The Original 6

The History behind America's most competitive hockey league, the National Hockey League (NHL).

The "Original 6" teams of the NHL,
(From right clockwise) The Detroit Redwings,
The Boston Bruins, The Toronto Maple Leafs,
The Montreal Canadians, The Chicago Blackhawks,
and the New York Rangers.

The NHL was born in, you guessed it, Canada. The NHL wasn't the most prominent league at the time though; it competed with the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and the Western Canada Hockey League to win the Stanley Cup that we still know and love today. The NHL came to the U.S. in 1924 with the founding of the Boston Bruins. In 1942, the Original Six were formed, which many consider to be the real founding of the NHL that we know today. After the Bruins brought the NHL to the United States in 1924, 5 other teams (2 from Canada and 3 from the U.S.) joined the NHL to make the first 6 teams in the league which were located in Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and New York. Between 1924 and 2000, teams were being added to the league to form the 30 team NHL that exists today.

Beginning in 1972, the NHL was facing some problems due to the formation of the World Hockey Association (WHA) in Canada. The WHA was debatably more competitive than the NHL and some players began leaving the NHL for the WHA. In an attempt to with these players back, the NHL kept adding more teams but the players remained in the WHA. Due to financial problems within the WHA, the NHL ended up buying the more competitive teams from the WHA and they were admitted into the NHL, successfully bringing all the good players back to the NHL and making it the dominant league in North America once more. Up until last year, the NHL had little competition for players as players from Russia, Sweden, Canada, and all competitive hockey countries came to the NHL. With the NHL lockout this season, a lot of good players have gone to European leagues, mainly the KHL of Russia. When the NHL lockout ends, the league could struggle to get players back once again.