Born in Shawville Quebec and nicknamed the "The Shawville Express" because of it, Frank Finnigan spent parts of 10 seasons with the Ottawa Senators starting in 1923 and played a role in the franchises return to the National Hockey League in 1992.
Finnigan first joined the club late in the 1923-24 campaign when he signed on as a free agent and played two games with the club. Finnigan spent the next seven seasons with the Senators, twice scoring 20 goals and winning a Stanley Cup in 1927.
In 1931 Finnigan joined the Toronto Maple Leafs via the Dispersal Draft and captured his second Cup title that spring when he scored five points in seven games en route to the championship.
He began his second tour of duty with the Senators the next year and spent the next two years there before transferring with the team to St. Louis for the 1934-35 season. Finnigan spent 34 games with the St. Louis Eagles before he was sold to the Maple Leafs.
The rest of that campaign and all of the next two were spent with the Maple Leafs before Finnigan retired in 1937.
When a movement began to bring back the Senators in the early 1990's Finnigan was recruited as a living link to the team's illustrious past. Though Finnigan died in 1991 before he could see the Senators return to the ice and the National Hockey League he was honoured in the season-opener in October of 1992 when the new Ottawa management hoisted Finnigan's #8 to the rafters as a tribute to the former star.
