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National Hockey League

"NHL" redirects here. For other uses, see NHL (disambiguation).

National Hockey League
Ligue nationale de hockey
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2024–25 NHL season
SportIce hockey
FoundedNovember 26, 1917 (1917-11-26),
Montreal, Quebec, Canada[1]
First season1917–18
CommissionerGary Bettman
No. of teams32
CountriesCanada (7 teams)
United States (25 teams)
HeadquartersOne Manhattan West
395 Ninth Avenue
New York City, New York, U.S.
ContinentNorth America
Most recent
champion(s)		Florida Panthers
(1st title)
(2023–24)
Most titlesMontreal Canadiens
(25 titles)[nb 1]
TV partner(s)
Streaming partner(s)
Official websitewww.nhl.com Edit this at Wikidata

The National Hockey League (NHL); French: Ligue nationale de hockey [liɡ nɑsjɔnal də ɔkɛ] (LNH), is a professional ice hockey league in North America consisting of 32 teams – 25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America,[5] is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered to be the top-ranked professional ice hockey league in the world,[6] with players from 17 countries as of the 2023–24 season.[7] The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) also views the Stanley Cup as one of the "most important championships available to the sport".[8] The NHL is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.

The National Hockey League was organized at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal on November 26, 1917, after the suspension of operations of its predecessor organization, the National Hockey Association (NHA), which had been founded in 1909 at Renfrew, Ontario.[9] The NHL immediately took the NHA's place as one of the leagues that contested for the Stanley Cup in an annual interleague competition before a series of league mergers and foldings left the NHL as the only league competing for the Stanley Cup in 1926.

At its inception, the NHL had four teams, all in Canada, thus the adjective "National" in the league's name. The league expanded to the United States in 1924, when the Boston Bruins joined, and has since consisted of both American and Canadian teams. From 1942 to 1967, the NHL had only six teams, collectively nicknamed the "Original Six". The league added six new teams to double its size as a result of the 1967 NHL expansion, then increased to 18 teams by 1974, and to 21 teams due to the 1979 NHL expansion. Between 1991 and 2000, the NHL further expanded to 30 teams. It added its 31st and 32nd teams in 2017 and 2021, respectively. Salt Lake City was awarded an expansion franchise in 2024 as it acquired the hockey assets of the Arizona Coyotes, which were deactivated, thus maintaining the total number of teams at 32.

The NHL is the fifth-highest grossing professional sport league in the world by revenue, after the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the Premier League (PL).[10] The league's headquarters have been in Manhattan since 1989, when the head office moved from Montreal.[11] There have been four league-wide work stoppages in NHL history, all occurring after 1992.[12]

The NHL's regular season is typically held from October to April, with each team playing 82 games. Following the conclusion of the regular season, 16 teams advance to the Stanley Cup playoffs, a four-round tournament that runs into June to determine the league champion. Since the league's founding in 1917, the Montreal Canadiens have won the most combined NHL titles with 25, winning three NHL championship series before the league took full exclusivity of the Stanley Cup in 1926, and 22 Stanley Cups afterwards.[nb 1] The reigning league champions are the Florida Panthers, who defeated the Edmonton Oilers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals.

  1. ^ Kreiser, John (November 25, 2017). "NHL turns 100 years old". NHL.com. Archived from the original on April 4, 2023. Retrieved March 29, 2018. Beginning on Nov. 24, 1917, the NHA's directors, George Kendall (better known as George Kennedy) of the Montreal Canadiens, Sam Lichtenhein of the Montreal Wanderers, Tom Gorman of Ottawa, M.J. Quinn of Quebec and NHA secretary-treasurer Frank Calder, held three days of meetings at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal and decided to start over. Gorman, seconded by Kendall, proposed, 'That the Canadiens, Wanderers, Ottawa and Quebec Hockey Clubs unite to comprise the National Hockey League.' The motion was carried, and the NHL was officially formed on Nov. 26, 1917.
  2. ^ "Rogers scores national NHL TV rights for $5.2B". CBC.ca. November 26, 2013. Archived from the original on October 8, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  3. ^ a b "NHL, ESPN, Disney reach groundbreaking seven-year rights deal". NHL.com (Press release). March 10, 2021. Archived from the original on April 4, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Rosen, Dan (April 27, 2021). "NHL, Turner Sports reach deal for games on TNT, TBS". NHL.com (Press release). Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  5. ^ Roarke, Shawn P. (March 12, 2017). "Stanley Cup has incredible history". NHL.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  6. ^ Marsh, James (2006). "National Hockey League". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on October 20, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2006.
  7. ^ "Active NHL Players Totals by Nationality ‑ 2023‑2024 Stats". QuantHockey.com. Archived from the original on April 18, 2024. Retrieved November 5, 2023.
  8. ^ Podnieks, Andrew (March 25, 2008). "Triple Gold Goalies... not". International Ice Hockey Federation. Archived from the original on August 25, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2017.
  9. ^ The National Hockey League Official Record Book & Guide 2009 77th Edition, p. 9. New York: National Hockey League (2008)
  10. ^ Mathewson, TJ (March 7, 2019). "TV is biggest driver in global sport league revenue". GlobalSportMatters.com. Archived from the original on December 7, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
  11. ^ Todd, Jack (September 17, 2012). "Americans and Bettman have stolen Canada's game". Calgary Herald. Archived from the original on January 27, 2018. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
  12. ^ Eichelberger, Curtis (May 29, 2009). "NHL Borrows From NFL as It Pursues Bigger TV Contract". Bloomberg L.P. Archived from the original on March 26, 2010. Retrieved June 29, 2009.


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