Cleveland Barons, historical alternate universe

[Greenert11]

The Cleveland Barons, founded in 1929 and played for the AHL starting in 1937. One of the AHL's most storied franchises boasting 9 Calder cups to their name. The Barons attempted to join the NHL in the early 1950s but were turned down. They then tried to challenge to play for the Stanley Cup but were rejected again. Eventually, the franchise was forced to move once the WHA's Cleveland Crusaders came to town unable to match the increasingly high salaries. Shortly after their relocation, they folded.



But what if the NHL wasn't so stubborn and accepted Cleveland early into the NHL. The WHL's threat of turning pro forced the NHL's hand to reluctantly expand the league. But in this alternate universe, Cleveland joins ending the original 6 era just 10 years after it started, also opening the door for more markets to attempt to join the NHL.

The Barons will join the NHL for the upcoming 1951-1952 season. I have allocated every player that played for them that season onto the roster, as well as using create a player to add the missing players. They will play in the 9900 capacity Cleveland Arena. However, the Cleveland Arena's max capacity is far below the smallest arena Maple Leaf Gardens (12586) and on the condition of joining the NHL, Cleveland Arena is forced to undergo major renovations to add 3000 seats.

Let the Cleveland Franchise Commence!



Cleveland Barons Goaltender Johnny Bower about to start his 7th season with the Barons.

[Greenert11]

The NHL is in its 35th season, The Toronto Maple Leafs have won 4 of the last 5 Stanley cups. The other winner was the up-and-coming Detroit Red Wings led by 3 young superstars by the names of Terry Sawchuk, Ted Lindsay, and Gordie Howe. An aging Maurice Richard aims to break the NHL all-time goal record currently set at 324 goals, Richard only needs 33 more goals to break it.



NHL League Records



The Top 4 Players in the NHL, Gordie Howe 23, Maurice Richard 29, Ted Lindsay 25, Terry Sawchuk 21

[Greenert11]

The best player on the Barons is Steve Wochy, Steve debuted for the Red Wings in 1944 putting up an impressive 39 pts in 49 games. He only played 5 more games for the Wings 2 years later and has been in the minors ever since. He is also currently the oldest living person to have played in the NHL.




Tending the net is 26-year-old career AHL player Johnny Bower, we'll see if he can handle the big leagues.



23-year-old Finnish-born Joe Lund is a newly acquired defenseman from the Indianapolis Capitals and is set to make his debut for the Barons



The Barons are fielding 14 EX-NHL players giving them another shot at the NHL.

[Greenert11]

As the General Manager of the Barons, I've elected to keep the team together without any major changes for the first year.

Pre Season Opener vs Chicago Black Hawks




The Cleveland Barons open up the season at home and get their first-ever win over the Black Hawks! Unfortunately, That would be the Baron's only win in the preseason with a record of 1-4-1.


Regular Season Home Opener vs Chicago Black Hawks



The Baron's win their first-ever regular-season game in front of a sold-out crowd at Cleveland Arena, A 1-0 Shutout with Johnny Bower making a shutout in his NHL debut!

Regular Season Results



As expected the Barons finish last, with a record of 17-43-10. Who knew that filling a roster up with EX-NHL players and AHL players wouldn't yield great results. However, as far as bad opening seasons go we did not do terrible, we were only 8 points back of 6th place

No notable trades happened but multiple league records were broken. Doug Bentley moved into 1st all-time in point leaders, Maurice Richard moved into 1st all-time goals scored




In the playoffs, the Leafs took the dominant Red Wings all the way to 7 games just falling short of the upset. Habs beat the Bruins. And the Canadiens upset the Red Wings in just 5 games to win their 7th Stanley Cup.



Cleveland Barons 1951-1952 MVP. Johnny Bower puts up great numbers on a terrible team. He went 12-21-4 despite the poor record he still recorded 4 shutouts and a sv% of .919. Hopefully we can field a better team in front of him next year.

[Greenert11]

After finishing last place I was ready to draft first overall. However, I forgot I enabled the sponsorship option, so it looks like I will be building my team by signing players that are allocated to the unaffiliated juniors' team. My biggest signing was 4-star potential RW Ken Schinkel. I also signed a couple of depth pieces to fill out the team.

I ended up trading away some of the older guys while they still had value since it looks like this team won't be competitive for a while, ended up getting some prospects in return.

Since I signed a few depth pieces I was forced to waive lifetime player Fred Glover who was claimed by Detroit. It worked out for the best though because Detroit waived 2 players that made huge contributions to the team.



The team is making small strides we are ranked last for forwards depth (7th) but 6th for both defence and goaltending depth.

Regular Season Results



What a great improvement from last season. I honestly had no expectations for this team but they made the playoffs even with pts% below .500. Finished with a 20 point increase over last season scored about 10 more goals but let in 40 less. Thanks to a great win streak at the end we were able to squeak past the Bruins to qualify for the playoffs in just the second year.

Playoff Results

Round 1 Playoffs Matchups, MTL vs DET rematch from the finals, and CLE vs TOR, Cleveland first appearance.

MTL 3-4 DET



CLE 4-3 TOR, great series coming back from 3-2 to win in game 7.

Round 2 Stanley Cup finals, CLE vs DET



What a great run by the team. Blew a 3-1 series lead but we had no business even making playoffs this year so cannot be upset. Congrats to the Detroit Red Wings. Just look at how much better their roster was.

[Greenert11]

Here are the awards for the year



Going to award the Cleveland MVP to Johnny Bower again. Started 60/70 games and is tied for second in league sv%.



Onto the next season!