The National Hockey League was founded on November 26, 1917. The name given to the founding six teams is “the Original Six.” All of the Original Six teams still play actively in the NHL today. The original teams before the 1967 expansion were the Chicago Black Hawks, the Boston Bruins, the Montreal Canadians, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the New York Rangers, and the Detroit Red Wings. The NHL now has thirty-one current teams. The Original Six are not the founding members of professional Hockey in North America rather the oldest active teams. The story of the Original Six is the backbone of hockey history.

In the late 1920’s the Original Six entered the professional league, which consisted of ten city teams playing against each other throughout the hockey season. As the Great Depression raged across America the Maroons, Pirates and Senators franchises were cut from the league do to financial constraints. During the Depression the NHL played with only seven teams. Once the second world war started in 1939 the NHL changed drastically. Canada joined the war very early on. This meant that the NHL’S Canadian players weren’t there to play as they were fighting in the war. With Canada in the war, more than half of the professional players were absent. Due to this fact, revenues from the league dropped even more and plans of expansion had to be postponed. Once America joined the war the New York Americans also chose to disband because the NHL was down to six teams.  

Countless problems arose from the small league.  Championships were constantly won by the same teams and the playoffs were meaningless. With such a small team basis, corruption was also common. One of the most notable examples of this is that Detroit Red Wings owner James E. Norris was able to control three other teams in the league. This type of influence in the league was unprecedented. The NHL came to a conclusion that expansion was needed in order to end the corruption. Once again financial constraints were a problem and only the Original Six teams were left to play.  Due to the period of turmoil in the league from the end of the second world war to the expansion in 1967, the Original Six were able to create a legacy which is still alive to this day.

All of the players of the Original Six have now retired. but the way they handled the game and the way the league operated enshrined them as the founding fathers of the National Hockey League. Even though there were teams before the Original Six not one survived the way the Original Six survived. Teams in the National Hockey League have come and gone but none of them can look back and appreciate their history like the Original Six.