National Hockey League History
The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional sports organization of hockey teams in Canada and the United States. It is the leading professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the major professional sports leagues of North America.
Originally part of the Canadian National Hockey Association, the National Hockey League was founded in 1917 in Montreal, Canada, after a series of disputes within the NHA between Edward J. Livingstone and the owners of other teams led to its establishment.
The charters members of the league were the Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Wanderers, the Ottawa Senators, the Quebec Bulldogs and the newly-renamed Toronto Arenas.
Even though the NHL struggled wtih financial difficulties during its first decade, the league's teams were nontheless very successful on the ice. The NHL's teams won the Stanley Cup seven out of the first nine years.
The league had also extended into the United States with the Boston Bruins in the 1924-25 season; the New York Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1925-26 season; and the New York Rangers, Detroit Cougars (now known as the Red Wings), and the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1926-27 season.
In 1972, the World Hockey Association was created. Although it never competed for the Stanley Cup, its status as a potential rival to the NHL did not go unnoticed. In response, the NHL decided to rush its own expansion plans by adding the New York Islanders, the Atlanta Flames, and the Kansas City Scouts, along with the Washington Capitals two years later. The two leagues fought for the services and attention of hockey players and fans until the WHA folded in 1979. By 1997, the Oilers were the last remaining original WHA franchise still playing in the city where they began in the NHL.
In the beginning of the 1990s, the NHL was further with five new expansion franchises. First came the San Jose Sharks; a season later the Ottawa Senators would join the NHL along with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In 1993, the league added an additional two teams: the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and the Florida Panthers. At the turn of the century, the NHL added yet another four teams: the Nashville Predators, the Atlanta Thrashers, the Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Blue Jackets for a total of 30 teams.