, a women's ice hockey team of the 1920s, with one player (at upper-left) listed as playing the rover position In the late 19th century and early 20th century, ice hockey consisted of seven positions: the
goaltender, two
defencemen, one rover, and three
forwards. Unlike the others, who had set positions, the rover went where needed, much as a
midfielder in
association football might. As the skill level of players increased, the need to have a rover decreased. Shortly after it was formed in 1910, the
National Hockey Association (NHA) decided to exclude the rover. The league's successor, the
National Hockey League (NHL), did the same in
1917. However, the
Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), formed in 1911, kept the rover. The
Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL) considered, but did not adopt, use of the rover position when it was founded in 1921. Newspapers of the era often differentiated between the two forms of the game as "seven-man hockey" and "six-man hockey". As the NHA and later NHL did not have a rover, but the PCHA did, a compromise was made during
Stanley Cup matches, which, at the time, was a
challenge cup. Games would alternate between the NHA/NHL rules and PCHA versions, allowing each team an advantage and disadvantage during games. The first
Olympic ice hockey tournament, contested as part of the
1920 Summer Olympics, used a rover, but the position was eliminated for subsequent games. In 1923, the PCHA decided to drop the rover position, as it was seen to be crowding the ice and therefore reducing the speed of play. Moreover, due to financial competition with the NHL, the added expense of a seventh starter was burdensome. The rover has remained absent from professional ice hockey, and other levels of play. ==Notable players of the position==