Hamilton Tigers ( NHL ) " For other teams of the same name , please see Hamilton Tigers ( diambiguation ) . " The Hamilton Tigers were a professional ice hockey team , and a member of the National Hockey League ( NHL ) , based in Hamilton , Ontario that played from 1920 – 1925 . The Tigers were formed from the sale of the Quebec Bulldogs NHL franchise to Hamilton interests . The team struggled to succeed , becoming the top team in the league , before being dissolved after a players strike . The franchise ' s assets ( the player contracts ) were sold to New York interests to stock the expansion New York Americans . Franchise history . The origins of the team go back to the old Quebec City Bulldogs team which started play in 1878 . They would eventually play in the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada and different leagues thereafter ( including the NHL in 1920 ) . Their last season in Quebec ( 1919 – 20 ) was a dismal one as they finished last in the NHL with only four wins in 24 games . After the 1919 – 20 season , the NHL took back the Quebec Bulldogs franchise and sold the team to the Abso Pure Ice Company of Hamilton , Ontario . The club was moved to Hamilton for the 1920 – 21 season and renamed the Hamilton Tigers . This was done to prevent the startup of a rival league , which was trying to land a club in Hamilton . ( see Eddie Livingstone ) At the time ( 1920 ) , Hamilton was the fifth - largest population in Canada ( Hamilton - 114 , 200 / Toronto - 521 , 900 ) and considered a vital market . Percy Thompson , a part - owner and manager of the Barton Street Arena would be the manager of the team . The move to Hamilton did not improve the team ' s record . Despite earning a shutout in their first game , a 5 – 0 win over the Montreal Canadiens on December 22 , 1920 , being the only team to ever do so , it was plain that the Tigers didn ' t have a team that could compete . As a result , the NHL ordered the other three teams to supply players to the Tigers . Despite receiving quality players from the other teams and the signing of Joe Malone four games into the season , Hamilton still finished with the worst record at 6 wins , 18 losses , and 0 ties in 24 games . Even with Malone managing to score 30 goals in only 20 games , they couldn ' t climb out of the cellar . The next three seasons were just as dreadful as the first one as the Tigers finished last in each of those three seasons making a total of 5 straight ( counting the one season as the Bulldogs ) with last place finishes . During these dreadful years , the Tigers attempted a rebuilding phase to bring the team up to par . After the 1921 – 22 NHL season , they hired Art Ross as their new coach and made many player changes , including trading superstar Malone to the Montreal Canadiens for Bert Corbeau and Edmond Bouchard . The fans were outraged at seeing Malone leave , but felt vindicated when Malone - - near the end of his career - - only scored one goal in twenty games in one season for Montreal . Prior to the 1922 – 23 season , the NHL would hold it ' s governors meeting at the Royal Connaught Hotel on King Street , where visiting teams stayed as well . After four years of futility , things started to come together in the 1923 – 24 NHL season with another new coach ( Percy LeSueur ) and the signing of four players from the Sudbury Wolves of the NOHA : Brothers Red and Shorty Green , Alex McKinnon , and Charlie Langlois . This year saw the Tigers achieve a team high of nine wins in 24 games . It was the next season , though , that saw the results of the previous years ' wheelings and dealings . Players Revolt . With yet another new head coach ( Jimmy Gardner ) the Hamilton Tigers roared off to an impressive 10 – 4 – 1 start in the 1924 – 25 NHL season . Only half way through the season , they had more wins than any other season in their NHL history . The team slumped somewhat in the second half of the season but still managed to finish first overall with a record of 19 wins , 10 losses , and 1 tie , just ahead of the Toronto St . Patricks . It looked like the Hamilton Tigers were going to have a chance at winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since they won it as the Quebec Bulldogs over a decade prior in 1913 . But it was not to be . During the rail travel back to Hamilton after the season ' s final game , the Tigers ' players went to their general manager , Percy Thompson , and demanded $ 200 pay for the six extra games they played that season or they would not play in the playoffs . The NHL had increased the number of games played that year from 24 to 30 , but the players didn ' t receive an increase in pay . The Tigers management , stating that the players ' contracts stated that the players were under contract from December 1 to March 30 , regardless of the number of games , refused to pay the money and passed the issue to the NHL . Thus began the first players strike in NHL history . NHL President Frank Calder stated that the players would be suspended if they refused to play in the final and at first said that the fourth - place Ottawa team would replace them in the final . At the same time , Calder ordered that the players ' back - pay be held . The impasse continued while the second and third - place teams Toronto and Montreal played their semi - final , ending with Montreal winning on March 13 . On March 14 , after consulting with Tigers management , Calder declared that the Montreal Canadiens were league champions and fined each player $ 200 . The Montreal Canadiens then went on to play the Victoria Cougars for the Stanley Cup but lost . That marked the last time that an NHL team had lost the Stanley Cup to a rival league . Takeover by New York . Thomas Duggan of Montreal , owner of the Mount Royal Arena , held two options for expansion teams in the United States . He sold the first of the two to Boston . He sold the second to a New York bootlegger named " Big Bill " Dwyer for a team to play in New York . At the NHL league meeting of April 17 , 1925 , Dwyer was granted an expansion franchise for New York . Although Dwyer wished to purchase the Hamilton players , for a little while it seemed that Hamilton might remain in the NHL as Abso - Pure talked about building a new arena . The arena was not built and Dwyer bought the rights to the Tigers ' players from Thompson for $ 75 , 000 , and gave the players raises , some as high as 200 % of their previous salary . Dwyer ' s team was for a time known as the " New York Hamilton Tigers " by the time it reached training camp , but this was changed to the New York Americans . The Hamilton franchise was officially revoked at the September 22 league meeting in the same year , and the matter of the players ' suspensions and fines dropped with little additional comment . Dwyer , ostensibly the owner , was not publicly named by the NHL at the meeting announcing the team . Instead , Colonel Hammond of Madison Square Garden , Duggan , and former Ottawa manager Tommy Gorman were announced as the officers . The last active Tigers player was Billy Burch , who retired in 1933 . Season - by - season record . " Note : GP = Games played , W = Wins , L = Losses , T = Ties , Pts = Points , GF = Goals for , GA = Goals against , PIM = Penalties in minutes "