THE CANADIENS’ FIRST CAPTAIN, COACH AND GENERAL MANAGER, JACK LAVIOLETTE LEFT AS MUCH OF A MARK ON THE ICE AS HE DID OFF IT.

As the first captain of the sport’s most distinguished team, Jean-Baptiste “Jack” Laviolette’s place in hockey history is secure. Born in Belleville, Ontario in 1879, he grew up in Valleyfield, Quebec. By the early years of the 20th century, Laviolette was among the best athletes in the area, starring in both hockey and lacrosse.

Equally comfortable up front and on the blue line, Laviolette received an offer he couldn’t pass up in the fall of 1909. A Canadian pro circuit was setting up shop that season. J. Ambrose O’Brien, a young man from a family with deep pockets, felt that a French-speaking team would make a good rival for the two Montreal teams – both drawn from the English community – that had already committed to playing in the league. He asked Laviolette to not only captain the squad, but also recruit the players, act as coach and manage the fledgling franchise.

Laviolette’s first season with the Canadiens was not a successful one. Playing before tiny crowds at Jubilee Arena in the city’s East End, the all-francophone team won only two of the 12 games on that year’s schedule, finishing at the bottom of the heap in the seven-team NHA. Laviolette handed the captaincy to Newsy Lalonde for the 1910-11 season and had it handed back to him the next year after Lalonde jumped to another league.

The Canadiens had their first winning season in 1912-13. They tied the Toronto Blueshirts for first place in the NHA that year. In 1915-16, the Montreal Canadiens won the first of their 24 Stanley Cups, defeating the Portland Rosebuds in a best-of-five series. The veteran Laviolette, standing firm on the blue line, was one of the dozen players who each took home over $200 in bonus money that spring.

The following year, they represented the NHA in the Finals but lost to a Seattle team that became the first American club to hoist the Stanley Cup.

Laviolette’s last season with the Montreal Canadiens was in 1917-18, which was also the team’s first in the newly-formed National Hockey League. Almost 40 years old, Jack Laviolette retired following the team’s first-place finish after a 12-year career that began with the birth of pro hockey.

A professional hockey pioneer, the man who captained and coached the original edition of the Montreal Canadiens and played on the team that won the team’s first Stanley Cup title passed away in 1960 at the age of 80. He was posthumously inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962.