Toronto Professional Hockey Club

The Toronto Professional Hockey Club was Toronto's first professional ice hockey team, founded in 1906. The team played the 1906–07 season in exhibition games against other professional teams. In 1908, they were founding members of Canada's first fully professional ice hockey league the Ontario Professional Hockey League (OPHL). The club operated for two seasons in the OPHL, 1908 and 1909, before disbanding. The club challenged unsuccessfully for the Stanley Cup in 1908.
The team featured several prominent players of the time, including Newsy Lalonde who would be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and Bruce Ridpath, who would manage the Toronto entry in the NHA, fore-runner of the NHL.
==History==
The Toronto Hockey Club was founded in 1906 to introduce professional hockey to Toronto. The International Hockey League (IHL) had been operating since 1904. Toronto would play its first game on December 28, 1906 against the Canadian Soo team of the IHL, losing 7–0 at the Mutual Street Rink in Toronto. Despite this inauspicious start, the club would continue, and would help found the Ontario Professional Hockey League in December 1907, beginning play in 1908.
===1908 Stanley Cup challenge===
On March 14, 1908, the team played the Montreal Wanderers in Montreal for the Stanley Cup. The Wanderers won 6-4.
;Toronto March 1908 Stanley Cup Challenge Roster
* Chuck Tyner (goal)
* Con Corbeau (point)
* Rowley Young (coverpoint)
* Bert Morrison, (forward)
* Newsy Lalonde (forward)
* Bruce Ridpath (forward)
* Wally Mercer (forward)
* Jack Marks (sub)
==Notable players==
* Newsy Lalonde - future Hall of Famer
* Jack Marks - three-time Stanley Cup champion with Quebec Bulldogs and Toronto Arenas and played in the NHL.
* Bruce Ridpath - Stanley Cup champion with Ottawa Senators, and would manage the Toronto Blueshirts.
==External links==
*Toronto Star article
Category:Canadian ice hockey teams
Category:Ontario Professional Hockey League