The National Hockey League emerged from a landscape of professional hockey leagues vying for control of the emerging sport in the early 20th century. To understand the origin of the NHL, one must look back to the National Hockey Association (NHA), which operated from 1909 to 1917. The NHA featured teams that would become the foundation of the modern league, and their decisions regarding contracts and player movement directly led to the creation of a new governing body. The NHL was founded in 1917 by the owners of these NHA teams, effectively a league breakaway rather than a completely new invention, making the lineage of the "Original Six" traceable to specific franchises established long before the first puck was dropped.
The Founding Members of the NHL
On November 26, 1917, the NHL was established in Montreal, Quebec, at the Windsor Hotel. The meeting was called to resolve the chaos of the NHA, which had been reduced to three teams after a dispute with Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone. The four remaining NHA owners—Sam Lichtenhein of the Montreal Wanderers, George Kennedy of the Montreal Canadiens, Mike Quinn of the Quebec Bulldogs, and Livingstone’s temporary suspension—voted to suspend the NHA and form a new league. The result was a four-team league for the 1917–18 season, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, and Quebec Bulldogs comprising the inaugural roster of the National Hockey League.
The Montreal Canadiens
Of the four founding teams, the Montreal Canadiens are the only franchise that has operated continuously since the league’s inception. Founded by J. Ambrose O’Brien of the O’Brien family, who sought to create a francophone team to rival the anglophone Wanderers, the Canadiens have become the symbol of longevity in the NHL. They won their first Stanley Cup in 1916 while playing in the NHA and secured their first NHL championship in 1924. The team’s survival through fires, depressions, and relocations of rival clubs solidified their status as a historic pillar of the league.
The Montreal Wanderers and Ottawa Senators
The Montreal Wanderers, representing the English-speaking side of Montreal, played their first game on December 19, 1917, but their NHL journey was tragically short. A fire destroyed their home rink, the Westmount Arena, just weeks into the season, leaving the club with no venue and forcing them to fold after only four games. Meanwhile, the Ottawa Senators—then representing Canada’s capital—were a dominant force in the early years. They won the Stanley Cup in 1920, 1921, and 1923, establishing a standard of excellence that defined the league’s early decade.
Expansion and the "Original Six" Era
The league remained a four-team entity for two seasons before adding the Toronto Arenas (later St. Patricks, then Maple Leafs) for the 1918–19 season. The first major wave of expansion occurred in 1924, when the Boston Bruins joined as the first American team, followed by the Hamilton Tigers. The most significant structural change came in 1926 when the league added the New York Rangers, New York Americans, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. This wave of additions set the stage for the era known as the "Original Six," a period defined by stability and competition that lasted until the league doubled in size in 1967.
Legacy of the Early Franchises
More perspective on Who were the original nhl teams can make the topic easier to follow by connecting earlier points with a few simple takeaways.
