Flyers become the seventh club

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The NHL has decided they will expand to seven teams starting with the 1947-48 season, and they are adding Philadelphia to the league, the 4th largest city in the country, which was 3rd not very long ago.

The team will be named the Flyers, and start a rivalry with the New York Rangers, their rivals less than 2 hours up the road.

Buffalo, Cleveland, and St. Louis were interested in the team but it is going to Philadelphia because a new arena is opening for the 1948-49 season, one of the largest in the league.

An expansion draft will be held in order to help funnel talent in the team. It will be very limited, only one player from each of the 6 NHL teams being drafted.

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The Flyers have drafted their first six players in the expansion draft. The other 6 NHL owners really wanted to limit the expansion team's talent, so they decided to allow only one player to get drafted from each club. 3 goalies and 3 defensemen went for the Flyers.

The first pick was New York Ranger goalie Sugar Jim Henry.

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Andrew Fields, the new 26 year old coach and GM, his wife Frances and 2 year old son Michael have moved into a house near Philadelphia, in the town of Upper Darby, and will be building the new expansion team in the image of the city of Philadelphia, tough-minded.

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Clint Smith will be the first captain of the Philadelphia Flyers, as that was named today before the Prospects Tournament which begins August 14.

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Fred Pearson scored the first goal in Flyer colors as they ended up losing to the Black Hawks 4-1 in their first game in the prospect tournament.

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The Philadelphia Flyers won their first game in team history, in the prospect tourney against other prospects, but it still counts somewhat. They beat the Maple Leafs 2-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens.

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Two weeks before preseason begins as training camp is going on, and the Flyers have secured a radio and a television deal, with WHAT 1340 AM or WDAS 1400 AM carrying games along with the new WFIL-TV Channel 6.

Preseason games start September 6 with the Montreal Canadiens at home.

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The Philadelphia Flyers played in front of their own fans in a somewhat meaningful game for the first time on September 6 against the Montreal Canadiens at the Philadelphia Civic Center. Not much was expected of this Philly team, against a Montreal team filled with stars.

The attendance was small, only 5,746 in the 9,600 seat Philadelphia Civic Center. But the Flyers scored three times in a minute and 21 seconds to take a 3rd period lead, before Butch Bouchard's tying goal from 170 feet with 4:06 to play.

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The Philadelphia Flyers continued their preseason schedule with road trips to New York and Chicago sandwiched around a home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

9/7: NYR 6, PHI 3; Goals- PHI: McMurdy 2 (2), Bauer (1); NYR: Warwick (1), Moe 2 (2), O'Connor (1), Eddolls (1), Watson (1); A- 11,881

The Flyers played a representative game at the Garden, within 1 goal with less than 30 seconds to go before allowing two quick empty-net goals to make the margin more lopsided.

9/9: PHI 5, TOR 3; Goals- PHI: Rittinger (1), Smith 2 (3), Martin (1), Bauer (2); TOR: Apps (1), Kennedy 2 (2), A- 6,691

A dominant first two periods for the Philadelphia Flyers, scoring 5 straight goals before allowing three in the 3rd. This included four unanswered goals in the first period.

9/11: CHI 3, PHI 3; Goals- PHI: Bauer (3), Smith (4), Schmidt (1); CHI: Baldwin (1), Hamill (2), Conacher (2); A- 13,125

Another well-played game for Philadelphia, leading in the 3rd period before allowing the tying goal with less than 4 to play.

Three more preseason games are ahead.

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The Philadelphia Flyers finished their preseason schedule with two home games and a road trip to Chicago.

9/12: DET 5, PHI 4 (OT); Goals- DET: Abel (3), Lundy (1), Guidolin 2 (2), Horeck (2); PHI: Rittinger 2 (3), Buchanan (1), Evanshen (1); A- 6,036

A very closely contested game as the Flyers pulled back from a 4-2 deficit with under 3 minutes to go with two goals in 32 seconds to tie but allowed the winning goal from Guidolin with 7 seconds left in overtime.

9/14: PHI 4, CHI 3; Goals- PHI: Burlington (2), C. Smith 2 (6), Bauer (4); CHI: Gee (2), M. Bentley (4), Nattrass (2); A- 12,987

The Flyers had to hold on here, as they had a 4-1 lead for most of the third period, but allowed two late goals as the Black Hawks set up a late comeback.

9/15: PHI 7, TOR 4; Goals- PHI: Burlington (3), C. Smith (7), McMurdy 3 (5), Hellyer (2), J. Schmidt (2); TOR: Poile (3), Ezinicki (1), Kennedy (3), A- 6,692

An absolutely shocking start for the Flyers as Philadelphia put five past Turk Broda in the first period, scoring seven in the game on just 19 shots, the first six in succession.

The Flyers travel to Maple Leaf Gardens for the opener on Saturday (September 20) to open their franchise account in the regular season.

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The Flyers have signed two new players, Hal Laycoe and Cliff Thompson from waivers. Here are the first lines for the opener at Toronto.