National Hockey League

National Hockey League
Ligue nationale de hockey (French)

Current season, competition or edition: 2024–25 NHL season
Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	November 26, 1917 (106 years ago) (1917-11-26), Montreal, Quebec, Canada[1]
Inaugural season	1917–18
Commissioner	Gary Bettman
No. of teams	32
Countries	Canada (7 teams) United States (25 teams)
Headquarters	1185 6th Ave New York, NY 10036.
Most recent champion(s)	Florida Panthers (1st title)
Most titles	Montreal Canadiens (25 titles)[nb 1]
TV partner(s)	Canada: Sportsnet/CBC/TVA Sports[nb 2] United States: ABC/ESPN[2] TNT/TBS[3] NHL Network International: See list
Official website	NHL.com

The National Hockey League or NHL, is the highest-level ice hockey league in the world. It has 32 teams - 7 from Canada and 25 from the United States. The championship trophy is the Stanley Cup.

The NHL were founded in 1917. There were five original teams in 1917:

• Montreal Canadiens
• Montreal Wanderers
• Ottawa Senators (later St. Louis Eagles; not related to the current Ottawa Senators)
• Quebec Bulldogs (later Hamilton Tigers)
• Toronto Arenas (later St. Patricks, then Maple Leafs)

They played 22 games a year. The Wanderers had to stop playing in the first year because their arena burned down. Over the years some teams died out, and others were created: the Boston Bruins, New York Americans, Montreal Maroons, Pittsburgh Pirates (later Philadelphia Quakers), New York Rangers, Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Cougars (later Falcons, then Red Wings).

Some teams folded during the Great Depression, so by 1942 there were only six teams:

• Boston Bruins
• Chicago Blackhawks
• Detroit Red Wings
• Montreal Canadiens
• New York Rangers
• Toronto Maple Leafs

There were only these six teams for 25 years, so they became known as the "Original Six".

By the 1940s, they were playing 50 games a year, but this increased slowly to 80 games by the 1970s. In 1967, the league increased to 12 teams. By 1979 it had 21 teams, and today it has 32. Some of the teams that no longer exist are the Oakland Seals, Minnesota North Stars (now the Dallas Stars), Winnipeg Jets (now the dormant Arizona Coyotes), Kansas City Scouts (which became the Colorado Rockies and are now the New Jersey Devils), Hartford Whalers (now the Carolina Hurricanes), Quebec Nordiques (now the Colorado Avalanche) and Atlanta Thrashers (now the current Winnipeg Jets).

Today they play 82 games a year, plus four rounds of playoffs. The players make a lot of money (many make over a million dollars a year). Because they could make so much money, many Europeans came over to North America to play in the NHL. Today almost all the world's best hockey players are in the NHL.

1. ↑ Kreiser, John (November 25, 2017). "NHL turns 100 years old". NHL.com. 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. ↑ "NHL, ESPN, Disney reach groundbreaking seven-year rights deal". NHL.com (Press release). March 10, 2021. Retrieved March 29, 2021.
3. ↑ Rosen, Dan (April 27, 2021). "NHL, Turner Sports reach deal for games on TNT, TBS". NHL.com (Press release). Retrieved April 28, 2021.