Harry Meeking

Dubbed "Hurricane Howie," left winger Harry Meeking was a member two landmark Stanley Cup championship teams.

Meeking's first pro season was with the Toronto Arenas team that won the Stanley Cup in the National Hockey League's inaugural season (1917-18). Meeking recorded a playoff hat trick, a Stanley Cup first by a National Hockey League player.

After spending two seasons in Toronto (scoring 19 goals in 34 career games), Meeking headed west. From 1919 through 1926 Meeking played in the British Columbian capital city of Victoria. He starred with the Aristocrats/Cougars, winning the Stanley Cup in 1925. That Victoria team was the last non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup.

After the PCHA collapsed and the Victoria Cougars moved to Detroit (where several years later they were renamed the Red Wings), Meeking returned to the NHL. He started the 1926-27 season with Detroit but was traded to Boston after six games for none other than Frank Frederickson.

Meeking, hailed "for his fine skating more than his goal scoring," scored only 1 goal in what proved to be his final NHL season. He played a couple more seasons of minor league puck before retiring in 1929.

Born in Berlin (Kitchener), Ontario, Meeking's departure from Toronto where he was an amateur star, is of interest. He was suspended by the Arenas before the completion of the 1918-19 season and then released. Toronto manager Charlie Querrie refused to divulge the reason for the estrangement, though the Toronto World newspaper hinted at a possible gambling tie-in.

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Rusty Hughes

Did you know the Detroit Red Wings were originally a transplanted team from Victoria, British Columbia named the Cougars. Detroit kept the Cougars name until 1930 when they changed it to the Falcons. Two years later new owner James Norris renamed the team yet again, this time settling on the Red Wings.

James "Rusty" Hughes was a rough and tumble defenseman with the Detroit Cougars in the 1929-30 season. He played 40 games, but picked up no goals and just one assist. It was his only season in the NHL, though he did play pro hockey until 1936. He was a fan favorite everywhere he went.

He appears to have earned a quiet and innocent 48 penalty minutes in his only NHL season, but in reality he was a bit of a ruffian, messing with biggest and baddest players of the day. In one brawl with Toronto's Red Horner, the NHL's penalty minute king of the dirty thirties, Hughes was ejected from the game after severely cutting Horner's mouth. Hughes also engaged Boston's legendary tough guy Eddie Shore in a stick swinging incident.

Hughes, who worked in gold mines in Northern Canada in the off-season, appears to have stepped into the boxing ring to fight as a professional in 1932, although I do not know much more about his off-ice brawling career other than he weighed in as a heavyweight. He may have also grappled with the world of wrestling.

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Clare Drouillard

Clare Drouillard had a long and varied career in pro hockey. He didn't have to go too far to play in the NHL, albeit for only 10 career games. The Windsor born 5'7" 150lb center just had the cross the river (and the border) to play for the Detroit Red Wings in 1937-38.

By then Drouillard had already been nearly four years removed from his dominant performance in the 1934 Memorial Cup championships. He scored 15 goals and 35 points in 11 games to pace the St. Michael's Majors to the title. Other notable players for St. Mike's that year included Bobby Bauer, Art Jackson, Pep Kelly and Nick Metz.

For the two seasons immediately following his last junior year Drouillard returned to Windsor and played with the Bulldogs. By 1936 he found himself at home with the minor league Pittsburgh Hornets, where he would spend most of four of the next five seasons. The speedy center seems to have been dubbed "Mickey" in Pittsburgh, which I believe may reference Clare's older brother. He was a notable Windsor hockey star, too, although he never played in the NHL.

Interrupting Clare's tenure in Pittsburgh was a season in Hershey and the 10 game call up to the National Hockey League. The crafty Drouillard was used sparingly, however, and only managed a lone assist on his career scoring record.

Despite his lack of opportunity in the National Hockey League, Drouillard did have interest from many NHL teams. In addition to Detroit, Boston, Toronto, and the New York Americans all owned his playing rights at one time or another.

Drouillard would bounce around the minor leagues until 1942 when he returned home to Windsor. He continued to play in the Windsor City Hockey League, joining his brother for a time.

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Frank Carson

The Carson family remains legendary in Parry Sound, Ontario. Patriarch D. M. Carson was a lumber baron in the area, moving from Bracebridge in 1905. He built a beautiful Victorian home on 33 Church Street and raised four sons, three of whom went on to play in the National Hockey League in the 1920s and 1930s. The family home still stands in Parry Sound. It is now a bed and breakfast simply known as The Carson House.

"Doc" Bill Carson was perhaps the most famous of the three NHL brothers. He was the first player in Toronto Maple Leafs history to score 20 goals and later returned home to become long time dentist.

Gerald "Stub" Carson played in 261 NHL games, mostly with the Montreal Canadiens, but scored just 12 goals. Bad knees forced him off of the ice prematurely.

Then there was middle brother Frank Carson. He was the most easily identifiable of the three because of his hair which had turned completely grey in his early twenties. This earned him many nicknames including The Silver Fox, The Grey Eagle and Frosty.

Frank Carson first rose to prominence on the hockey scene in Stratford where he played on a powerhouse line with Butch Keltenbourne and someone named Howie Morenz.

Morenz, of course, went on to become the NHL's first superstar with the Montreal Canadiens. Carson remained in Stratford to play senior hockey for a few years, before he too jumped to Montreal to play in the National Hockey League. Carson never played for the Habs though. He played for the cross town rivals the Montreal Maroons.

He played parts of three seasons in Montreal, never really catching on. His highlight there would have been in the spring of 1926. Still a NHL rookie, he helped the Maroons capture the Stanley Cup.

He briefly returned to senior hockey in Windsor, Ontario before giving the NHL another try in 1930-31. The 5'7" 165lb right winger noted for his defensive play participated a full 44 games with the New York Americans that year.

The Amerks would trade Carson to Detroit in 1931. Carson enjoyed three seasons with the Wings, taking them to Stanley Cup finals in the spring of 1934. He would retire from pro hockey following that unsuccessful Cup run, settling in London, Ontario where he ran a general store until he died of a heart attack in 1957.

Frank Carson played in 248 NHL games, scoring 42 goals and 90 points. In 27 Stanley Cup playoff games he picked up 2 assists and one Stanley Cup championship.

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