When did the NHL start?

The National Hockey League began in 1917 with an exciting line-up of Canadian teams. However, before the NHL was the International Pro Hockey League. This was founded in 1904 in Michigan. It folded, but then two bigger leagues emerged in Canada: the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast League (PCL).

These two leagues played a championship series, in 1914, the winner gaining the famous silver bowl donated for Canada’s amateur hockey leagues by Lord Stanley, the English governor general of Canada, in 1892. This is known as the Stanley Cup championship.

The National Hockey League started on the 26th of November 1917 in Montreal, Canada. The league was founded after the demise of its predecessor league, the National Hockey Association (NHA). The new league was formed as an effort to remove the owner of the Toronto Blue shirts, Eddie Livingstone.

In the 1916 – 1917 seasons, the NHA was facing a lot of problems. The majority of the Toronto 228th Battalion was called to fight World War I and the Quebec Bulldogs were in financial difficulty.

The NHL was started by a majority of the NHA franchise (the Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs and Montreal Wanderers) because the team owners were frustrated with Toronto Blue shirt owner Eddie Livingstone whom they have had issues with since 1915.