The Prairie Hockey league was a professional minor hockey league that was formed following the sale of the major -league Western Hockey League to the National Hockey League. It played just two seasons, 1926-27 and 1927-28. The league was founded with five teams, but Calgary and Edmonton dropped out after one season, leaving just Saskatoon, Regina, and Moose Jaw for its second season.
The league's championship was known as the Merchants Casualty Cup. In 1926-27, Calgary and Saskatoon competed for the Cup, but could not agree upon a referee, so the series was never finished. Calgary was awarded the trophy by default.
Due to the lack of teams, that second season was played as two halves, with no playoffs. The original plan was to have the winner of each half play each other in the playoffs, but Saskatoon won both halves, making playoffs unnecessary.
Following the conclusion of the 1927-28 season, the Chicago Blackhawks purchased the entire Saskatoon Sheiks... [Click for more] team, presumably to stock their farm system with the players.
In late March, the owner of the Regina Capitals, Jack Webster, passed away.
There was still interest by Saskatoon in continuing as a three-team league in 1928-29. The Sheiks were financially successfully due to the sale of their players to the Chicago Blackhawks. However Regina and Moose Jaw were not interested, and Calgary and Edmonton decided to join the new Pacific Coast Hockey League - but the PCHL was too far away from Saskatoon for the Sheiks to participate. By October, most of the Prairie League players had been either sold to NHL teams or had signed with other professional teams, and the league simply did not return for a third season.