Canadian–American Hockey League

The Canadian–American Hockey League, popularly known as the Can-Am League, was a professional ice hockey league that operated from 1926 to 1936. It was a direct ancestor of the American Hockey League.

Contents

• Teams
• Champions
• References

For its first ten years the Can-Am's membership varied between five and six teams. However, when the Boston Bruin Cubs dropped out after the 1935–36 season, the league was reduced to just four active teams (Philadelphia, Providence, Springfield, and New Haven). At the same time, the Rust Belt-based International Hockey League had also been cut down to just four teams—Syracuse, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. With both leagues at the bare minimum number of teams to be viable, they decided to form a temporary "circuit of mutual convenience" known as the "International-American Hockey League." For the next two years, the two leagues played an interlocking schedule with the Can-Am clubs serving as the I-AHL's Eastern Division and the IHL as its Western Division, although Buffalo was forced to drop out early in the 1936–37 season owing to the roof of its arena having collapsed in a snowstorm.

At a meeting held in New York City on June 28, 1938, the two leagues formally merged into a unified eight-team circuit operating under the I-AHL name with the addition of the EAHL's then three-time defending champion Hershey Bears, which was awarded an I-AHL franchise that day to replace the defunct Buffalo club. The league changed its name to the current AHL in 1940.

Two current AHL franchises have roots in the old Can-Am. The Hartford Wolf Pack is descended from the old Providence Reds franchise, which moved to Binghamton, New York in 1977 before moving to Hartford in 1997. The Utica Comets are descended from the old Springfield Indians franchise, which moved to Worcester, Massachusetts in 1994 before relocating to Peoria in 2005, and to Utica in 2013.