Hockey’s other Royal Families

While the title of “Hockey’s Royal Family” has long been ascribed to the Patricks, they aren’t the only claimants to the throne. They do, however, appear to have been the first ones tagged with that description.

Hal Straight wrote in The Vancouver Sun of Feb. 15, 1938: “And maybe this member of hockey’s royal family [Guy Patrick] has license to feel the way he does.” Andy Lytle wrote in the Toronto Star on Dec. 15, 1938: “There’s Skipper Lester Patrick and his two playing sons, known to Canadians as hockey’s Royal Family …” The next day, Lytle used it again: “Lester Patrick, tribal chief of what has been quite rightly termed the Royal Family of Ice Hockey …”

A photo that appeared in many newspapers on Jan. 22, 1940 showing Lester Patrick with sons Lynn and Muzz when all were members of the New York Rangers.

But the Conachers have a pretty strong argument for sharing the title with the Patricks, if not sole possession.

The first time it was applied to them was in the Boston Globe of Feb. 10, 1939, in a story by Gerry Moore: “Young Mel Hill, [Roy] Conacher’s wing mate, also came up with a charley-horse but the latest 22-year-old member of hockey’s royal family is the big noise of the moment.”

Roy Conacher played 11 years for Boston, Detroit, and Chicago between 1938 and 1952. He led the league in scoring once and in goals during his rookie season. He won two Stanley Cups and is in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Among Roy’s nine siblings, two others also played in the NHL: Lionel spent 12 seasons between 1925 and 1937 with Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York, and Montreal and won the Stanley Cup twice. He was voted Canada’s top athlete of the first half of the 20th century, for he was equally adept at football as he was at hockey. He won the Grey Cup in 1921 with the Toronto Argonauts and is one of three people with their names engraved on both the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup. He also played baseball and lacrosse, wrestled, and boxed. He’s in the Hockey Hall of Fame, Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and a few other halls of fame for good measure.

Charlie Conacher played 12 seasons in the NHL between 1929 and 1941 for Toronto, Detroit, and New York, and led the league in scoring twice and in goals five times. He’s also in the Hockey Hall of Fame, making the Conachers the only family with a trio of brothers in the hall.

The Conacher brothers from the 2010-11 In the Game Enshined card set

Roy’s twin brother Bert was also a hockey player, and reached the Memorial Cup with the Toronto Nationals, but his professional ambitions were stymied when he lost an eye playing road hockey.

Lionel’s son Brian played in the NHL with Toronto and Detroit between 1961 and 1972 and won the Stanley Cup in 1967. He also played for Ottawa in the WHA and represented Canada at the 1964 Olympics. Charlie’s son Pete played for Chicago, New York, and Toronto in the NHL between 1951 and 1957, and more than nine seasons in the AHL. Murray Henderson, a nephew to Lionel, Charlie, and Roy, played in the NHL for Boston between 1945 and 1952 (and was a teammate to his uncle Roy for four games).

Eric Whitehead’s 1980 book The Patricks: Hockey’s Royal Family helped consolidate the Patricks’ hold on the title, but in 2015, Paul White wrote a book called Hockey’s Royal Family: The Conachers that argued it belonged to the Conachers first and foremost.

•

There are plenty of other contenders too. Some were actually referred to as Hockey’s Royal Family. Others had every right to be, but weren’t. Among them:

The Sutters: Six brothers played in the NHL in the 1970s and ‘80s (Brent, Brian, Darryl, Duane, Rich, and Ron) and four became coaches or general managers (Brent, Brian, Darryl, and Duane). Three have coached the Calgary Flames (Brian, Brent, and Darryl). At least one Sutter played in the NHL from 1976 until 2001, and all six were in action from 1982 to 1987. They collectively won six Stanley Cups and played in 5,597 games (4,994 regular season and 603 in the playoffs).

A favourite trivia question: who scored more combined points in the NHL, the Sutter brothers or the Gretzky brothers? ​​It depends on whether you only count the regular season or add the playoffs too. In the regular season alone, the Sutters had 2,934 combined points, topping the Gretzkys’ 2,861 (Brent accounted for four of them). But in the playoffs, the Sutters added 275 for a grand total of 3,209 while Wayne had another 382, bringing the Gretzky total to 3,243 and giving them the edge.

Three Sutter sons have also made the NHL (Brandon, Brett, and Brody), while three others were drafted (Shaun, Lukas, and Riley) and played professionally but not in the NHL.

Examples of the Sutters being called Hockey’s Royal Family:

• Tim Burke writing in the Montreal Gazette, April 26, 1984: “Brent Sutter, the fourth member of hockey’s Royal Family from Viking, Alta. …”

• Danny Rode in the Red Deer Advocate, Feb. 6, 1987: Viking is “Not exactly as famous as the National Hockey League’s Royal Family, but getting there …”

• In 1998, a TV station in Red Deer produced a two-part series called Hockey’s Royal Family: The Sutters.

• Cam Cole in the National Post, Dec. 5, 2002: “The little kid [Darryl Sutter] who became part of hockey’s royal family is 44 now.”

• Jim Matheson in the Edmonton Journal, Nov. 19, 2003: “Hockey’s Royal Family got its start on a frozen slough outside the family farm in Viking.”

• Chris Simnett in the Red Deer Advocate, Jan. 12, 2004: “Brandon Sutter may be a member of Western Canada’s hockey royal family …”

The Howes: While lots of fathers and sons have played in the NHL, only one father has played on the same team as his sons at the same time. Gordie Howe skated with Marty and Mark Howe with the Hartford Whalers in 1979-80 (and previously with the Houston Aeros of the WHA from 1973-77).

Additionally, Gordie’s brother Vic played 33 games in the NHL with New York between 1950 and 1955. (Vic also played in Nelson, BC in 1955-56, where Lester and Frank Patrick helped win a provincial championship in 1909.)

Example of the Howes being called Hockey’s Royal Family:

• Fort McMurray Today, Nov. 9, 2011: “Nick Kypreos looked around the Philadelphia Flyers training camp room in 1984 and spotted Mark Howe. ‘When you’re 18, you’re in awe of everyone … But now you kind of felt like you were in the presence of hockey’s Royal Family. Gordie came by training camp on one or two occasions …”

• Detroit Free Press, Sept. 11, 2014: “Last year Mark wrote Gordie Howe’s Son: A Hall of Fame Life in the Shadow of Mr. Hockey, a warm, loving portrait of his life as a member of hockey’s royal family.”

I also found one-off mentions referring to the Gretzkys, Richards, Norrises, Appses, and Staals as Hockey’s Royal Family.

One clan that surely could have been called Hockey’s Royal Family, but wasn’t (as far as I can tell) was the Bentleys. There were 13 siblings in this family from Delisle, Sask. — seven girls, six boys — and all were good players. Five brothers played together for the Drumheller Miners and three played in the NHL in the 1940s and ‘50s.

Max skated for Chicago, Toronto, and New York from 1940-54, led the league in scoring two years in a row, and won the Hart Trophy in 1946. Doug played for Chicago and New York from 1939-54, led the league in goals twice and in points once. Reg’s NHL career only lasted 11 games in 1943, but during that time he joined Max and Doug on the league’s first all-brother line.

Another brother, Wyatt (Scoop), played professionally in the minors, and two more, Jack and Roy, played senior hockey, as did their cousins Marshall and Wally.

In Frank Boucher’s 1973 autobiography, When the Rangers Were Young, patriarch Bill Bentley credited his children’s hockey success to milking cows: “Milkin’ builds up their wrists.” He added: “The [Bentley sisters] had a hockey team when they were kids, and they could beat the blisters off the boys nine times out of ten.”

In addition, Max Bentley’s son Lynn played junior, senior, and briefly professionally. Doug’s son, Doug Jr., had a short pro career and longer senior career. Roy’s son Bev was a goaltender in the pro WHL for many years.

Updated Jan. 30, 2025 to add the quotes from Frank Boucher’s book.