s trade of Newsy Lalonde to Saskatoon.
Joliat’s potential was identified early on in his amateur career. In January 1920, while only 18 years old and playing for New Edinburghs in the Ottawa city amateur league, Mike Quinn of the Quebec Bulldogs and George Kennedy of the Canadiens offered contracts to Joliat. They were both rejected by Joliat and his father. Joliat would win the city scoring title that season before opting for the higher calibre Northern Ontario amateur league for that fateful 1920-21 season that ultimately saw his amateur status revoked.
Joliat met with Tommy Gorman, the managing director of the Ottawa Senators, shortly after he was expelled from amateur hockey. Gorman tried to blackmail Joliat into signing with the Senators on a remarkably low contract ($700) by threatening him with banishment from the National Hockey League unless he signed. Joliat rejected the offer and the Senators led a successful campaign out of spite to ban their local prodigy from the NHL, using the pretense of his actions with Iroquois Falls. With the banishment finalized, Ottawa dropped their claims for the local player.
Joliat had no choice but to head out West to earn a living playing professional hockey. He jumped on a harvest train and rode it all the way to Regina, joining a football team while trying to make connections in the newly formed Western Professional Hockey League. He was being courted by several teams for the upcoming 1921-22 season, but Joliat unfortunately broke his leg playing in Moose Jaw, and his season was seriously compromised.
He tried out for the Regina hockey team, but was cut because his leg wasn’t fully healed and giving him problems. Calgary also bowed out. Saskatoon gave Joliat a chance as a defenceman, but when Joliat was hit with a puck in the broken leg during practice, that was the end of that. Joliat tried to excuse himself from the Saskatoon team, but the owner instead offered him a deal for $4,000, which Joliat politely declined because of his leg. Joliat wanted to go home to Ottawa so that he could heal. Bob Pinder, the financial backer of the Saskatoon team gave Joliat $100 for train fare and made him promise to return the following season. By accepting the money, Joliat’s professional rights were now owned by Saskatoon.
On Christmas Eve 1921, now back in Ottawa, Joliat attended a game at the Ottawa Arena between the Senators and the Canadiens, where he witnessed the Senators deliver a staggering humiliation to the Habs by a score of 10-0. He was primarily there to visit his friend Billy Boucher who had joined the Canadiens soon after the season in Iroquois Falls ended. Sprague Cleghorn also knew Joliat, and when the former saw Joliat enter the locker room, he immediately called out for Dandurand.
“Leo, here,” said Cleghorn, “this is the kid that Billy Boucher already told you about. You should offer him a contract right away. You saw how the club was beat tonight. This is the guy you need to rebuild the team.” Dandurand took Joliat out into the hallway to talk to talk about a deal, but Joliat turned him down. Joliat was of the opinion that he would not be able to show his worth until near the end of the season because of his leg. Unable to sign him, Dandurand at least added him to the Canadiens protected list on April 1922, simply to secure his NHL rights.
Fast forward to November 1922 where Dandurand is trying everything to complete the market for Newsy Lalonde prior to the start of the season. Once the trade was made official between Saskatoon and Montreal, that Lalonde was finally sent to Saskatoon in exchange for Joliat, Tommy Gorman immediately filed a protest, claiming Ottawa should hold the NHL rights to Joliat since he was from Ottawa. They continued that, despite having Joliat on their protected list for two years, they didn’t keep him because of an agreement between all teams that Joliat would never play in the NHL because of his actions playing for Iroquois Falls.
The protest by Ottawa was ultimately rejected by NHL president Frank Calder after Dandurand pulled out the trump card that the Canadiens had first right of refusal for all French-Canadian players, so Joliat should never have been on the Senators reserve list in the first place.
The other NHL general managers persisted in trying to punish the Canadiens for the Lalonde trade. A third resolution was presented at the November 1922 NHL meeting by Gorman to bar all undesirable players, stipulating that “all suspended or expelled players by any other athletic organization must first be reinstated by a majority vote before being eligible for the NHL.”
Dandurand charged Ottawa that this was a vindictive motion aimed at the Canadiens, but the resolution passed 3-1, supported by Hamilton and Toronto, the two slighted teams in the Lalonde ordeal, and it was determined that Joliat would remain ineligible to play in the NHL.
“Our resolution,” explained Gorman, “which automatically bars from the NHL a number of players, including one whom the Canadiens were to have received in exchange for Newsy Lalonde, was not introduced for any unsportsmanlike motives, but was presented for the protection of clubs in the NHL and their patrons. One year ago we learned that a player who we were eager to sign had been suspended along with others by the Northern Ontario Hockey Association. We reported the circumstances and, on the advice of president Calder, decided not to offer him a contract. This is the man the Canadiens want for Lalonde.”
Dandurand travelled to Ottawa shortly afterwards in order to finalize a new contract with Boucher, as well as to meet with Gorman to try and convince his counterpart to change his mind on Joliat’s NHL eligibility. “Just why the Ottawa Hockey Club continues not only to make attacks on the Canadiens for the Lalonde-Joliat trade, but insists on doing its best to spoil the future of this boy Joliat, who has never played professional hockey, is something that is hard to understand,” said Dandurand.
It was agreed between Dandurand and Gorman that if Joliat would successfully plead his case for reinstatement in front of the NOHA executive, he could be considered for eligibility in the NHL. In November 1922, Joliat travelled back to North Bay where the NOHA executive committee were based, and following an audience with the league executive, it was agreed that Joliat’s suspension would be lifted, and that he was to be reinstated by the league.
In the final NHL executive meeting prior to the start of the season, a letter from Joliat was introduced in which he pleaded for his eligibility to be reconsidered, and Dandurand produced a letter from the NOHA executive committee that confirmed that the suspension was lifted. He hoped that this would finally clear the way for Joliat to be admissible for play in the NHL. Dandurand then raised a motion that read: “That Aurele Joliat, in view of his reinstatement by the Northern Ontario Hockey Association be declared herewith eligible for the National Hockey League.”
Toronto and Hamilton immediately opposed the motion, each making angry declarations that the Canadiens acted in bad faith in moving Lalonde out of the league. Charlie Querrie of the Toronto St. Patrick’s said, “I’m not going behind your back to tell you that I am not yet convinced that it was a straight trade. I don’t know what fight you had with Lalonde, but I do know that you turned a very sharp corner to get him out of this league. Joliat is only a camouflage to get you around the constitution. No other club in the league would have resorted to that method.”
Thompson of Hamilton went a step further saying that under no circumstances would they allow Joliat to be admissible. Gorman also spoke up criticizing the Canadiens for the way the deal was done, but did relent in the case of Joliat, claiming that Joliat should not be blamed for this situation and should be given a fair chance at playing in the NHL. After much animated debate, Toronto joined Ottawa to back the motion to reinstate Joliat, and after “considerable persuasion” Hamilton also relented. The motion was passed unanimously to allow Joliat to play in the NHL and to clear the path for him to sign with the Canadiens.
Finally, four months after his first conversations with Saskatoon, Dandurand could consider the Lalonde trade to be complete, signing in return the prospect that the organization has coveted for nearly three years. A week later, Joliat was on a train from Montreal with the rest of the Canadiens on their way to Grimsby for training camp ahead of the 1922-23 season where he would immediately be praised for his incredible talents.
The Lalonde trade was not immediately well received by the fanbase who were not familiar with the youngster who was acquired in return of their ageing perennial superstar, but history has certainly shown us that this trade was extremely successful. It officially marked the end of the first era of the Montreal Canadiens and launched them into the second era. A season later, Howie Morenz joined the team to form a feared partnership with Joliat that would endure for over a decade, spanning the entire second era of the Canadiens and ending in 1938 with Joliat’s retirement.
