Springfield Indians

Early history

The Indians had their start in the Canadian-American Hockey League in 1926. The "Can-Am", as it was called, was founded in Springfield and the Indians were one of the five initial franchises. The team was named after the Indian Motorcycle Company which was at the time, headquartered in Springfield. It was run at the time by Lester Patrick and the National Hockey League's New York Rangers, and future NHL stars such as Charlie Rayner, Earl Seibert (who after his playing days were through would be the Indians' longtime coach), Cecil Dillon and Ott Heller saw their start in Springfield uniforms. The Indians played in the Can-Am League until the 1932–33 season, having to fold thirteen games into the season. In 1935–36, Lucien Garneau transferred his Quebec Beavers franchise to Springfield, resurrecting the Indians name; the team was now associated with the NHL's Montreal Canadiens.

In 1939, Boston Bruins superstar defenseman Eddie Shore purchased the team. He split games between the Bruins and the Indians, even going so far as to provoke a trade to the New York Americans to make the train commute easier. He retired from the NHL after that season, but played for Springfield for two more seasons.

The Great Depression caused cutbacks all around, and the Can-Am merged with the International Hockey League to form the International-American Hockey League, which changed its name to the American Hockey League, having lost its last Canadian franchises, in 1941.

Despite early stars like Shore, Fred Thurier, Frank Beisler and Pete Kelly, success eluded the Indians on the ice. However, in the 1941–42 season, the Indians finished in first place.

Disaster struck for the team in the following season. With World War II, the United States army requisitioned the Eastern States Coliseum, Springfield's home arena, for the war effort, leaving the Indians without a home. Shore loaned Indians players to the Buffalo Bisons for the duration, returning the players to Springfield for the 1946–47 season. However, on ice success continued to elude the team, and despite the presence of stars such as Harry Pidhirny and Jim Anderson the franchise failed to have a winning record for another decade, including a temporary franchise relocation as the Syracuse Warriors from 1951 to 1954.

"They could have played in the NHL ... "

Matters turned around in the 1959–60 season. Behind an affiliation with the Rangers bringing stars Bill Sweeney and goaltender Marcel Paille over from Providence, and forwards Pidhirny, Anderson, Ken Schinkel, Bruce Cline, Brian Kilrea, and defensemen Ted Harris, Kent Douglas, Noel Price and Bob McCord, the Indians put together the most dominant run in AHL history. They finished with the best record in the AHL for three years in a row and won three straight Calder Cups, losing only five playoff games in that span. No AHL team before or since has finished with the league's best record for three years in a row or won three straight Calder Cups.

1959–60: Sweeney finished second in league scoring behind Fred Glover of Cleveland with 96 points, Floyd Smith finished third and Bruce Cline ninth. The Indians led the league with a 43–23–6 record, and defeated Rochester four games to one in the finals for the franchise's first Calder Cup. Sweeney was named to the First All-Star Team at center, Paille to the Second Team at goal, McCord to the Second Team at defense, Smith to the Second Team at left wing, and Parker MacDonald to the Second Team at right wing.

1960–61: Indians led the league with a 49–22–1 record, a mark unsurpassed until the 1973 season. The magnificent offense scored 344 goals, nearly a hundred more than any other team. Sweeney led the league in scoring, while Cline placed third, Kilrea fourth, Bill McCreary Sr. fifth and Anderson seventh in a show of offensive dominance unique in the history of the AHL, while Paille led the league in goaltending. The Indians became the second team in league history to go undefeated in the playoffs, sweeping the Cleveland Barons and the Hershey Bears. Paille was named to the First All-Star Team, as was Cline at right wing, McCord was awarded the Eddie Shore Award as the league's best defenseman, and Sweeney and Anderson were named to the Second Team.

1961–62: Indians led the league with a 45–22–3 record. Sweeney defended his scoring title, while Kilrea placed fourth and Anderson tenth, and Paille led the league in goaltending once more. Springfield defeated Buffalo four games to one in the finals to win its record third Calder Cup in a row. Douglas won best defenseman honors, Sweeney and Paille repeated as First Team All-Stars, and McCord and Smith were named to the Second Team again.

The expansion era and beyond

Although it was not apparent at the time, the Indians created under Shore with their third straight Calder Cup. Sweeney led the league in scoring in 1963 for a third time, the party was over for the Indians. While they still had a winning record and an offense that led the league, the Rangers had moved Paille to Baltimore, and the team missed the playoffs that year in a tight divisional race. They continued to miss the playoffs for most of the rest of the Sixties.

In the meantime, Eddie Shore's oft-capricious and notoriously miserly ownership style caused increasing friction with his players, who staged wildcat strikes in 1966 and 1967. Representing them, a young lawyer named Alan Eagleson gained prominence, and went on to form the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA).

In consequence, Shore sold his players and leased the franchise to the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL for the 1968 season, while retaining ownership of the team. The Kings renamed the franchise the Springfield Kings, and changed the team's colors from their traditional blue, white and red to a purple-and-gold scheme similar to the parent team. With Gord Labossiere, star defenseman Noel Price and goaltender Bruce Landon (a name that subsequently loomed large in Springfield hockey annals) the team had a winning record in the 1969 season, reaching the Cup finals before being swept by the Buffalo Bisons.

The following season the Kings had the benefit of a league lacking powerful teams. The league was so weak that Baltimore and Cleveland had winning records. The team just squeaked into the playoffs with a 29–35–8 record, winning a one-game playoff with the Quebec Aces to do it. However, they caught fire in the playoffs. Led by future NHL star center Butch Goring and Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Billy Smith, the Kings steamrolled through the postseason with a sparkling 11–1 record. They upended Cleveland in the second round before sweeping the East champion Providence Reds squad in four close games to win their fourth Calder Cup. The 1971 Kings were, and remain, the team with the poorest regular season record ever to win the Calder Cup.

The following year Goring and Smith were gone, and the franchise spent two more years in the wilderness. Matters didn't improve even after the Kings moved to the brand-new Springfield Civic Center in 1972. But in the 1974–75 season, Shore enjoyed his final hurrah. Taking full control of the team once more, Shore changed its name midseason back to the Indians and reverted to the old blue-white-red palette, all to popular acclaim. With a cast of no-names and a record only three games over .500, the club won its fifth Calder Cup championship (becoming only the second fourth place team ever to do so), beating the New Haven Nighthawks four games to one in the finals. An elderly Shore sold the team after the next season, ending an era inextricably linking his name to Springfield hockey. With the sale the team moved back to The Big E Coliseum playing their games in their former home from the 1976–77 season through the 1979–80 season. Starting in October 1981 they returned to the Springfield Civic Center where they remained until they moved to Worcester as the Ice Cats in 1994.

The 1990s and the last cups

In 1990 fortunes changed once more, in an affiliation with the New York Islanders. A gallant squad coached by ex-NHL defensive whiz Jim Roberts sneaked into the playoffs in the final week in part due to veteran minor-league goaltender Rick Knickle's (signed when injuries both in Springfield and Long Island sidelined the Indians' top three goaltenders) eight game undefeated streak, and on May 18, 1990, the team knocked off the heavily favored Rochester Americans in six games in the finals for the franchise's sixth Calder Cup. Future NHL goaltender Jeff Hackett won the playoff MVP, inspirational leader Rod Dallman provided tons of grit, while names such as Marc Bergevin, Tom Fitzgerald, team captain Rob DiMaio, Jeff Finley and Bill Berg were heard from by NHL fans for many years to come.

In the middle of a dispute over leasing at the Springfield Civic Center, the Indians' home for much of the previous two decades, the team's affiliation changed again to the Hartford Whalers. The fans were very angry at the loss of their favorites, especially since their replacements came mostly from a Binghamton Whalers team recording the worst record in league history. However, the 1990–91 new look Indians proved their naysayers wrong. Behind Roberts' veteran coaching, they rampaged to the second best record in the league behind a powerful offense led by future NHLer Terry Yake, James Black, Chris Tancill and Michel Picard (who led the league with a franchise-record 56 goals), and a rock solid defense led by captain John Stevens and Bergevin, who had been acquired by the Whalers in an early-season trade. In so doing, the team won the North Division regular season title, the Indians' first division title since the Cup-winning squad of 1962. Goaltender Kay Whitmore won the playoff MVP as Springfield defended their title against Rochester. The victory would be the Springfield franchise's seventh and final Calder Cup championship.

End of an era

Roberts and several stars were promoted to Hartford the following fall. The Indians won what would be their last division title in 1992 (and won their seventh straight playoff series in the preliminary round of the playoffs, setting a new league record). However, they would never reach the finals again. As it turned out, it would also be their last winning record. In 1993 the Indians made the conference finals before being devastated by the eventual champion Cape Breton Oilers. They made the playoffs again in 1994, but were eliminated in the first round by the Adirondack Red Wings.

The playoff loss would be the last game the Indians would play in Springfield. In the fall of 1994, the franchise was bought by out-of-town interests and moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, to become the Worcester IceCats. With good will from a league with central offices across the river in West Springfield and support from league president Jack Butterfield and vice-president Gordon Anziano (both former Indians executives), longtime Indians general manager Bruce Landon secured an expansion franchise that started play that season as the Springfield Falcons. He was also able to land an affiliation with the Whalers, thus allowing the new team to retain most of the Whalers-owned players that had played as the Indians in the previous season.

The Falcons moved to Tucson, Arizona in 2016 as the Tucson Roadrunners, but were replaced by the former Portland Pirates, who moved to Springfield as the Springfield Thunderbirds.A Springfield-based team has played in the AHL and its predecessors for all but seven years since 1926, and continuously since 1954. The only city with a longer unbroken run in the AHL is Hershey, where the Bears have played continuously since joining the AHL in 1938.

The original franchise moved to Peoria, Illinois, for the 2005–06 AHL season, where it played for eight years as the Peoria Rivermen. After the 2012–13 season, the Rivermen moved to Utica, New York as the Utica Comets, then to Abbotsford, British Columbia after the 2020–21 season becoming the Abbotsford Canucks. The Canucks are the second-oldest minor league hockey franchise in North America, behind only the Hartford Wolf Pack, heirs to another charter AHL member, the Providence Reds. Among all professional hockey franchises in North America, only the NHL's Original Six and the Wolf Pack are older than the Canucks.

Hall of Famers

List of Springfield Indians alumni later inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

List of Springfield Indians alumni later inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame.

Notable NHL/WHA alumni

List of Springfield Indians alumni that played more than 100 games in Springfield, and also played at least a hundred games in the National Hockey League and/or World Hockey Association or were otherwise notable hockey executives. ‡ – denotes a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Team records

Goals in a season: Michel Picard, 56, 1990–91

Assists in a season: Bruce Boudreau, 74, 1987–88

Points in a season: Boudreau, 116, 1987–88

Penalty minutes in a season: Mick Vukota, 372, 1987–88

Shutouts in a season: Marcel Paille, 8, 1960–61

Career games: Jim Anderson, 943

Career goals: Anderson, 422

Career assists: Brian Kilrea, 442

Career points: Anderson, 813

Career penalty minutes: Rod Dallman, 844

These are the top ten point-scorers in franchise history.

Note: Pos = Position; GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

Season-by-season results

Springfield Indians 1926–1933 (Canadian-American Hockey League)

Springfield Indians 1935–1936 (Canadian-American Hockey League)

Springfield Indians 1936–1940 (International-American Hockey League)

Springfield Indians 1940–1942

Springfield Indians 1946–1951

Syracuse Warriors 1951–1954 (shaded red)

Springfield Indians 1954–1967

Springfield Kings 1967–1974 (shaded gold)

Springfield Indians 1974–1994

Regular season

First place finishes in bold.

†Defeated Quebec Aces 4–3 in a single tiebreaker game to determine final playoff position.

Playoffs

Playoff champions in bold.

†Defeated Quebec Aces 4–3 in a single tiebreaker game to determine final playoff position.