Best. NHL. History. Ever. (GIF)
By Phil Watson
Want to see the history of the National Hockey League from 1942 to the present in the form of an animated GIF that shows the expansion and movement of every franchise?
Anyone who is a fan of sports history will love this map shared by a Twitter account dedicated to hockey.
Hockey Culture is the name of the account and it shared a map on the history of hockey from Mental Floss and it is glorious:
The map begins with “The Original Six” era (1942-67), even though only two of those franchises are actually “original” and the only reason there are six is because four other teams had already folded by the time the “Original Six” was formed.
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The Original Six, of course, are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs, and for 25 seasons comprised the entire NHL.
When the NHL opted to expand, it did so with a vengeance—doubling in size from six to 12 teams for the 1967-68 season with the additions of the Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars (the Dallas Stars since 1993), Oakland Seals (later the California Golden Seals and Cleveland Barons, folded in 1978), Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues.
Expansion continued in 1970 with the Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks and in 1972 with the Atlanta (Calgary since 1980) Flames and New York Islanders.
1974 brought the additions of the Kansas City Scouts (later the Colorado Rockies and the New Jersey Devils since 1982) and Washington Capitals.
In 1979, the NHL brought in four franchises from its former rival, the World Hockey Association—the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers (Carolina Hurricanes since 1997), Quebec Nordiques (Colorado Avalanche since 1995) and Winnipeg Jets (Phoenix and now Arizona Coyotes since 1996).
The league remained as 21 teams until 1991, when the San Jose Sharks came on board.
In 1992, the Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning joined, followed by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (just the Anaheim Ducks since 2006) and Florida Panthers in 1993.
The Nashville Predators were next in 1998, the Atlanta Thrashers (Winnipeg Jets since 2011) came along in 1999 and the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild were the most recent additions in 2000.
Great map, even if it insists on persisting the “Original Six” 1942 myth for a league that was founded in 1917.
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