Mets, Ironmen, the famous Totems: Seattle's hockey history is richer than you think Seattle has long had hockey teams, some more notable than most remember

The Seattle Metropolitans were Seattle's first professional hockey team, active from 1915 to 1924. The team was a member of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, one of several hockey leagues that competed for the Stanley Cup at the time. This photo shows the team in 1919. less The Seattle Metropolitans were Seattle's first professional hockey team, active from 1915 to 1924. The team was a member of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, one of several hockey leagues that competed for ... more Photo: File Photo, Seattle P-I Archives Photo: File Photo, Seattle P-I Archives Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Mets, Ironmen, the famous Totems: Seattle's hockey history is richer than you think 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

Seattle on Tuesday finally got its long-awaited wish for a National Hockey League expansion team, a move precipitated by plans to remodel KeyArena into a venue designed with such a team in mind.

But it's hardly the first time Seattle has had serious hockey around town, and not even the first time the city has flirted with an NHL expansion team.

RELATED: 'A historic moment': NHL approves expansion in Seattle, team to start play in 2021

It was 103 years ago that Seattle got its very first professional hockey team, the Seattle Metropolitans, an expansion team formed by the owners of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. The Mets would prove the first Seattle team to take home a national championship.

In 1917, the season before the NHL was even formed, the Mets won the Stanley Cup against the Montreal Canadiens. Seattle was the very first American team to win the Stanley Cup, a full 11 years before the New York Rangers would win it as an NHL franchise.

The Mets played in Seattle's first public ice arena, the Seattle Ice Arena, a 4,000-seat venue built for a whopping $100,000 at Fifth Avenue and Seneca Street, where the IBM building now stands.

After winning the Cup in 1917, the team would go on to appear in the championship game in 1919 (a series Seattle might have won had it not been canceled partway through due to a flu epidemic) and in 1920.

But at the close of the 1923-24 season, with game attendance dwindling to about 1,000 per home game, the team folded, as did its league.

In 1928, the newly finished Civic Ice Arena, constructed on what would later become Seattle Center grounds, opened, and with it a new Seattle team, the Seattle Eskimos.

RELATED: The best, worst prospective names for a Seattle NHL franchise

The Eskimos came as part of a new league, the Pacific Coast Hockey League, that would fold in 1931 and take the team with it. The league name would resurface later, but not the team.

One member of the Eskimos, Henry Harris -- brother to a former Metropolitan, Wilfred 'Smokey' Harris -- was known throughout the league for his rough play, and in the 1928-29 season, he held the record for the most penalty minutes.

Two years would go by before the Northwest Hockey League was formed and a new Seattle team, the Sea Hawks, in 1933.

The Sea Hawks had a mixed record, but in 1936 took the NWHL championship, the first championship since the 1920 Mets season.

In 1940, the team was sold and then renamed the Olympics for one more season before the league itself folded and took its teams with it.

Seattle was left with no professional hockey for the next seven years, but in 1944, the Pacific Coast Hockey League was revived as an amateur league and Seattle got another new team, the Ironmen.

The Ironmen would play as an amateur team until 1948, when the league became professional.

In 1952, the league became the Western Hockey League and the Ironmen changed its name to the Bombers, going 52-74-15 during the two years it played in that uniform.

With attendance low and the team's owner in trouble, the organization took a one-year hiatus during the 1954-55 season and returned under new ownership as the Seattle Americans for the 1955-56 season.

Again in 1958, the team underwent yet another name change to the Seattle Totems, a team that would prove competitive if not legendary.

During the following 10 years, the Totems would appear in five WHL finals, winning three championships. As SeattleHockey.net puts it, it was a golden age for Seattle hockey.

The Totems were the first American professional team to compete with a Soviet national team when the two squared off in 1972.

Two years later came the first time Seattle danced with the possibility of an NHL team.

In April 1974, the NHL announced that two expansion teams had been awarded, one to Seattle and one to Denver. The Seattle deal was awarded to a group headed by Vince Abbey, a part owner of the Totems.

The announcement triggered the folding of the WHL and the Totems moved to the Central Hockey League for the following season while awaiting finalization of the NHL deal that was expected to bring the team with it.

But Abbey had trouble coming up with all the financing necessary to finalize the deal, and, after failed attempts at buying other teams and moving them, the NHL withdrew the expansion for both Seattle and Denver.

The Totems, saddled with more than $2 million in losses, had to be folded in 1975 and with that, professional hockey in Seattle was over.

Another two years went by before a Canadian team moved to Seattle under a new name, the Seattle Breakers.

The Breakers, formerly the Kamloops Chiefs, were a junior hockey team in the Western Canada Hockey League, with players aged 14-20. The league was renamed the Western Hockey League (the second league by that name) with the start of the 1978-79 season and continues today with two regional teams.

The Breakers competed at the Seattle Center Ice Arena (the Civic Arena, later known as the Mercer Arena) and didn't exactly make waves (pun intended) throughout their eight seasons under the name.

After the 1984-85 season, the team was sold and renamed the Thunderbirds, a team that continues today.

The T-Birds would eventually move to KeyArena, a venue not designed strictly with hockey in mind, before moving to Kent's ShoWare Center in 2009, where the team plays today.

Information for this article came from SeattleHockey.net, MOHAI and Seattle P-I archival stories.