Francis Alexis Patrick (December 21, 1885 – June 29, 1960) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, head coach, manager, and executive.

It was in the PCHA that Patrick would introduce many innovations to hockey that remain today, including the blue line, the penalty shot, and tracking assists, among others.

In 1904 he made his debut in the top Canadian league, though was limited as he attended McGill University and then moved west to British Columbia with his family in 1907 to establish a lumber company.

The Patrick brothers returned to Central Canada in 1909 when they signed with the Renfrew Creamery Kings for one season.

The Patrick family sold their lumber company in 1910 and used the proceeds to establish the PCHA, setting up teams in Vancouver, Victoria, and New Westminster.

Patrick also served as president of the PCHA for nearly its entire existence, and in this role introduced many rules that helped modernize the game, making it both faster and more entertaining.

[1] Drummondville was predominantly French-speaking and Catholic at the time, making the Anglophone and Methodist Patrick family a minority in the town.

[a] It is not clear why he was born in Ottawa, which was roughly a five-hour train ride from Drummondville at the time; biographer Eric Whitehead suggested Grace likely needed some specialized care for the birth as the reason for the relocation.

[4] In 1887 the family moved 9 miles (14 km) to Carmell Hill, where Joe bought a half-interest in a general store with William Mitchell.

[15][c] In April 1908 Patrick graduated from McGill with a Bachelor of Arts degree and was planning to travel west immediately to join his family and work for the new company.

[20] Several teams began to send offers to both Patrick brothers, who had decided to return east for the winter and play hockey there.

[24] Taylor would later recall he was quite impressed by the brothers knowledge and views, stating that "Frank in particular had an amazing grasp of the science of hockey, and they were both already dreaming about changes that would improve the game".

While it did not have an ice-making plant at the time, Patrick was interested enough to make sketches of the arena, and studied it in detail while he was in New York.

[34] With this money Joe solicited ideas from his family on what to invest in, and Patrick suggested they establish their own hockey league, one based in BC and that they controlled.

[35] The initial plan was to place teams in large cities in Western Canada, with one each in Vancouver and Victoria (both in BC), and one in Edmonton and Calgary (both in Alberta).

[43] To help bolster attendance and improve his team for the 1912–13 season, Patrick signed his former teammate in Renfrew, Cyclone Taylor, who was considered one of the biggest names in hockey at the time.

[50] For a third year in a row Vancouver finished second in the league, with Patrick sixth overall in scoring (second on the team), recording 20 points while playing all 16 games in the 1913–14 season.

[61] Patrick returned to a full-time playing position for 1916–17 to replace Lloyd Cook, who joined the Spokane Canaries.

Vancouver defeated Seattle in the playoffs and won the league championship and a chance to play for the Stanley Cup.

[71] In order to have more time for his league duties and other business affairs, Patrick hired Cook as playing-manager for the 1919–20 season.

In this role he served under NHL president Frank Calder, overseeing on-ice officials and enforcing rules.

[84] Prior to the start of the 1933–34 season Patrick announced he would be working to cut down on the violence endemic in the sport and see stronger punishment for infractions.

He also implemented some new rules, including a crease around the goal; allowing players to stop flying pucks with their hands; and a major penalty for touching an official in any manner.

It is not clear why he did so, but historian J. Andrew Ross has suggested Patrick was expecting to take over from Calder as president of the league in short order, and left when that was not going to happen.

[94] He was hired by the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL in April 1940 to work as the business manager of the team, however conflicts with the team's manager Tommy Gorman led to Patrick leaving after a few months in 1941 when he took a up a position with the Canadian Car and Foundry, which was owned by the same group that owned the Canadiens.

His Hockey Hall of Fame biography notes that he is "credited with 22 changes that remain in the NHL rulebook".

[101] Among the innovations they introduced was officially tracking assists and allowing goaltenders to stop a puck any way they wanted (previously they had to remain on their feet).

[104] The Patricks are also credited with introducing numbers to player sweaters for identification purposes (starting in 1911–12),[105] but this had been had also been experimented with in the NHA at the same time.

As early as January 1916, the Patrick brothers talked of forming a women's league to complement the PCHA and occupy dates for their arenas in Vancouver and Victoria.

The league never formed but in January 1917, the Vancouver News-Advertiser reported that wives of the Seattle Metropolitans had assembled a team.