The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional
ice hockey league covering North America with a total of 32 teams: 25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is the premier ice hockey league in the world offering fierce competition and attracting millions of hockey fans every season.
📜 NHL History
The NHL was formed in 1917 after the National Hockey Association (NHA) ceased competing in the Stanley Cup which was then an interleague competition until the NHL was the last remaining league participating by 1926.
Originally, the NHL consisted of 4 teams and was entirely based in Canada - hence the name “National”. In 1924, the league expanded into the United States when the Boston Bruins joined. From 1942 to 1967, the league had 6 teams who are still collectively referred to as the “Original 6”: Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Detroit Red Wings. In 1967, the league doubled in size and then continued to grow to 18 teams by 1974, 21 teams in 1979, and 30 teams by 2000. The Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken joined in 2017 and 2021 respectively making them the 31st and 32nd teams to join the league. Before the 2024-25 season, the Arizona Coyotes franchise was divided in half and a new team was formed in the shape of Utah.
💯 NHL Format & Scoring
Despite its origins in Canada, the majority of the current 32 NHL teams play in the United States (25) with just 7 north of the border. The NHL season is divided into preseason games (September and early October), a
regular season (early October through early to mid-April), and a postseason (the
Stanley Cup playoffs). The league is separated into a Western Conference (split into Central and Pacific Divisions) and an Eastern Conference (split into Atlantic and Metropolitan Divisions).
During the
regular season, each team plays 82 games. Teams from each conference play 28 games in their own division (4 against each of their 7 divisional opponents) and 24 games against the 8 opponents in the other division in their conference (3 games against every team).
In NHL
regular season games, a win is worth 2 points, losing in overtime or a shootout is 1 point, and a loss in regulation time is 0 points. At the end of the season, the team with the most points across all divisions wins the Presidents’ Trophy and the highest scorer in each division is crowned division champion. From each conference, 8 teams qualify for the
NHL playoffs (the top 3 teams in each division plus the 2 conference teams with the next highest number of points) which is an elimination tournament where 2 teams play against each other to win a best-of-seven series to advance to the next round. Once each conference is down to just 1 team, the 2 conference champions proceed to the
Stanley Cup Finals.
The ultimate annual prize is the Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America.
