How the NHL was founded in 1917.

The National Hockey League was created in Montreal on 26 November 1917 by the owners of the National Hockey Association's clubs. It began with four teams, one of which soon folded, and within a decade had moved into the United States.

Professional hockey before the NHL

Hockey turned professional in the first decade of the 1900s. According to Wikipedia, the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League was the first league to employ professionals openly, in 1902, and the International Professional Hockey League ran from 1904 to 1907; neither point could be confirmed in a second source. In Canada, the Montreal Wanderers declared themselves professional and won the Stanley Cup in March 1907, according to NHL.com.

The NHL's direct ancestor was the National Hockey Association (NHA). Wikipedia dates its founding to 2 December 1909, with Ambrose O'Brien of Renfrew as founder, and its first season to 1910. Les Canadiens, the club that became the Montreal Canadiens, were created that same December as an NHA franchise, initially financed by O'Brien with the aim of passing ownership to French-speaking Montrealers. The Hockey Hall of Fame says the NHA took possession of the Stanley Cup in 1910.

The NHA shaped the game the NHL would inherit. Scouting the Refs, a site that covers officiating, says it moved from two 30-minute halves to three 20-minute periods in 1910-11 and from seven players a side to six in 1911-12. Wikipedia dates the dropping of the seventh position, the rover, to 1911.

Why the NHA was suspended

NHL.com's centenary account puts the end of the NHA down to the First World War. The Toronto 228th Battalion team left for the war in the middle of the 1916-17 season, and the Compulsory Service Act of August 1917 made running a league impractical. Wikipedia adds a second reason that the NHL.com article does not mention: the other owners' disputes with Toronto Blueshirts owner Eddie Livingstone, which led the four other owners to suspend the NHA and form a new league without him.

The Windsor Hotel, November 1917

According to NHL.com, NHA directors began three days of meetings at Montreal's Windsor Hotel on 24 November 1917, and the NHL was formally created on 26 November 1917. The Canadian Encyclopedia, as reported in a search summary, puts the owners' meeting on 22 November, with 26 November as the day the league came into existence. NHL.com says the minutes record that the meeting was called to see whether steps could be taken to keep the game going.

Founding decision	What NHL.com reports
Founding clubs	Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa and Quebec
Quebec	Suspended operations until 1919-20
Toronto	A franchise run by the Toronto Arena Company kept the league at four teams
President	Frank Calder, the NHA's secretary-treasurer, who accepted on the understanding that his decisions could not be appealed
Rules	The NHA's playing rules and constitution were adopted
Schedule	24 games, played on Wednesdays and Saturdays

The first season, 1917-18

The NHL began play on 19 December 1917 with two games. According to search summaries of NHL.com, the Wanderers beat Toronto 10-9 in Montreal that night. The Wanderers did not last the season: a fire destroyed their arena and the club folded. Search summaries disagree on how many games they had played by then, giving both four and six.

One rule change came in that first season. Scouting the Refs and The Hockey News both say goaltenders were allowed to drop to the ice to make saves from 1917-18, ending the old rule that they had to stay on their feet. Toronto won the first NHL championship and then beat the PCHA's Vancouver Millionaires in a five-game Stanley Cup final in 1918, according to NHL.com.

Into the United States

The league's early growth is documented mainly in Wikipedia's NHL article, which gives this sequence:

1924: the Boston Bruins join as the first American team, alongside the Montreal Maroons.
1925: the New York Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates join.
1926: the New York Rangers are added, and the Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Cougars join after the NHL acquires the assets of the folding Western league.
1926-27: the Stanley Cup becomes an NHL-only trophy (NHL.com).
1927: the Toronto St. Patricks are renamed the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Depression and the Second World War then shrank the league. Wikipedia records that the Pirates became the Philadelphia Quakers in 1930 and folded in 1931, the Senators played one season as the St. Louis Eagles (1934-35), the Maroons suspended operations in 1938, and the Americans were suspended in 1942 and never returned. That left six teams, the start of what is now called the Original Six era.

A note on sources

The founding dates and the four original clubs come from NHL.com's own centenary account. The league's growth and contraction in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Livingstone dispute, rest on Wikipedia. The NHL Official Guide and Record Book, which would be the stronger source, was not read for this page. The league's current structure is covered on the NHL page.

Sources