The History of the AHL and the Calder Cup dates back to 1936 when the Canadian-American Hockey League and the International Hockey League merge to form the International American Hockey League. The league begins play with two divisions of four teams each. The Can-Am teams (Springfield, Philadelphia, Providence and New Haven) make up the West division and the IHL teams (Buffalo, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Cleveland) make up the East division.
Disaster strikes eleven games into the season when the Buffalo Bison's arena burns to the ground and the Bisons are forced to drop out. The Calder Cup (named after the NHL's first president, Frank Calder who also helped in the formation the AHL) becomes the trophagel
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The first thirty years were a time of relative prosperity and growth for the AHL. The League operated solely in the U.S.A. until the addition of the Quebec Aces in 1959 and the Montreal Voyageurs in 1969. Although franchises were lost or moved, by 1969 there was a total of twelve teams operating in the American Hockey League.
The late 1960s' and through the 70s' were a tough time for the AHL. The NHL started to expand in 1967 and the WHA was formed in 1972 creating heavy competition for players. Salaries soared and put a big financial strain on the AHL franchises. In the three year period from 1974 to 1977 six of the leagues twelve teams folded. The league itself was in danger of collapse until unexpectedly the rival North American Hockey League folded just before the start of the 1977-78 season. Also, about the same time the Philadelphia Flyers entered the AHL as owners of the new Maine Mariners franchise and fortunes for the American Hockey League started to turn.
The WHA ceased to exist in 1979 when four of its remaining six teams joined the NHL and the last two folded. With this decrease in competition the AHL continued to expand steadily until they had twenty teams by the year 2000. In 2001 the International Hockey League folded after fifty six seasons and the AHL absorbed six of the teams. Today the AHL serves as the primary development league for the NHL and operates with a total of thirty teams, four in Canada and twenty six in the U.S., and each of them either owned by or affiliated with an NHL team.
Many young players begin their professional careers in the American Hockey League before moving on to NHL stardom and induction into the NHL Hall of Fame. A total of twenty seven players including Johnny Bower, Terry Sawchuk, Emile Francis, Gerry Cheevers, Al Arbour, Andy Bathgate, Larry Robinson, Doug Harvey and Patrick Roy have won the Calder Cup and gone on to NHL Hall of Fame careers. Over 100 players and coaches such as Ace Bailey, Brian Engblom, Butch Goring, Adam Graves, Peter Mahovlich, Kirk Maltby, Fred Shero, Brian Skrudland and Dennis Seidenberg have won both the Calder Cup and the Stanley Cup.
There have been a total of 122 different cities or team names in the AHL at one time or another. Twenty seven different cities have had a team win the Calder Cup. Of the eight original franchises only two still exist, albeit under different names - The Providence/Rhode Island Reds are now the Connecticut Whale and the Springfield Indians are currently the Peoria Rivermen. The Hershey Bears were the first expansion franchise in 1938 and are the only franchise to have operated continuously since that time in the same city with the same name. The Hershey Bears have won a total of eleven championships, the most in the History of the AHL and Calder Cup.
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