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." 

First they came for the hockey team, now they're coming for the steel industry.- Myer SieMiatycki, professor emeritus at TMU

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 have seen this happen before and we're not going to let it happen again," Siemiatycki added.

Trump vows to make Canada pay

Hamilton is home to about 28,000 advanced manufacturing jobs, which include jobs in the steel sector, according to the local chamber of commerce. That's about 20 per cent more than the national average.

On March 12, Trump slapped a 25 per cent levy on steel and aluminum coming into the U.S.

Canada then retaliated with a new set of counter-tariffs. The federal government targeted $29.8 billion worth of U.S. goods. This was in addition to the first wave of counter-tariffs — on $30 billion worth of U.S. products — that Ottawa levied a week earlier.

'The NHL owes Hamilton,' Siemiatycki says

Siemiatycki said the time is right for the NHL to either return to the City of Hamilton with a franchise, or pay the city a "whack" of money.

"There's no question that the NHL owes Hamilton, and they owe Hamilton big time," Siemiatycki said.

Siemiatycki says the NHL was "a fledgling and fragile league," back in the 1920s, and it was the transfer of the Hamilton team to New York that paved the way for big expansion of the NHL into major American cities. 

"Within about a three-year period, the NHL would transform from a four-team league — with all four teams in Canada — to a 10-team league with six of the teams in the United States," Siemiatycki said.  

"There's no question that the success of what became the New York Americans, who were really the transplanted Hamilton Tigers, were a major factor in demonstrating that there was a market, that there was a business plan behind expanding into the United States and that enticed other American cities into the NHL. So, that's why there's an IOU. The NHL has a big IOU to handle."

'We've been wronged,' University of Guelph prof. says

Jason Wilson, adjunct-professor at the University of Guelph, says he can imagine how wounded Ontarians must have felt to have lost — for the first time — a professional hockey franchise to the United States. 

"Worse yet, they'd be called the New York Americans," said Wilson, who is also a Juno-nominated musician.

According to Wilson, not long ago, many Canadians, especially younger ones, were perhaps less inclined to believe that hockey had been "stolen from Canada, living, as we have been in a continental monoculture." 

But he said, "with an adversarial force in the White House, these sentiments of offense are resonating with Canadians again and, for some, for the first time. 

"We've been wronged. Why hasn't a Canadian team won a cup since 1993? Why doesn't Quebec and yes, Hamilton, have a team when Phoenix bumbled along and eventually gave up the ghost to Utah in the end anyway? Isn't this our game?"

A 'just and true reward'

Meanwhile, Siemiatycki said there are a few things the NHL could do to settle with Hamilton.

He said "the just and true reward" would be to give Hamilton an NHL franchise, pointing out that the city, over the years and even quite recently, has been pushing for an NHL team, and is also renovating the hockey arena to make it more economically viable.

"The ultimate and just payback would be to give Hamilton an NHL team," Siemiatycki said, adding that there are "economic reasons" to support this.

"Hamilton is part of the GTHA — the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. It has a population of over seven million people. The most recent franchise in the NHL to relocate, of course, was from Arizona to Salt Lake City in Utah, with a metropolitan population of barely one million. So, the NHL decides to go to a one-million population instead of putting a second team in the Greater Toronto Area," Siemiatycki said.

They owe this to Hamilton and it would be a smart economic and marketing move by the NHL.- Myer Siemiatycki

While admitting that such a move would require financial compensation to the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres, Siemiatycki contends that "the NHL and all of its owners have profited phenomenally" by the expansion of their industry — the hockey business — to the United States.

"They owe this to Hamilton and it would be a smart economic and marketing move by the NHL to put a second team into the Toronto area, which is one of the largest metropolitan centres in all of North America." 

'Recognize that reparations are due'

But even if an NHL franchise is not coming to Hamilton, Siemiatycki said the league should "recognize that reparations are due. The Hamilton team was sold for $75,000. Even with inflation over 100 years, that doesn't come close to the $2 billion US average value of a current NHL franchise." 

"Hamilton made, in a sense, the sacrifice of giving up a team to allow the enrichment of the league and future owners. If you're not going to give the city a team, give it a whack of money to promote local hockey in Hamilton." 

CBC Hamilton reached out to the National Hockey League for comment but did not receive a response before publication. 

In November of 2023, Tim Leiweke — former Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO and president — promised to bring back a hockey team to Hamilton in a couple of years to a revamped FirstOntario Centre, just not an NHL franchise.

Shorty Green cemented Hamilton's legacy in N.Y.

Siemiatycki said Shorty Green, who was team leader for the Hamilton Tigers during their pay dispute, went on to achieve a milestone with the New York Americans. 

"The first goal, the first NHL goal ever scored in Madison Square Garden in the New York Americans first home game was scored by Shorty Green," he said.

"[It was] a nice sort of carry over, you know, just to prove, just to cement the legacy of the Hamilton Tigers. The strike leader scored the first goal in Madison Square Gardens in NHL history."