Original Six

Lore & Background

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, suspended operations in the fall of 1942, leaving the NHL with just six teams. Despite various outside efforts to initiate expansion after World War II, 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 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. The standings were very static: Montreal missed the playoffs only once between 1943 and 1967, while Detroit missed three times and Toronto missed four times. Usually, this left the Black Hawks, Bruins, and Rangers 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. The only other Original Six member to win the Cup during that era was Chicago (in 1961).

The league had a rule that gave each team exclusive rights to negotiate contracts with promising local players within 50 miles of its home ice. Since the Toronto and Montreal metropolitan areas contained abundant ice hockey prospects, that put them at a major recruiting advantage over Boston, New York, and Chicago. Detroit claimed the less-populated Southwestern Ontario as part of its territory. In practice, all six teams recruited players from Canada by sponsoring minor league, junior, and amateur teams, and the league was almost entirely composed of Canadians. Very few American-developed NHL players emerged in the 1950s and 1960s; Tommy Williams was the only U.S. citizen to play regularly. The league's first black player, Willie O'Ree, played for the Bruins between 1958 and 1961 but turned out to be the only black player until the 1970s.

Reader's Guide

The Original Six era is significant for its unprecedented stability and the dominance of a few teams. The league tolerated monopolistic practices by the owners; at one point, Red Wings owner James E. Norris effectively owned the Black Hawks as well and was also the largest stockholder in the Rangers, and had significant influence over the Bruins. The control of owners over their teams was absolute, with poor labour conditions for the players. Players were signed by a team as early as 16 and were then owned by that team for their entire careers. A player pension plan had been formed in 1946, but the financials were kept a secret from the players.

The legacy of the Original Six is reflected in their combined Stanley Cup titles: 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, let alone win the Cup, since the 1967 expansion. As of completion of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final, the other five Original Six teams have won 21 of the 58 Stanley Cup championships since the 1967 expansion. The 25-season period without expansion, team moves or contraction is the second-longest such span in North American sports history, behind only Major League Baseball's 50-season stretch from 1903 to 1953.

Did You Know?

• The Original Six are not the original teams of the NHL; only the Canadiens and Maple Leafs are charter members from the 1917–18 season.
• The only Original Six team to win the Stanley Cup between 1942 and 1967 besides Montreal, Toronto, and Detroit was Chicago (1961).
• The league's first black player, Willie O'Ree, played for the Bruins from 1958 to 1961 during the Original Six era.
• The only European-born and trained player of the Original Six era was Sweden's Ulf Sterner, who briefly played for the Rangers in 1965.