The National Hockey League

The National Hockey League was created on November 26th, 1917 just before Christmas in Montreal. We can call it a holiday gift to sports lovers around the world; after all it has become one of the top sporting Leagues in the world and my personal favorite. It wasn’t an instant hit in the beginning; they struggled to stay in business for the first decade even though their teams were displaying amazing talent on the ice. For years, no other league was winning the Stanley Cup besides one team outside of the league in 1925. After 1926 NHL started to rapidly expand as the Boston Bruins, and Montreal Maroons entered the league. More teams from the U.S started to follow shortly after. These teams include: The New York Americans, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Rangers and the Chicago Black Hawks (Blackhawks). The Detroit Cougars (Red Wings) caped off the ten teams that joined the NHL. After the great Depression the original ten became the original six. These teams were: the Montreal Canadians, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Chicago Black Hawks, Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers; and it stayed that way for a quarter-century. In 1967 NHL had their second wave of new comers adding 6 more teams to their roster. Five years later the World Hockey Association was born and became the first rival for the NHL in decades.

This was an awakening for NHL as they started to expand more rapidly adding teams like the New York Islanders, and the Atlanta Flames. Soon the NHL crumbled the WHA and adopted the rest of their teams. Because of their overwhelming expansion, the NHL was split into two conferences in 1974. The Clarence Campbell made up the west and The Prince of Wales made of the east conference. Later these conferences were split yet again. The 1980s witnessed the beginning of NHL’s third large expansion. This expansion lasted 10 years and added a new team almost every few years. Nine new franchises in ten years make for a pretty successful decade. The San Jose Sharks, The Tampa Bay Lightening and Ottawa Senators entered in 1991. In 1993 the well known Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Florida Panthers entered the famous league. Five years later came the Nashville Predators, and in 1999 the NHL adopted the Minnesota Wild. By the Millennium the National Hockey League had a total of 30 teams.