The National Hockey League (NHL) (French: Ligue nationale de hockey – LNH) is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league as a joint venture for its self perpetuating membership of 30 franchised member clubs of which 24 are located in the United States and the other six in Canada.[1] Headquartered in New York City, the NHL is widely considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world,[2] and one of the North American major professional sports leagues. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America,[3] is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season.
The league was organized in 1917 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada after the suspension of operations of its predecessor organization, the National Hockey Association (NHA), which had been founded in 1909.[4] It started with four teams and, through a series of expansions, contractions, and relocations, the league is now composed of 30 teams active franchises. After a labour dispute that led to the cancellation of the entire 2004–05 season, the league has staged a successful comeback, including revenue and profit growth. In 2009, the NHL enjoyed record-high sponsorships, crowds and television viewers.[5]
The NHL draws many highly skilled players from all over the world and currently has players from about 20 different countries.[6] Although Canadians have historically constituted the majority of the players in the NHL, over the past four plus decades the percentages of American and European trained players have increased both because of the NHL's continued expansion from six to thirty clubs since 1967, and the increased availability of highly skilled European players especially from former East Bloc countries.[7]
