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The Toronto St. Patricks were a professional men's ice hockey team which began playing in the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1919. The Toronto NHL franchise (league membership) had previously been held by the Arena Company (and the team called the "Arenas"), but despite winning the Stanley Cup the team was bankrupt and pulled out of the league after just two seasons. The rights to the Toronto franchise was purchased by a group of investors with links to an amateur club called the "St. Patricks". The new owners renamed the NHL franchise after the amateur club, and as the St. Patricks the team won the Stanley Cup in 1922. The name remained until 1927, when the franchise was sold to a partnership of Conn Smythe and other Torontonian investors and renamed the Toronto Maple Leafs.