In 1926, Calder first arranged a co-operation agreement with the new American Hockey Association (AHA), then broke it upon learning that Livingstone owned the Chicago Cardinals franchise. He declared that several Cardinals players belonged to the NHL's Chicago franchise (the Black Hawks), or other teams, and arranged for the ouster of Livingstone from the AHA. Livingstone would give up on professional hockey and return to amateur hockey. When the AHA later attempted to play for the Stanley Cup, Calder declared it an "outlaw league," but he happily accepted James E. Norris, who owned the AHA's Chicago Shamrocks, into the NHL to bail out the struggling Detroit Cougars franchise. The Cougars were renamed the Detroit Red Wings upon Norris' acquisition of them.
