A Brief History of NHL

How it went from a three team league to one of the biggest hockey leagues in the world

The NHL is widely followed in North America. The NHL pits the best hockey teams that the USA and Canada have to offer against each other.

Some of the current teams in the NHL can trace their ancestry all the way back to 1909 when the first professional hockey league was founded in North America.

The history of the NHL is separated into 4 eras:

• Founding (1917–1942)
• Original Six (1942–1967)
• Expansion era (1967–1992)
• Modern era (1992–present)

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Founding (1917–1942)

North America's first professional hockey league - the NHA (National Hockey Association) - was founded in 1909. Within a year, it had put together a league of 8 professional hockey teams.

The NHA existed for 8 seasons before some of the owners of the league fell out with 4 of the teams and their coaching staff. After a meeting to dismiss one of the owners failed, it was voted that the league should be suspended. This happened in early 1917.

By the end of 1917, the NHL had been founded. The 4 former NHA teams had started their own league. One of the teams, The Quebec Bulldogs, was unable to play for the first 2 years, during that time the NHL was a 3 team league. All of the original teams in the NHL were Canadian.

The early years of the NHL were very eventful. Within the first two years, one of the stadiums had burnt down, one of the teams had folded, a new team had been created, and the Spanish Flu outbreak had forced them to cancel one of their first major competitions. 

It was decided in the first year of the NHL that the teams would join the conference to compete for a trophy called the Stanley Cup - this is the trophy that today's teams also compete for. The first Stanley Cup winners from the NHL were the Toronto Arenas. They defeated the Vancouver Millionaires in 1918 final.

Original Six (1942–1967)

The NHL continued to play throughout the First World War and then carried on growing, up until the Great Depression. The financial downturn hurt a lot of teams, a few of whom folded during this period. The Great Depression was closely followed by the Second World War. This did not stop the NHL but it did cause more teams to fold.

By the end of the Second World War, there were only 6 teams left in the NHL - the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. These teams are now referred to as the Original Six.

In 1948, Larry Kwong became the first person of color to play in the NHL when he joined the New York Rangers. 10 years later, Willie O'Ree became the first black NHL player.

Expansion era (1967–1992)

In the early 1960s, there were a few other hockey leagues that were starting to take off. The NHL was interested in starting to televise their games but were worried this wouldn't happen if they weren't the biggest league around.

So, they began adding teams rapidly. The first wave of new teams included 6 American franchises, which upset the Canadian fans of the league. To prevent the league from splitting into two, the NHL started two more teams on the Canada-US border. They then started teams in New York and Atlanta when the WHA (World Hockey Association) showed interest in moving into those areas. Finally, they added a Kansas City and a Washington team in 1974 - bringing the league to a total of 18 teams.

Modern era (1992–present)

The three major issues of the NHL's modern era have been player pay, player safety, and the NHL's lack of support for women in hockey.

In 2010, 13 former NHL teams sued the NHL for negligence over the league's concussion safety rules.

There have been 4 player pay strikes in the NHL since 1992. Players were unhappy that they were receiving an unfair share of the NHL's profits.

In 2019, the NHL hired its first female referee and in 2016 Dawn Braid became the first full-time female coach in the NHL.

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