At least two of the North American corporate sponsors have ties to NHL franchise owners: the Molson family, founders of Molson Brewery, has owned the Montreal Canadiens for years, while SAP was co-founded by Hasso Plattner, the current majority owner of the San Jose Sharks. National U.S. television rights are currently held by NBC Sports; its current 10-year, US$2 billion contract, which began in the 2011â12 season, extended and unified rights deals that were first established in the 2005â06 season, when Comcast acquired cable rights to replace ESPN, and NBC acquired broadcast television rights under a revenue-sharing agreement to replace ABC. Full training camps begin in mid-to-late September, including a preseason consisting of six to eight exhibition games. [67], To aid with removing high speed collisions on icing, which had led to several potential career-ending injuries such as Hurricanes' defenceman Joni Pitkanen, the league mandated hybrid no-touch icing for the 2013â14 NHL season. The lockout shut down the league for 310 days, the longest in sports history, as the NHL became the first professional sports league to lose an entire season. Two contests are held, one for communities across Canada and a separate competition for communities in the US. The league also offers NHL.tv (branded as Rogers NHL GameCentre Live in Canada), which allows the streaming of out-of-market games over the internet, and has been coordinated by MLB Advanced Media since 2016. [16], The NHL replaced the NHA as one of the leagues that competed for the Stanley Cup, which was an interleague competition back then. The NHL lists its several official corporate partners into three categories: North American Partners, USA Partners, and Canada Partners. In 2017, the USPHL added a higher level junior league named the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC) for the 2017â18 season. Among its North American corporate sponsors, Kraft Heinz sponsors Kraft Hockeyville, an annual competition in which communities compete to demonstrate their commitment to the sport of ice hockey. [94] The rule is unofficially nicknamed the "Martin Brodeur rule". [32], The league was reduced to six teams for the 1942â43 NHL season: the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs. The Board of Governors meets twice per year, in the months of June and December, with the exact date and place to be fixed by the Commissioner. Of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, the Montreal Canadiens are surpassed in the number of championships only by the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, who have three more. [36][37] Ten years later, Willie O'Ree became the first black player in league history on January 18, 1958, when he made his debut with the Boston Bruins. The Wooster Oilers from the former MnJHL decided against fielding two Tier III teams and dropped their membership in the USPHL Midwest and would only play in the North American 3 Hockey League. In addition to Canadian and American born and trained players, who have historically composed a large majority of NHL rosters, the NHL also draws players from an expanding pool of other nations where organized and professional hockey is played. At its inception, the NHL had four teamsâall in Canada, thus the adjective "National" in the league's name. [17], For 2018â19, the league merged with the Eastern Hockey Federation (EHF) youth leagues. The NHL added six new teams to double its size at the 1967 NHL expansion. [34] Richard later led the Canadiens to five consecutive titles between 1956 and 1960, a record no team has matched. The U.S. version simulcasts selected regular season games nationally that are not aired by NBC Sports, as well as be used as an overflow channel during the playoffs. [127] Discover Card is the league's official credit card in the US, while competitor Visa is an official sponsor in Canada. The league doubled in size to 12 teams for the 1967â68 season, adding the Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, California Seals and St. Louis Blues. [55], With no new agreement in hand when the contract expired on September 15, 2004, league commissioner Gary Bettman announced a lockout of the players union and closed the league's head office.
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