Which team was the first winner of the NHL?

Currently, there are 31 teams that make up the league (24 of them from the United States and 7 of them from Canada). There are two conferences each one divided into two divisions. The two conferences are the Eastern and Western. The Eastern Conference is broken down into the Metropolitan and Atlantic Divisions. The Metropolitan Division is comprised of: NY Islanders, Washington CAPITALS, Columbus Blue Jackets, Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes, NY Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, and New Jersey Devils. The Atlantic Division is comprised of: Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Florida Panthers, Detroit Red Wings, and Ottawa Senators.

The Western Conference is comprised of the Central and Pacific Divisions. The Central Division is comprised of: Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators, Minnesota Wild, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche, St. Louis Blues, and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Pacific Division is comprised of: Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks, Las Vegas Golden Nights, Vancouver Canucks, Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Edmonton Oilers, and the Los Angeles Kings.

The Toronto Maple Leaf is the first team to win the National Hockey League title and then defeated the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Honkey Association to win the Stanley Cup in 1918 inaugural season. The series was held entirely in Toronto. The Toronto team won the series by three games to two in the best of five game series. It was the first series contested by the new NHL and subsequently the first Stanley Cup win by the Toronto NHL franchise team.

The Torontos won Games 1 and 3 with victories of 5 – 3 and 6 - 3. The millionaires recorded 6- 4 and 8 – 1 wins in Games 2 and 4. Game five was played under NHL rules, it helped Toronto’s Corbett Denneny to score the series winning goal in a 2 – 1 victory.