Russell Bowie League Strength Analysis
As mentioned the other day, player movement was rampant in the first decade of the 20th century. The first pro leagues were popping up (and folding) and leagues were more localized. This is an overview meant to provide context to the strength of competition Russell Bowie faced during his great career.
1899: A teenage rookie, Bowie was 3rd in goals in the CAHL. The Eastern-based talent was all consolidated in this league. The great Winnipeg players Dan Bain (Hall of Famer) and Tony Gingras were in Manitoba.
1900: Bowie was 2nd in goals in the CAHL. He was roughly equal with HOFers Harry Trihey and Bruce Stuart. Again, there were no competing major leagues in the East. Winnipeg players were of course in their own league.
1901: Bowie won the scoring title by a huge margin in this season. Again, talent was consolidated, but the league seems a bit thin in terms of star power. Winnipeg won the Stanley Cup Challenge against the East.
1902: Bowie finished 2nd in the goals race behind Art Hooper, so not as dominant this year. He finished ahead of Bruce Stuart, Jack Marshall, and Rat Westwick. Hall of Famers, but not notably great scorers. Winnipeg was again the challenger, but Dan Bain had retired. Fred Scanlan (HOF) now joined Gingras on that club.
1903: A solid scoring title win over Frank McGee, making his major league debut. Young Tom Phillips also played in the CAHL this season, but Bruce and Hod Stuart had departed for the Western Pennsylvania Pro League.
1904: Another big goal-scoring lead, 27-19 over second place. Things get murky this season. Ottawa and McGee left the league mid-season to join a new league, the FAHL. Jack Marshall and Jimmy Gardner were also in this league with the new Wanderers club. Tom Phillips was in the OHA. The Stuart brothers played with the Portage Lakes barnstorming pro team.
1905: Another 1st place in the scoring race, several goals ahead of his teammate Blair Russell. Art Ross, Moose Johnson, and the Patricks debuted in the CAHL this year. Ottawa and the Wanderers were again in the FAHL. The IPHL featured the Stuarts, along with young Didier Pitre and Bad Joe Hall.
1906: The FAHL folded, and the East was again consolidated in the newly formed ECAHA. Bowie battled with McGee and Harry Smith for the scoring title in a very close three-way race. Several stars remained in the IPHL, Cyclone Taylor now among them.
1907: Ernie Russell won the goal scoring title, narrowly beating Bowie. Both were far ahead of anyone else. Frank McGee had retired. Tom Phillips played with the Kenora Thistles Cup winner this season. Marty Walsh joined the other pros in the last season of the IPHL.
1908: The IPHL folded and several stars returned to Canada. Bowie tied Marty Walsh for the scoring title, Tom Phillips trailing behind them. Newsy Lalonde had entered the ranks of elite players; he played in the OHA this season.
Conclusions.
Bowie's long (for the era) career seemed to bridge two generations. The 1890's stars faded quickly around the turn of the century. 1901 and 1902 appear to be transition seasons, somewhat devoid of other great scorers beyond Bowie.
A new generation of great players began to emerge in 1903, spearheaded by McGee and Phillips. The formation of the FAHL and IPHL for 1904 and 1905 stripped a lot of talent away from the CAHL. In my estimation, this situation mirrors the 1970s era where the NHL had talent leave for the WHA, and there were also all-time great European players. Bowie's league was likely the weakest of the three in these two seasons.
1906 saw a return to a more conventional setup, and gives us a pretty good clue that Bowie and Frank McGee were probably on a equal footing as great scorers, and presumably would have been the previous two years as well, had they competed head to head. This season I would rate the CAHL on par with a typical NHA/PCHA season. 1907 is more or less the same, though McGee retiring and Phillips playing in Kenora undoubtedly removed scoring race competition.
1908 is about as close to a true consolidated season as we find in this time period. It's crucial to Bowie's case that he once again took a scoring title under this setup, tying with Marty Walsh and finishing ahead of Phillips.
Pros for Bowie's case:
-Longevity. Was on par with the last great players of the 19th century when he broke in, and he was on par with stars a decade later as Stanley Cup hockey transitioned from amateur to professional.
-Consistency. Regardless of how strong or weak his competition may have been, Bowie was at the top of the pile. He contended or won the scoring title every single season of his career.
-Teammate support. Bowie, as best as we can tell 100+ years later, did not have his scoring inflated by other great teammates. Blair Russell was the only great linemate he seems to have had. Montreal (AAA), Ottawa and later the Wanderers had superior depth and goaltending. Or at least, their depth players/goaltenders were eventually honored by the Hall of Fame, while Bowie's Victorias were largely a two-man show. In spite of this, they almost always had a winning record.
Cons:
-The raw numbers undoubtedly exaggerate his dominance over his peers. There are seasons where his league might not have even been 2nd-best in the sport.
-We seem to have encountered no evidence thus far that Bowie was anything besides an offensive player. It would be unfair to suspect he was a floater, but we can't really give him credit for anything beyond scoring goals either.
Where does he rank in this group?
In spite of the caveats presented, I believe he is still the best offensive player among this group. If Bowie had played in a modern, consolidated league, I feel it is reasonable to suppose he'd have been a top-5 scorer for the duration of his 10-year career. Crediting him with multiple Art Ross wins might be a stretch, but isn't beyond the realm of plausible either.
I feel that on the low end of things, he is comparable to Peter Stastny. Stastny was a consistently excellent offensive producer in his prime, played on good but not great teams that usually lacked defensive/goaltending support, and while he is generally considered a one-way player in the context of all-time greats, I haven't ever heard that he was outright bad at other aspects of the game. Stastny doesn't seem to have a lot of support for selection to the final list, but in my mind he does have a case as a borderline top 100 guy.
On the high end of the spectrum, Bowie holds his own in a comparison with Joe Malone. Again, most of the same parallels that he has with Stastny exist with Malone. Not a lot of great teammates, not a lot known about his overall game beyond offensive prowess, but that offense was exceptional for many years. Phantom Joe is on our list already, and I feel we treated him appropriately.
