Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The four teams that began the inaugural NHL season were the Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Wanderers, the original Ottawa Senators, and the Toronto Arenas.However, after completing four games, the Wanderers withdrew from the league due to their arena burning down, and the NHL continued that season and the next with only three 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.
This article is a list of teams that play in the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada: Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), the National Hockey League (NHL), and the Canadian Football League (CFL).
Map of relocated NHL teams before 2024. The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional men's ice hockey league, founded in 1917. [1] The NHL Board of Governors review and approve the relocation of any member club. [2] Each team appoints an individual or individuals to represent their team on the Board of Governors. [3]
The six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, [a] Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. After serving as the league's only teams for 25 seasons, they were joined by six new franchises in the 1967 NHL expansion. The Six are not the original teams of the NHL.
Since then, the NHL has grown from 30 to 32 teams with the addition of the Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken to the Western Conference. The COVID-19 pandemic was a major disruption to the league during the 2019–20, 2020–21 and 2021–22 seasons. The NHL played games without spectators in controlled conditions.
A postseason appearance drought is continued by not making the NHL playoffs after the regular season. Since the first round of the playoffs normally consists of eight series (sixteen teams) and there were thirty-two active teams in the NHL during the 2023–24 season, there are sixteen teams that did not make the most recent playoffs on this list.
When the WHA ceased operations in 1979, the NHL absorbed four of the league's teams, which brought the NHL to 21 teams, a figure that remained constant until the San Jose Sharks were added as an expansion franchise in 1991. Since then, the league has grown from 22 teams in 1992 to 32 today as the NHL spread its footprint across the United States.