The Forgotten Montreal Canadien Great: Sprague Cleghorn

The Montreal Canadiens have the most storied and greatest history in the entire NHL. And without question they have some of the greatest players in hockey history. Plenty have the recognition they deserve: Guy Lafleur, Jean Beliveau, Patrick Roy. But some fall to the wayside. One prime example is former Canadiens captain Sprague Cleghorn.

Now, a big part of that is that Cleghorn played a long, long time ago. Sprague was born Henry William Sprague Cleghorn in Montreal in 1890. He played in the NHL in its infancy, and in fact, played in the National Hockey Association (NHA), which basically became in the NHL in 1917.

The early days of hockey were pretty much the wild west. The NHA dissolved basically due to one man, Eddie Livingstone. Livingstone was an owner no one else could stand, and apparently he and other owner Sam Lichtenhein of the Montreal Wanderers almost came to blows. And that was while he was the owner of one team. He later bought the Toronto Blueshirts while also owning the Toronto Shamrocks, a move that prompted the other owners to make a rule that banned owners from owning two teams.

He tried to hide Quebec-born players from rival league PCHA, disputed the claims on multiple players, and was generally such a nuisance that the other owners eventually just closed the league and started their own, the NHL, without Livingstone.

Cleghorn Before the Canadiens

All this time, Sprague Cleghorn, and his older brother Odie, were playing for the Montreal Wanderers, the pinnacle of NHA hockey. In 8 years of the Stanley Cup, the Wanderers split the Cup with the Ottawa HC, with the only other team holding the Cup at that time with the Kelowna Thistles.

And during that time, Sprague Cleghorn was building up a reputation. He was one of the first true offensive defensemen. He did start his career on the wing, but moved to the back end. In fact, in the 1914-15 season, Cleghorn scored 21 goals and 33 points in just 19 games. He routinely scored above a point-per-game pace in an era where defenders tended to stay at home.

But this wasn't the only thing that Cleghorn became known for. He was a goalscorer and point-getter, but he was also a bruiser and brawler. In fact, he was charged with assault for his actions on the ice. Twice.

The biggest incident was with other Montreal Canadiens great Newsy Lalonde, who had just cross-checked Odie Cleghorn. That was when Sprague hit Lalonde with his stick, and was subsequently arrested by police. Both Lalonde and Cleghorn were fined $25, but Cleghorn was given an extra fine of $50, in 1912 money.

But then, the NHA folded, and the Wanderers looked forward to a new start in the fresh new hockey league, the NHL, as they had been on a downward spiral since their early domination.

And then the arena burned down.

The home arena, the Montreal Arena, burned to the ground, and the team never was able to recover. The players were dispersed across the league, and Sprague Cleghorn ended up with the Ottawa Senators.

Sprague missed the start of the season, for one of the funnier hockey injuries I can recall. After breaking his ankle late into the previous season, and while rehabbing that injury, he fell and broke his other ankle while slipping on ice.

But in his second season, he found a new home in Ottawa, as he and his new team fit like a glove, and they won the Stanley Cup. However, the NHL thought this was unacceptable, and forced Cleghorn out of Ottawa, and was sent to either the Toronto St. Pats or Hamilton Tigers, depending on where you are looking. But Sprague did not like that, and refused to report to Toronto.

It was quite the situation, as it was originally meant to be that Cleghorn would play half the season in Toronto, half the season in Ottawa. Eventually Cleghorn would report to Toronto, and he would have to play Ottawa in the playoffs. A playoffs where he seemed to purposefully tank, and be scratched. Toronto then sent Cleghorn back to Ottawa where he won another Cup.

Cleghorn as a Canadien

After his contract with the Ottawa Senators was up, the league took control again, and tried to assign him to the Hamilton Tigers, which he refused to do. After the Tigers figured out that he was not going to ever play for them, they traded him, and reunited the Cleghorns in Montreal.

The league has seen a lot of tough guys and teams. You can't not mention the Broad Street Bullies when you talk about tough teams, but there may have never been a tougher defensive duo than Sprague Cleghorn and Billy Coutu.

Sprague was named captain of the Canadiens in his first season, and brought the Canadiens into their first era of greatness. Alongside the "Wild Beaver" Billy Coutu, Sprague was the scourge of the league. Cleghorn was a player that was charged with assault on the ice multiple times, and Coutu became the only player to have a lifetime ban in the NHL for assaulting referees.

He had a combination of skill and tenacity that made him an absolute menace to the rest of the league. In one fight, Cleghorn injured three Ottawa Senators, and the team tried to expell him from the league, and a ref called him "a disgrace to the game."

His antics and playing style caught the eye of one Marie Evelyn Moreton. Now, you might not recognize that name, but you might just recognize her title: Lady Byng of Vimy. The Lady Byng loved hockey, but shied away from the physical aspects, so she presented a trophy to the NHL to be given to the most sportsmanlike and gentlemanly player. This was in direct contrast to the player Cleghorn was.

And it seems the player most opposed to Cleghorn was Frank Boucher, who won the trophy seven out of eight years, and was just out and out gifted the thing, with a second trophy being produced for new winners.

Sprague Cleghorn was one of the first true offensive defenseman, and was a true double threat when it came to skill and physicallity. He scored 5 goals in a game once, and he and Odie both scored four goals each in another.

While some of his accolades are rosier than others, its impossible to understate the impact that Sprague Cleghorn left on the game. So just remember his name, the most unsportsmanlike NHL player, who inspired the NHL trophy for sportsmanlike conduct and gentlemanliness.