Who was the first Canadian to play in the NHL?

Answer 1

The NHL was founded in 1917. Its first season was 1917-1918. Originally, there were four teams. Those teams were: the Ottawa Senators, the Toronto Arenas, the Montral Canadians, and the Montreal Wanderers. The Wanderers folded before the end of the season. As you can see, they were all based in Canada. Who was the first Canadian to play in the NHL? Almost all of the players were Canadian. It seems that there was only one NON-Canadian player in the NHL that year. He was an American named George "Gerry" Geran. Geran played four games for the Wanderers. When the team folded, he was not picked up by one of the other clubs. There appears to have been only one other player in the 1917-1918 NHL season who was born outside of Canada: the Canadiens' Joe Hall. Hall was born in England but lived most of his life in Canada.