A part of the famous Patrick family, Lester Patrick was directly responsible for shaping the modern game of hockey. He and his brother Frank brought professional hockey to the west coast, constructed indoor ice rinks, and devised many of the rules of the game. He continued to influence NHL hockey by managing the New York Rangers for many years. Patrick has also been inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

By his early twenties, Patrick had already played for two Stanley Cup winning teams: the 1905 and 1906 Montreal Wanderers.

In 1911, together with his brother Frank, he formed the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and built Canada’s first artificial ice arenas in Vancouver and Victoria, which opened in 1912.

Patrick played a total of twelve years (1912-22, 1926) in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (later, the Western Canada Hockey League) for Victoria, Spokane and Seattle.

Also during that time he served as director for the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and playing manager of the Victoria Aristocrats (later the cougars) from 1911-22. He continued to manage the team until the PCHA/WCHL disbanded in 1926.

Patrick managed the 1924-25 Victoria Cougars, who defeated the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup, the last BC team to win hockey’s ultimate prize.

After selling the Western Canada Hockey League to the NHL in 1926, Patrick went to New York to coach and manage the Rangers from 1926-39. He stayed on as the club’s general manager until 1946.

In that time Patrick took the Rangers to the Stanley Cup finals six times (1928-29, 1932-33, 1937, 1940) winning the Cup in 1928. Patrick even played an astonishing game in goal for the Rangers that playoff year at the age of 44.

He returned to Victoria in 1948 and ran the Western Hockey League’s Victoria Cougars until 1954.