The Toronto Hockey Club, known as the Torontos and the Toronto Blueshirts, was a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. They were a member of the National Hockey Association (NHA). The club was founded in 1911 and began operations in 1912. The club won its sole Stanley Cup championship in 1914. The club became the centre of a controversy among NHA owners leading to the NHA suspending operations and the owners forming the National Hockey League (NHL). The Blueshirts were replaced in the NHL by a new Toronto Hockey Club under the ownership of the Toronto Arena Company, the Blueshirts' former landlord. The Torontos' players were leased to the Arena ownership temporarily and competed in the NHL in 1917–18, winning the Stanley Cup. The Arena Company was then granted a permanent franchise for the 1918–19 season that evolved into today's Toronto Maple Leafs. History Founding to Cup winners The NHA was founded in 1909 without any teams based in Toronto. National Hockey Association (NHA) founder Ambrose O'Brien operated four franchises in the NHA: the Cobalt Silver Kings, Haileybury Comets, Les Canadiens and the Renfrew Creamery Kings. In 1910, O'Brien suspended the Cobalt, Haileybury and Canadiens clubs and sold one franchise to form the Montreal Canadiens, who took the Les Canadiens' players. In 1911, O'Brien decided to leave professional ice hockey entirely. Quebec interests bought one of the franchises from O'Brien, and the final two were sold to interests who planned to relocate the teams to Toronto. Toronto had not previously had an arena with artificial ice that would be large enough for an NHA team, but in 1911 work had begun on constructing the Arena Gardens. The arena was owned by the Toronto Arena Company, organized on September 19, 1911, with Sir Henry Pellatt as president, Lol Solman as managing director, and directors Aemilius Jarvis, Joseph Kilgour, T.W. Horn, R.A. Smith, and Col. Carlson. There were two other directors from Montreal. W. J. Bellingham was the initial manager. The franchise which became the Toronto Hockey Club was bought by Frank Robinson, Percy Quinn and other investors for . Quinn was president of the Dominion Lacrosse Association, a Canadian professional lacrosse league that had patterned itself after the NHA. The second Toronto franchise was awarded to a group affiliated with the Tecumseh Lacrosse Club of Toronto. The Tecumsehs bought a franchise from O'Brien, paying cash and promissory notes for Although