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Eastern Canada Hockey Association
(ECHA)
History 1906-1909 (4 seasons)
The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) was a men's amateur – later professional – ice hockey league in Canada that played four seasons. It was founded on December 11, 1905 with the top clubs from two other leagues: four from the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL) and two from the Federal Amateur Hockey League (FAHL). It was formed to maximize the revenues of a now popular spectator sport and help these amateur teams cope with professionalism in the sport. The league would shed its amateur status for the 1908 season, leading to the split between Canadian amateur ice hockey teams playing for the Allan Cup, and the professionals playing for the Stanley Cup. The league would itself dissolve in 1909 over a dispute between team owners over business issues.
The CAHL held its regular meeting on December 9, 1905. At that meeting it was decided that amalgamation with the FAHL should be attempted. On December 11, it was announced that the amalgamation would form a new league, the ECAHA. The CAHL was discontinued, but the FAHL would continue.
From the start, the league allowed teams to openly use professional players. The players who were professionals had to be printed publicly. In 1908, the amateur-only Montreal Victorias and Montreal Hockey Club teams left the league. The league became a professional-only league, leading to several amateurs retiring from their teams. In significance of the change the league was renamed the Eastern Canada Hockey Association.
In November 1909, the league dissolved over the plans of the Wanderers to move to an arena with fewer (revenue paying) spectator seats. The three other teams announced that they were leaving the ECHA, creating the Canadian Hockey Association (CHA). The Wanderers helped form a competing league, the National Hockey Association (NHA). The CHA played for less than two weeks, merging with the NHA in January 1910.