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Original Six
The Original Six (French: six équipes originales) are the teams that composed the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1942 and 1967. The six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. After serving as the league's only teams for 25 seasons, they were joined by six new franchises in the 1967 NHL expansion.
Despite the moniker, the Six are not the original teams of the NHL. The Canadiens and Maple Leafs are the two members of this group that are charter members (1917–18 season) of the NHL. However, in addition to the 25 seasons as the only teams, the Original Six are considered a set for having joined the league by 1926, and thus being the NHL's oldest active franchises by a margin of at least 41 seasons versus any other team.
The Original Six have the most combined Stanley Cup titles among NHL franchises; the Canadiens hold the most wins at 24. The Maple Leafs, who won the last Stanley Cup of the Original Six era, are the only Original Six franchise to have not returned to the Stanley Cup Final since the 1967 expansion. As of completion of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, the other five Original Six teams have won 21 of the 56 Stanley Cups awarded since the 1967 expansion.
The NHL consisted of 10 teams during the 1920s, but the league experienced a period of retrenchment during the Great Depression, losing the Pittsburgh Pirates/Philadelphia Quakers, Ottawa Senators/St. Louis Eagles, and Montreal Maroons in succession to financial pressures. The New York/Brooklyn Americans, one of the league's original expansion franchises, along with the Bruins and Maroons, lasted longer but played as wards of the league from 1936 onward. World War II and its own economic strains severely depleted the league's Canadian player base since Canada entered the war in September 1939, and many players left for military service. The Americans suspended operations in the fall of 1942, which left the NHL with just six teams.
Despite various outside efforts to initiate expansion after the war, including attempted revivals of the Maroons and Americans franchises, the league's membership remained at six teams for the next 25 seasons. This was the longest static period without expansion, team moves or contraction in the history of the league, and also featured the longest period without any team changing arenas. The next longest streak, from the 2000 expansion to Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Columbus, Ohio, to the 2011 move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, is not even half as long; only two other periods (1982–1991 and 2011–2017) lasted longer than five seasons. The 25 seasons is also the second-longest period without expansion, team moves or contraction in North American sports history, behind only Major League Baseball (MLB), which saw only stadium changes between the move of the original Baltimore Orioles to New York in 1903 and the Boston Braves moving to Milwaukee in 1953, a span of 50 seasons.
The Original Six era has been criticized for having a playoff format that was too easy, since the top four teams in the regular season advanced to the playoffs. At least, the playoff system was too easy for the top three teams in the league: Montreal, Toronto, and Detroit. The standings were very static. Montreal missed the playoffs only once between 1943 and 1967 (in 1948), and Toronto missed the postseason four times, while Detroit missed three times, which left the three remaining teams to compete for the final playoff berth. Montreal won 10 of the 25 Stanley Cup titles awarded during the Original Six era, Toronto won nine, and Detroit won five. Chicago won only one Stanley Cup during that era (in 1961), and Boston and New York won no Cups.
It was not a coincidence that two of the dominant teams were based in Canada, and the third was based in an American city that borders Canada. The league had a rule that gave each team exclusive rights to negotiate contracts with promising local players within 50 miles (80 kilometres) of its home ice. A player who was not within the 50-mile limit was free to field offers from any team. Once a player agreed to an NHL sponsorship-level contract, the NHL club could assign him to its sponsored junior squad, its "sponsorship list."
Since the Toronto and the Montreal metropolitan areas contained abundant ice hockey prospects, that put them at a major recruiting advantage over Boston, New York, and Chicago, which had very few such prospects in their territories. Detroit had Southwestern Ontario as part of its territory and so it did not have the major advantage of the Canadian teams, but it was better positioned than the other American ones.
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Original Six
The Original Six (French: six équipes originales) are the teams that composed the National Hockey League (NHL) between 1942 and 1967. The six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. After serving as the league's only teams for 25 seasons, they were joined by six new franchises in the 1967 NHL expansion.
Despite the moniker, the Six are not the original teams of the NHL. The Canadiens and Maple Leafs are the two members of this group that are charter members (1917–18 season) of the NHL. However, in addition to the 25 seasons as the only teams, the Original Six are considered a set for having joined the league by 1926, and thus being the NHL's oldest active franchises by a margin of at least 41 seasons versus any other team.
The Original Six have the most combined Stanley Cup titles among NHL franchises; the Canadiens hold the most wins at 24. The Maple Leafs, who won the last Stanley Cup of the Original Six era, are the only Original Six franchise to have not returned to the Stanley Cup Final since the 1967 expansion. As of completion of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, the other five Original Six teams have won 21 of the 56 Stanley Cups awarded since the 1967 expansion.
The NHL consisted of 10 teams during the 1920s, but the league experienced a period of retrenchment during the Great Depression, losing the Pittsburgh Pirates/Philadelphia Quakers, Ottawa Senators/St. Louis Eagles, and Montreal Maroons in succession to financial pressures. The New York/Brooklyn Americans, one of the league's original expansion franchises, along with the Bruins and Maroons, lasted longer but played as wards of the league from 1936 onward. World War II and its own economic strains severely depleted the league's Canadian player base since Canada entered the war in September 1939, and many players left for military service. The Americans suspended operations in the fall of 1942, which left the NHL with just six teams.
Despite various outside efforts to initiate expansion after the war, including attempted revivals of the Maroons and Americans franchises, the league's membership remained at six teams for the next 25 seasons. This was the longest static period without expansion, team moves or contraction in the history of the league, and also featured the longest period without any team changing arenas. The next longest streak, from the 2000 expansion to Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Columbus, Ohio, to the 2011 move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg, is not even half as long; only two other periods (1982–1991 and 2011–2017) lasted longer than five seasons. The 25 seasons is also the second-longest period without expansion, team moves or contraction in North American sports history, behind only Major League Baseball (MLB), which saw only stadium changes between the move of the original Baltimore Orioles to New York in 1903 and the Boston Braves moving to Milwaukee in 1953, a span of 50 seasons.
The Original Six era has been criticized for having a playoff format that was too easy, since the top four teams in the regular season advanced to the playoffs. At least, the playoff system was too easy for the top three teams in the league: Montreal, Toronto, and Detroit. The standings were very static. Montreal missed the playoffs only once between 1943 and 1967 (in 1948), and Toronto missed the postseason four times, while Detroit missed three times, which left the three remaining teams to compete for the final playoff berth. Montreal won 10 of the 25 Stanley Cup titles awarded during the Original Six era, Toronto won nine, and Detroit won five. Chicago won only one Stanley Cup during that era (in 1961), and Boston and New York won no Cups.
It was not a coincidence that two of the dominant teams were based in Canada, and the third was based in an American city that borders Canada. The league had a rule that gave each team exclusive rights to negotiate contracts with promising local players within 50 miles (80 kilometres) of its home ice. A player who was not within the 50-mile limit was free to field offers from any team. Once a player agreed to an NHL sponsorship-level contract, the NHL club could assign him to its sponsored junior squad, its "sponsorship list."
Since the Toronto and the Montreal metropolitan areas contained abundant ice hockey prospects, that put them at a major recruiting advantage over Boston, New York, and Chicago, which had very few such prospects in their territories. Detroit had Southwestern Ontario as part of its territory and so it did not have the major advantage of the Canadian teams, but it was better positioned than the other American ones.