How the NHL killed Hamilton's hockey franchise 100 years ago, after players went on strike for $200

It was in March of 1925 — 100 years ago last week — that Hamilton's National Hockey League team, the Hamilton Tigers, was shut down forever because players went on strike.

Players were denied the $200 they were asking for on their $3,000 contract to play in six additional games. Instead of paying the players, Frank Calder — the first president of the NHL — sold the team, ending the franchise in Hamilton.

Myer Siemiatycki, professor emeritus of politics at Toronto Metropolitan University, said it was a "distress sale," which paved the way for the NHL to make it big in the United States.

Siemiatycki said Calder acted as a "bully" in forcing the sale rather than paying the players the extra $200 each, adding that it's time for the NHL to "do the right thing [and] give Hamilton its due." 

Siemiatycki said the anniversary comes as Hamilton and Canada face a trade war forced on them by another "bully" — U.S. President Donald Trump.

"This is eerie in the timing sequencing of it. A 100 years ago today [March 12], Hamilton [lost] a major cultural, civic and economic backbone of its urban existence — its NHL hockey team. The day before that 100th anniversary, here comes Donald Trump to impose a 25 per cent tariff on steel, and he wants to destroy the Hamilton steelmaking industry," Siemiatycki told CBC Hamilton.  

"So, first they came for the hockey team, now they're coming for the steel industry, because of President Trump, and I think the signal there is really to reinforce our resolve not to lose anything so important again — that it's elbows up from here on in. 

"We know that if we don't defend the foundations of a city and its urban economy, that community and city is in big, big trouble. So, it should stiffen our resolve. We