Chapman had an second productive season with Port Arthur (later Thunder Bay, Ontario) scoring 19 goals in 20 games before joining the Springfield Indians of the Canadian-American Hockey League in 1927-28. After one season with Springfield, he joined the Providence Reds of the same league, equalling his 14 goals from the previous year in 1928-29 before uncorking a career high 26 goals and 45 points in 1929-30, which allowed him to lead the Reds for a second consecutive season.
That performance led to Chapman getting his chance to play in the NHL, as he was selected by the Boston Bruins for the 1930-31 season in the 1929 Inter-League Draft. He would play four seasons for the Bruins, totaling 23 goals over that time span, with a high of 11 goals and 25 points in 1931-32.
In January of 1934 Chapman was traded to the New York Americans, where he would play for seven seasons.
In 1934-35, his first full season with New York, he would set an NHL career best with 43 points to lead the club in scoring. In 1935-36, he would score 10 goals, his only NHL season with double-digit goals, as he was better known for being responsible defensively.
He would then play in the NHL All-Star Game in the 1937 edition. His final season with the Americans came in 1939-40 before his career was interrupted by World War II.
He returned to playing hockey in 1942-43 with the Buffalo Bisons, where in 45 games he showed he still had plenty of skills, picking up where he left off with 9 goals and 28 points. He would retire after playing one final game with the Bisons in 1943-44.
He would later go into coaching hockey, winning a Calder Cup as head coach of Buffalo in 1944 and a Lester Patrick Cup with the Vancouver Canucks of the WHL in 1958.
Today's featured jersey is a 1935-36 New York Americans Art Chapman jersey. This sweater was worn during Chapman's highest scoring season in the NHL, his first full season with the Americans.
The Americans joined the NHL in 1925, one year before the New York Rangers, and wore their distinctive star spangled, multi-striped solely from 1925 through 1932-33 before finally introducing a white sweater for the 1933-34 season. After two seasons of use the sweater was modified when the single, blue waist stripe was changed to a pair of red stripes, a new wordmark crest was added and a series of arched stars was added to both the front and the back of the jerseys.
For the fourth season of use in 1938-39, the star-spangled jerseys were retired and the white sweater was now used full time, although with much thinner waist stripes, beginning a series of one year design tweaks as the club played out the string, ending in 1941-42 when they folded for good.
Photos courtesy of Classic Auctions
I love the team photo. I'd like to see my local ECHL team shoot one like that for kicks!
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