The St. Louis Braves were a minor league hockey club located in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

. The team originated as the Syracuse Braves in the Eastern Professional Hockey League

Eastern Professional Hockey League

The Eastern Professional Hockey League was a minor professional ice hockey league that operated primarily in Ontario and Quebec from 1959 to 1963....

's final season of 1962–63. The team was moved to St. Louis mid-season, and continued in the new Central Hockey League after the EPHL ceased operations. They continued as an affiliate of the Chicago Black Hawks

Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...

 from 1963 and 1967. The team played its home games at the St. Louis Arena

St. Louis Arena

The St. Louis Arena was an indoor arena located in St. Louis, Missouri, that stood from 1929 to 1999...

, off Highway 40

Interstate 64

Interstate 64 is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Its western terminus is at I-70, U.S. 40, and U.S. 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern terminus is at an interchange with I-264 and I-664 at Bowers Hill in Chesapeake, Virginia. As I-64 is concurrent with...

 across from Forest Park

Forest Park (St. Louis)

Forest Park is a public park located in western part of the city of St. Louis, Missouri. It is a prominent civic center and covers . The park, which opened in 1876 more than a decade after its proposal, has hosted several significant events, including the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 and...

. They were the last minor-league hockey club to call St. Louis home prior to the arrival

1967 NHL expansion

The National Hockey League undertook a major expansion for the 1967–68 season, adding six new franchises to double the size of the league. This marked the first change in the composition of the league since 1942, when the Brooklyn Americans folded. Thus, the expansion ended the era of the Original...

 of the NHL

National Hockey League

The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

's Blues, in the fall of 1967. At that time, the franchise was moved to Dallas, Texas

Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

 and became the Dallas Black Hawks

Dallas Black Hawks

The Dallas Black Hawks were a minor-league professional ice hockey team in Dallas, Texas. They were a member of the Central Hockey League and played home games at State Fair Coliseum....

, who played 15 seasons until their demise in 1982.