The Seattle Metropolitans (nicknamed the “Mets”) were a professional ice hockey team in Seattle from 1915 to 1924, playing in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). They were Seattle’s first professional hockey team, and in 1917 became the first US team to win the Stanley Cup, defeating the Montreal Canadiens. They faced the Canadiens for Cup again in the 1918-1919 season, but the series was cancelled due to the influenza pandemic. The Mets played for the Cup in the 1919-20 season but lost to the Ottawa Senators. The Metropolitans disbanded in 1924, when their arena (at 5th & University) was converted into a parking garage and the team could not raise enough money for a replacement.

This portrait shows Jack Walker (1888-1950), who played for the Metropolitans for all nine seasons of the team’s existence. He returned to Seattle to play for the Eskimos from 1928 to 1931, and he lived in Seattle after retiring. Walker played 364 major league games in his career, scored 135 goals and 103 assists, and was posthumously inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1960.

Caption information source: “Seattle Metropolitans (1915-1924)”, by Kevin Ticen, HistoryLink, retrieved from https://www.historylink.org/File/20877.