History of the National Hockey League

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The classic NHL shield logo, used until the end of the 2004 lockout.
The classic NHL shield logo, used until the end of the 2004 lockout.

The History of the National Hockey League (NHL) is concerned with the professional sports organization composed of hockey teams in the United States and Canada from its founding in 1917.

Contents

[edit] The beginnings to The Original Six

The National Hockey League was founded in 1917 in Montreal after a series of disputes within the (Canadian) National Hockey Association (NHA). The first NHL season began in 1917-18 with five teams.

The primary conflict involved Toronto Blueshirts' owner Eddie Livingstone. An ongoing source of controversy among fellow NHA owners, he was often accused of exploiting loopholes in league regulations to create what some viewed as unfair advantages, and had particularly incited the wrath of owners when he merged his two Toronto teams (the Ontarios and the Blueshirts) after the latter had been deprived of its top players. Livingstone sometimes offered contracts to other teams' members not to play hockey, and once campaigned to kick the Montreal Wanderers out of the league after the team tried to lure two of his top Blueshirts players. Throughout his battles with owners, Livingstone repeatedly threatened to start a rival league in the United States.

This article is part of the Evolution of the NHL series.

In its final season (1916-17), the National Hockey Association was comprised of six teams: The Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, Toronto Blueshirts, and an army team from the Toronto-based 228th Battalion. The team owners met in the Windsor Hotel in Montreal to consider the league's future on February 11, 1917, a day after members of the 228th Battalion, the most popular NHA team, were called into World War I action. Livingstone, unable to attend the meeting because of illness, was shocked to learn that owners had all agreed to withdraw from the NHA, to effectively ejecting Livingstone and the Blueshirts.

After the resignation of NHA president and Livingstone ally Frank Robinson, Livingstone stopped attending league meetings and sent a lawyer to represent his interests. When owners convened on September 29, 1917, they demanded that Livingstone sell the Blueshirts within five days. Livingstone then negotiated a deal in which the Toronto Arena Gardens would take control of the Blueshirts' daily business, with Livingstone to eventually regain control if the NHA continued operations. In response, NHA owners met at Montreal's Windsor Hotel on November 26, 1917, and formed the National Hockey League, with the Canadiens, Wanderers, Senators, Bulldogs and a new franchise, the Toronto Arenas, as founding members.

The NHL endured a rocky inaugural season in 1917-18, starting with the temporary shuttering of the Bulldogs. On January 2, 1918, the Westmount Arena in Montreal, home to the Wanderers and Canadiens, was destroyed in a fire. The Wanderers, already a shadow of its former self, folded in the wake of the fire, ending one of the most storied franchises in the early years of Canadian professional hockey. With the Bulldogs and Wanderers out, the NHL operated with just three teams for the remainder of its opening year, and through the second season. Though Livingstone had been shut out, one of his NHA ideas — a proposal for a split regular season — was adopted by the new league and integrated into its playoff system. The Toronto Arenas became the first NHL winner of the Stanley Cup, the annual trophy awarded since 1893 to the Canadian hockey champion. A furious Livingstone, meanwhile, failed in his attempt to collect a share of profits from the Arenas, then sued the team and the NHL. The dispute lingered through the 1930s, with the Arenas since renamed the Toronto St. Patricks and ultimately the Toronto Maple Leafs. History has looked back on Livingstone and the NHL's formation with a sense of irony: The man whom league owners had worked so hard to exclude was, in the words of Canadiens owner George Kennedy, the same figure that "made [the NHL] a real league".

Though the league struggled to stay in business during its first decade, NHL teams were quite successful on the ice, winning seven of the eight the Stanley Cups awarded during its first nine years. (The 1918-19 competition was cancelled because of the Spanish Flu epidemic that had hit Seattle). By 1926, having increased player salaries to a level that couldn't be matched by other Canadian leagues, the NHL was alone in Stanley Cup competition. The league had also expanded into the United States, with the Boston Bruins in 1924, the New York Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1925 and the New York Rangers, Detroit Cougars (later to become the Red Wings), and Chicago Black Hawks (later spelled Blackhawks) in 1926. Canadian additions included the Montreal Maroons and Hamilton Tigers.

By the end of the 1930-31 season, the NHL featured a total of 10 teams. However, the Great Depression took a toll on the league; teams such as the Pirates and the Americans folded, and even the fabled Ottawa Senators were forced to fold after moving to St. Louis because of financial difficulties. With these developments and the onset of World War II, the NHL was reduced to six teams during its 25th anniversary year of (1942) – six teams still known today, if somewhat inaccurately, as the Original Six: The Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Red Wings, Bruins, Rangers, and Black Hawks. World War II had provided many players their first chance to play professional hockey, but after the war, many found themselves relegated to minor leagues.

During the stretch of the "Original Six", four of the six teams were owned or partially owned by members of the Norris family, and it was said that "NHL" stood for "Norris House League". However, that would all change in the mid-1960s.

[edit] Expansion: 1967 and beyond

By the 1960s, minor leagues, especially in the western United States, were fielding teams that were arguably competitive with the NHL's teams. The rise of the Western Hockey League, which was rumoured to be planning to transform into a major league and challenge for the Stanley Cup, spurred the NHL in 1967 to undertake its first expansion since the 1920s. Six new teams were added to the NHL roster, and placed in their own newly-created division. They were the Philadelphia Flyers, St. Louis Blues, Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Oakland Seals, and Pittsburgh Penguins. Three years later, the NHL added the Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres as franchises.

In 1972, the World Hockey Association (WHA) was formed. Though it never challenged for the Stanley Cup, its status as a viable NHL rival was unquestionable. In response, the NHL accelerated its own expansion plans by adding the New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames that year to block WHA franchises from newly constructed arenas in those markets, along with the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals two years later. The dilution of the talent pool, however, caused the overall quality of play to suffer. That, along with continued financial instability that resulted in the relocation of two franchises for the 1976-77 season, caused a planned expansion for 1976 to Denver and Seattle to be cancelled. The two leagues fought for the services of players until a merger was agreed to following the 1978-79 season. The WHA folded, and four of the its remaining six teams joined the NHL as expansion teams: The Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers, and Winnipeg Jets. As of 2006, the Oilers were the last of the WHA teams still playing in the city where they began: the Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche in 1996, the Jets moved to Phoenix as the Coyotes a year later, and the Whalers became the Carolina Hurricanes in 1998.

In the early 1990s the NHL expanded further with five new franchises. The San Jose Sharks debuted in 1991, a season later the Ottawa Senators would join the NHL along with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In 1993, the NHL added an additional two teams, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Florida Panthers. In a bit of controversy, these teams were added following a courting of Commissioner Gary Bettman by Disney CEO Michael Eisner and businessman Wayne Huizenga. Approaching the new millennium, the NHL added another four teams; the Nashville Predators (1998), Atlanta Thrashers (1999), Minnesota Wild, and Columbus Blue Jackets (both added in 2000) bringing the total to 30 teams. Since 2000, there has been little discussion or indication of further expansion.

While the NHL has more teams in the United States than in Canada, the sport is dominated by Canadians, with over half of NHL players on the 2005-06 roster, having been born in Canada, though in the 1970s Canadians had accounted for roughly 95% of all NHL players.

[edit] Labour Issues

There have been three work stoppages in NHL history, all happening between 1992 and 2005.

The first was a strike by the National Hockey League Players Association in April 1992 which lasted for 10 days, but the strike was settled quickly and all affected games were rescheduled.

A lockout at the start of the 1994-95 forced the league to reduce the schedule from 84 games to just 48, with the teams playing only intra-conference games during the reduced season. The resulting collective bargaining agreement was set for renegotiation in 1998 and extended to September 15, 2004.

Negotiations to replace the contract that expired in 2004 turned into one of the most contentious collective bargaining sessions in the history of professional sports. The league vowed to install what it dubbed "cost certainty" for its teams, but the National Hockey League Players Association countered that the move was little more than a euphemism for a salary cap, which the union initially said it would not accept. With no new agreement in hand when the existing contract expired on September 15, 2004, league commissioner Gary Bettman announced a lockout of the players union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office, causing the NHL to lose an entire season.

A new collective bargaining agreement was ratified in July 2005 with a term of six years with an option of extending the collective bargaining agreement for an additional year at the end of the term, allowing the NHL to resume as of the 2005-06 season.

[edit] Post Lockout

On October 5, 2005, the first post-lockout NHL season got under way with 15 games. This was the first time in league history that all teams played on the same day. Of those 15 games, 11 were in front of sell out crowds. In the 2005-06 season, the NHL as a whole saw its attendance rise from the totals of 2004, as most teams were able to retain the majority of season ticket holders. In particular, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes, and Buffalo Sabres all saw large gains. However, the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Islanders, St. Louis Blues, and Washington Capitals all had flat attendance. But other teams had either rises or a depletion in attendance from the previous NHL season.

[edit] References

  • McFarlane, Brian (1997). Brian McFarlane's History of Hockey. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing Inc.. ISBN 1-57167-145-5. 

[edit] See also

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