Whether you're filling out a Stanley Cup bracket, building a hockey stats database, playing trivia at a sports bar, or trying to remember which teams are in the Central Division, an alphabetical list of NHL teams comes in handy more often than you'd think. Below you'll find all 32 franchises from Anaheim to Winnipeg, plus a data table with conferences, divisions, arenas, and founding years. The sorting tool above handles any custom list you want to alphabetize.
The National Hockey League has 32 teams split between two conferences - Eastern and Western - with two divisions in each. The league started in 1917 with just four teams in Canada and has grown through waves of expansion, mergers with rival leagues, and more than a few franchise relocations. The most recent addition, the Seattle Kraken, played their first season in 2021-22.
Eastern vs. Western Conference
The NHL's conference structure splits 32 teams into two groups of 16. The Eastern Conference has the Atlantic and Metropolitan divisions. The Western Conference has the Central and Pacific divisions. Each division holds eight teams, which is larger than the NFL's four-team divisions but creates a similar effect - divisional opponents are the teams you play most often and develop the deepest rivalries with.
Geography mostly drives the split, but not perfectly. Detroit and Columbus are in the Eastern Conference despite being further west than several Western Conference cities. That happened during the 2013 realignment when Detroit and Columbus both moved east to be in the same conference as geographic rivals like Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and the New York teams. The Winnipeg Jets ended up in the Central Division even though Winnipeg is further east than Minneapolis.
Conference alignment matters most during the playoffs. The top three teams from each division plus two wild card teams per conference make the postseason. The Eastern and Western Conference champions meet in the Stanley Cup Final, so you won't see two Eastern teams playing for the Cup. During the regular season, teams play divisional opponents four times each and conference opponents three times, with fewer games against the opposite conference.
The Original Six
Ask any hockey fan about the foundation of the NHL and they'll point to the Original Six - the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs. These six teams were the entire NHL from 1942 to 1967, a 25-year stretch where no new franchises entered the league. They built the rivalries, traditions, and culture that still define hockey today.
The Canadiens are the most successful franchise in NHL history with 24 Stanley Cup championships, though they haven't won since 1993. The Toronto Maple Leafs hold the longest active Cup drought among Original Six teams - their last championship was 1967. The Detroit Red Wings were dominant in the late 1990s and 2000s with four Cups in 11 years. The Rangers won their famous 1994 Cup after a 54-year drought that spawned the "1940!" chant from rival fans.
The Original Six era created iconic venues like the Montreal Forum, Maple Leaf Gardens, Chicago Stadium, the Boston Garden, the old Detroit Olympia, and the original Madison Square Garden. Most of those buildings are gone now, but Madison Square Garden - opened in its current form in 1968 - remains the home of the Rangers and is the oldest arena currently in use in the NHL.
Expansion and the Growth of Hockey
The NHL doubled overnight in 1967 when six new teams joined: the Los Angeles Kings, Minnesota North Stars, Oakland Seals, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, and St. Louis Blues. The league continued expanding through the 1970s, adding the Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres in 1970, the New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames in 1972, and the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals in 1974.
The biggest influx came in 1979 when the NHL absorbed four teams from the rival World Hockey Association: the Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and Winnipeg Jets. The Oilers immediately became a dynasty behind Wayne Gretzky, winning five Cups in seven years. The other three WHA teams all eventually relocated - Hartford became the Carolina Hurricanes, Quebec became the Colorado Avalanche, and the original Jets became the Arizona Coyotes (the current Jets are a separate franchise that moved from Atlanta in 2011).
The 1990s and 2000s brought another wave: San Jose Sharks (1991), Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning (1992), Florida Panthers and Anaheim Ducks (1993), Nashville Predators (1998), Atlanta Thrashers and Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild (2000), and the Vegas Golden Knights (2017). Seattle became team number 32 in 2021. Vegas made the Stanley Cup Final in their very first season - something no other expansion team in any major sport had done.
Arenas and Home Ice
NHL arenas tend to be smaller than NBA or NFL venues, typically seating between 17,000 and 21,000 fans. The Bell Centre in Montreal is the largest at about 21,300 seats, and Canadiens games have been sold out for decades. The smallest is Arizona's temporary setup - the Coyotes have had a tumultuous arena history, playing in a college arena (Mullett Arena at Arizona State, capacity around 5,000) before the franchise's relocation to Salt Lake City was announced.
Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle is one of the newest, built inside the historic shell of the old KeyArena and designed to be carbon-neutral. Little Caesars Arena in Detroit opened in 2017, replacing the beloved Joe Louis Arena. The United Center in Chicago, shared with the NBA's Bulls, is one of the largest multi-purpose arenas in the country at over 19,700 for hockey.
Several NHL teams share their arena with NBA teams. The Capitals and Wizards share Capital One Arena. The Flyers and 76ers share Wells Fargo Center. The Rangers and Knicks share Madison Square Garden. The Kings and Lakers share Crypto.com Arena. Scheduling around two professional sports calendars that overlap for months gets complicated, but these shared venues make economic sense in expensive real estate markets.
Canadian Teams and the Hockey Heartland
Seven of the 32 NHL teams are based in Canada: the Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, and Winnipeg Jets. That's down from eight Canadian teams in the mid-1990s before the Quebec Nordiques moved to Colorado. Hockey is by far the most popular sport in Canada, and Canadian teams consistently rank among the league leaders in attendance and TV ratings despite several of them struggling on the ice in recent years.
No Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since the Montreal Canadiens in 1993 - the longest drought in league history. The Oilers came close, reaching the Final in 2006 and 2024. The Vancouver Canucks reached the Final in 2011. But the Cup has stayed south of the border for over three decades, a fact that genuinely bothers Canadian hockey fans in a way that's hard to overstate.
Teams by Division
The Atlantic Division holds Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Florida, Montreal, Ottawa, Tampa Bay, and Toronto. It's heavy on Original Six history and includes two of the most passionate fan bases in hockey (Montreal and Toronto). The Metropolitan Division includes Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, the New York Islanders, the New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington. It's stacked with recent Cup winners - the Capitals (2018), Penguins (2016, 2017), and Hurricanes (2006) all call it home.
The Central Division has Arizona, Chicago, Colorado, Dallas, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, and Winnipeg. Colorado has been dominant recently, winning the Cup in 2022 with a roster built around Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. The Pacific Division rounds things out with Anaheim, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver, and Vegas. The Golden Knights won their first Cup in 2023, just six years after entering the league.