# 1920–21 Hamilton Tigers season

The 1920–21 Hamilton Tigers season was the first season of play for the new Hamilton Tigers team in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Tigers finished in last place in both halves of the season and did not qualify for the playoffs. The team previously had played in Quebec City, where they were known as the Quebec Bulldogs, but had been sold to Hamilton interests in 1920. Joe Malone led the team in scoring, with 28 goals in 20 games.

## Offseason

The NHL transferred the Quebec franchise to Hamilton, where it was named the Tigers, a nickname used by a multitude of sports teams in the city. Contemporary newspaper coverage often referred to the senior team of the same name in the OHA as the "Tigers", while the NHL team would either be nameless or simply referred to as "professionals".

## Regular season

Noting that the Quebec Athletics finished in last place in 1919–20, the league encouraged the other teams to provide players to Hamilton to improve the team's competitiveness. Toronto provided Babe Dye but recalled Dye after the first game and loaned Mickey Roach. Montreal provided Billy Coutu in exchange for keeping Harry Mummery. Ottawa did not provide any players willingly. Sprague Cleghorn and Harry Broadbent were eventually ordered by the league to report to Hamilton, but neither did. Cleghorn played some games with Toronto before returning to Ottawa.
Joe Malone missed the start of the season due to business commitments keeping him in Quebec. He joined the team in January 1921, having missed four games. He scored 28 goals in 20 games for the Tigers to place fourth in the league in goal-scoring. However, the team won only three games in each half of the schedule to finish last, with a record of 6 wins and 18 losses.

### Final standings

First half :
| | GP | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA |
| Ottawa Senators | 10 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 49 | 23 |
| Toronto St. Patricks | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 10 | 39 | 47 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 10 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 37 | 51 |
| Hamilton Tigers | 10 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 6 | 34 | 38 |
Second half :
| | GP | W | L | T | Pts | GF | GA |
| Toronto St. Patricks | 14 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 20 | 66 | 53 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 14 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 18 | 75 | 48 |
| Ottawa Senators | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 48 | 52 |
| Hamilton Tigers | 14 | 3 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 58 | 94 |
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points Note: Teams that qualified for playoffs highlighted in bold.

### Record vs. opponents

1920–21 NHL Records :
| Team | HAM | MTL | OTT | TOR |
| Hamilton | — | 3–5 | 1–7 | 2–6 |
| Montreal | 5–3 | — | 5–3 | 3–5 |
| Ottawa | 7–1 | 3–5 | — | 4–4 |
| Toronto | 6–2 | 5–3 | 4–4 | — |

## Schedule and results

| No. | R | Date | Score | Opponent | Record |
| 1 | W | December 22, 1920 | 5–0 | Montreal Canadiens (1920–21) | 1–0–0 |
| 2 | L | December 27, 1920 | 1–3 | @ Ottawa Senators (1920–21) | 1–1–0 |
| 3 | W | December 29, 1920 | 6–2 | @ Montreal Canadiens (1920–21) | 2–1–0 |
| 4 | L | January 3, 1921 | 4–5 | Toronto St. Patricks (1920–21) | 2–2–0 |
| 5 | L | January 6, 1921 | 1–5 | Ottawa Senators (1920–21) | 2–3–0 |
| 6 | W | January 8, 1921 | 3–2 OT | @ Toronto St. Patricks (1920–21) | 3–3–0 |
| 7 | L | January 12, 1921 | 2–4 | Toronto St. Patricks (1920–21) | 3–4–0 |
| 8 | L | January 15, 1921 | 4–6 | @ Montreal Canadiens (1920–21) | 3–5–0 |
| 9 | L | January 19, 1921 | 3–4 | @ Ottawa Senators (1920–21) | 3–6–0 |
| 10 | L | January 22, 1921 | 5–7 | Montreal Canadiens (1920–21) | 3–7–0 |
| Second half ||||||
| 11 | L | January 26, 1921 | 3–10 | @ Toronto St. Patricks (1920–21) | 0–1–0 |
| 12 | L | January 29, 1921 | 1–2 | Ottawa Senators (1920–21) | 0–2–0 |
| 13 | W | February 2, 1921 | 6–5 | Montreal Canadiens (1920–21) | 1–2–0 |
| 14 | L | February 5, 1921 | 3–7 | Ottawa Senators (1920–21) | 1–3–0 |
| 15 | L | February 9, 1921 | 4–7 | @ Ottawa Senators (1920–21) | 1–4–0 |
| 16 | L | February 12, 1921 | 4–6 | Toronto St. Patricks (1920–21) | 1–5–0 |
| 17 | L | February 16, 1921 | 5–10 | @ Montreal Canadiens (1920–21) | 1–6–0 |
| 18 | L | February 19, 1921 | 4–5 | @ Toronto St. Patricks (1920–21) | 1–7–0 |
| 19 | W | February 23, 1921 | 7–4 | Toronto St. Patricks (1920–21) | 2–7–0 |
| 20 | L | February 26, 1921 | 6–13 | @ Montreal Canadiens (1920–21) | 2–8–0 |
| 21 | W | February 28, 1921 | 6–2 | Ottawa Senators (1920–21) | 3–8–0 |
| 22 | L | March 2, 1921 | 1–7 | Montreal Canadiens (1920–21) | 3–9–0 |
| 23 | L | March 5, 1921 | 3–4 OT | @ Toronto St. Patricks (1920–21) | 3–10–0 |
| 24 | L | March 7, 1921 | 5–12 | @ Ottawa Senators (1920–21) | 3–11–0 |

## Player statistics

Regular season :
Scoring :
| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| Joe Malone | C/LW | 20 | 28 | 9 | 37 | 6 |
| Goldie Prodgers | F/D | 24 | 18 | 9 | 27 | 8 |
| Mickey Roach | C | 14 | 9 | 8 | 17 | 0 |
| Joe Matte | D | 21 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 29 |
| Billy Coutu | D | 24 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 95 |
| Thomas McCarthy | RW | 23 | 10 | 1 | 11 | 10 |
| George Carey | RW | 20 | 6 | 1 | 7 | 8 |
| Eddie Carpenter | D | 21 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 17 |
| Moylan McDonnell | D | 22 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Babe Dye | RW | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Leo Reise | D | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 |
| Jack Coughlin | RW | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Howard Lockhart | G | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ed Lowrey | C | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fred McLean | D | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Charles Pletsch | D | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Goaltending :
| Player | MIN | GP | W | L | T | GA | GAA | SO |
| Howard Lockhart | 1454 | 24 | 6 | 18 | 0 | 132 | 5.45 | 1 |
| Team: | 1454 | 24 | 6 | 18 | 0 | 132 | 5.45 | 1 |
Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes MIN = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts;

## Transactions
### Trades

| Date | From Tigers | To Tigers |
| November 11, 1920 | To Montreal Canadiens Harry Mummery, Jack McDonald, Dave Ritchie | Jack Coughlin, Goldie Prodgers, Joe Matte, Billy Coutu (loan) |
| December 4, 1920 | To Toronto St. Patricks | Babe Dye (loan) |
| December 24, 1920 | To Toronto St. PatricksBabe Dye | |
| December 30, 1920 | To Ottawa Senators (original) | Punch Broadbent, Sprague Cleghorn (loan) |
| January 4, 1921 | To Montreal Canadiens Punch Broadbent, Sprague Cleghorn (players did not report) | cash |
| January 25, 1921 | To Toronto St. PatricksSprague Cleghorn (did not report) | |
Source: "Hockey Transactions Search Results". prosportstransactions.com. Retrieved 2009-05-19.