1920-21 NHL season

The 1920-21 NHL season was the fourth season of the National Hockey League (NHL). Four teams each played 24 games in a split season. The NHL's Ottawa Senators won the Stanley Cup by defeating the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association three games to two in a best-of-five series. This would be the last split season before the NHL changed its regular season and playoff formats.

League Business
Eddie Livingstone was again talking of creating a rival league and mentioned Hamilton as a city in his league. To head this off, league president Frank Calder got the owners of the league to admit a Hamilton franchise. As Abso-Pure had built an arena, all owners agreed that it would be wise to have a franchise in Hamilton. Because Quebec had done so badly the previous season, Calder said that Quebec's players would be given to Hamilton. Although Mike Quinn was non-commital at first, he finally sold the team to Hamilton and it became the Hamilton Tigers.

Regular Season
The Tigers had some trouble signing Joe Malone from the Quebec days, but he finally did sign.

The Tigers stung the Canadiens 5-0 in its first game with Babe Dye starring. The Toronto St. Patricks lost Corbett Denneny to injuries and recalled Dye from Hamilton, giving them Mickey Roach in his place.

Corbett Denneny scored six goals in a game January 26th as the Toronto St. Patricks walloped the Hamilton Tigers 10-3.

Cy Denneny wasn't about to let his brother steal the thunder and he scored six goals himself in a March 7th game as the Ottawa Senators hammered the Hamilton Tigers 12-5. For the first time, a brother combination had scored six goals in a game in the same season.

The Ottawa Senators won the first half of the split season while the Toronto St. Patricks won the second half.

Scoring Leaders
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

Stanley Cup Playoffs
All dates 1921

NHL Championship
After the regular season, Toronto and Ottawa played in a total goals series to see who would win the O'Brien Trophy and go on to compete for the Stanley Cup. Ottawa easily won by shutting out the St. Pats in both games. Ottawa's George Boucher became the first defenseman in NHL playoff history to score a Hat trick, doing so in the 5-0 win in Game 1. It took 49 years until the feat was repeated, by Bobby Orr in the 1971 Quarter-finals. Ottawa then went onto play the Vancouver Millionaires of the PCHA.

Ottawa Senators vs. Toronto St. Patricks Ottawa wins total goals series 7 goals to 0

Finals
Ottawa Senators vs. Vancouver Millionaires Ottawa wins best-of-five series 3 games to 2 for the Stanley Cup

NHL Playoff Scoring Leader
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

NHL Awards

 * O'Brien Trophy: Ottawa Senators

Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1920-21 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

Last Games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1920-21 (listed with their last team):