Past and Future NHL Expansion Between 1942 and 1967, the NHL had just six teams, mostly in the eastern part of North America. By 1967, Major League Baseball had grown to 20 teams all across the country and the NFL had 15 teams spread from one coast to the other. Even the NBA, which started only 30 years earlier, had 10 teams located in different regions.
Past and Future NHL Expansion
Below is a simple table listing the six NHL teams that played between 1942 and 1967:
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They Were 12
In 1967 the NHL decided it was time to grow. They doubled the number of teams, making it the largest one-year expansion in any major sport. Six new teams joined the league:
- California Seals (later merged with the North Stars in 1978)
- Los Angeles Kings
- Minnesota North Stars (which became the Dallas Stars in 1993)
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- Louis Blues
After 50 Years There was 31
After the Original Six teams, new cities were added to the NHL, growing the league to 12 teams and spreading hockey across North America. After that, the league kept adding a few teams at a time. Here’s a simple timeline of how it happened:
- 14 teams (1970): The Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks joined the NHL.
- 16 teams (1972): The New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames joined. (The Flames later became the Calgary Flames in 1980.)
- 18 teams (1974): The Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts joined. (The Scouts changed to the Colorado Rockies in 1976 and then became the New Jersey Devils in 1982.)
- 17 teams (1978): The Seals became the Cleveland Barons and later merged with the North Stars.
- 21 teams (1979): Four teams from the WHA joined: the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and Winnipeg Jets. Later changes include:
- The Whalers becoming the Carolina Hurricanes in 1997.
- The Nordiques becoming the Colorado Avalanche in 1995.
- The Winnipeg Jets becoming the Phoenix Coyotes (now the Arizona Coyotes) in 1996.
- 22 teams (1991): The San Jose Sharks joined.
- 24 teams (1992): The Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning joined.
- 26 teams (1993): The Florida Panthers and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim joined.
- 27 teams (1998): The Nashville Predators joined.
- 28 teams (1999): The Atlanta Thrashers joined. (They became the Winnipeg Jets in 2011.)
- 30 teams (2000): The Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild joined.
- 31 teams (2016): The Vegas Golden Knights joined.
Some expansion teams have had impressive achievements.
For example, the Flyers won the Stanley Cup in the 1973–74 season, just a few years after joining in 1967 which is the fastest win by an expansion team. In the 2017–18 season, the Vegas Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Final in their very first season. Many experts call them the most successful expansion team in any major sport. The St. Louis Blues also reached the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, though that was partly because all six expansion teams were in the same division, ensuring that one of them would make it to the final.
Behind Future Expansion
- In 2018, the NHL Board of Governors gave Seattle a new hockey team.
- The team, which still needs a name, will start playing in the 2021-22 season, making the league 32 teams strong.
- Unlike in 1967, when new teams paid an Original Six team $2 million to join, the Seattle team must pay a $650 million fee.
- This fee is shared among all current teams (except the Golden Knights), with each team receiving about $21.7 million.
- Back in 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup, becoming the first U.S. team to do so by beating the Montreal Canadiens 3-1.
- Now, after more than 100 years, top-level hockey is returning to Seattle.
- Other cities with potential for future NHL teams include:
- Cincinnati
- Cleveland
- Halifax (Nova Scotia)
- Hamilton (Ontario)
- Hartford
- Houston
- Indianapolis
- Kansas City
- Milwaukee
- Portland
- Quebec City
- Salt Lake City
- San Francisco
- Saskatoon (Saskatchewan)
- Some even dream of a global NHL with teams in places like Helsinki, Moscow, Prague, Sapporo, and Mexico City.
- Although these ideas may sound far-fetched, remember that many people once thought NHL hockey in Florida was impossible.
Vegas Golden Knights history for 11 seconds
The Vegas Golden Knights joined the NHL in the 2017-18 season, making the league a total of 31 teams and becoming the first major professional sports team in Las Vegas. They built their team during an expansion draft, where each existing team could choose to save either 7 forwards, 3 defensemen, and 1 goaltender or 1 goaltender plus 8 players of any position. Hockey soon became very popular in the desert. In their first season, the Golden Knights made it to the Stanley Cup finals but lost to the Washington Capitals. They quickly earned a large fan base and are now known as the best expansion team in NHL history, with many playoff appearances and a Stanley Cup win in 2023. T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is famous for its exciting atmosphere, and bringing the NHL to this area has been a great success.
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