The National Hockey League (NHL); French: Ligue nationale de hockey (LNH), is a professional ice hockey league in North America consisting of 32 teams – 25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered to be the top-ranked professional ice hockey league in the world, with players from 17 countries as of the 2023–24 season. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) also views the Stanley Cup as one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The NHL is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.
The Stanley Cup is the championship trophy awarded annually to the National Hockey League (NHL) playoff champion. It is the oldest existing trophy to be awarded to a professional sports franchise in North America, and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) considers it to be one of the "most important championships available to the sport". The trophy was commissioned in 1892 as the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup and is named after Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada, who donated it as an award to Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. The entire Stanley family supported the sport, the sons and daughters all playing and promoting the game. The first Cup was awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club, and winners from 1893 to 1914 were determined by challenge games and league play. Professional teams first became eligible to challenge for the Stanley Cup in 1906. In 1915, the National Hockey Association (NHA) and the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), the two main professional ice hockey organizations, reached an agreement in which their respective champions would face each other annually for the Stanley Cup. It was established as the de facto championship trophy of the NHL in 1926 and then the de jure NHL championship prize in 1947.
The Allan Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the senior ice hockey champions of Canada. It was donated by Sir Montagu Allan of Ravenscrag, Montreal, and has been competed for since 1909. It was won by the Dundas Real McCoys in 2024.
The Canada men's national ice hockey team is the ice hockey team representing Canada internationally. The team is overseen by Hockey Canada, a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. From 1920 until 1963, Canada's international representation was by senior amateur club teams. Canada's national men's team was founded in 1963 by Father David Bauer as a part of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, playing out of the University of British Columbia. The nickname "Team Canada" was first used for the 1972 Summit Series and has been frequently used to refer to both the Canadian national men's and women's teams ever since.
The Spengler Cup is an annual invitational ice hockey tournament held in Davos, Switzerland. First held in 1923, the Spengler Cup is often cited as the oldest invitational ice hockey tournament in the world. The event is hosted by the Swiss team HC Davos and played each year in Davos from 26 December to 31 inclusively. Currently, all games are held at the Eisstadion Davos.
Francis Clarence McGee was a Canadian ice hockey player for the Ottawa Hockey Club between 1903 and 1906. He played as a centre and as a rover. He was also a civil servant for the government of Canada and later became a lieutenant in the Canadian Army.
Sports in Canada consist of a wide variety of games. The roots of organized sports in Canada date back to the 1770s. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey and lacrosse. Other major professional games include curling, basketball, baseball, soccer, and football. Great achievements in Canadian sports are recognized by numerous "Halls of Fame" and museums, such as Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
The Toronto Varsity Blues are the intercollegiate sports program at the University of Toronto. Its 43 athletic teams regularly participate in competitions held by Ontario University Athletics and U Sports. The Varsity Blues trace their founding to 1877, with the formation of the men's football team. Since 1908, Varsity Blues athletes have won numerous medals in Olympic and Paralympic Games and have also long competed in International University Sports Federation championships, Commonwealth Games, and Pan American Games.
The Clarkson Cup is an ice hockey trophy awarded to Canada's national women's champions. Commissioned by former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, the trophy was first unveiled in July 2006 when Clarkson ceremoniously presented it to the Canadian national women's team. Owing to a rights dispute with the artists who designed the trophy, it was not officially awarded until 2009, when it became, as intended, the award for top women's club team. From 2012 to 2019, it was exclusively awarded to the winner of the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). In Canada, it has been considered the women's equivalent of the Stanley Cup.
André Racicot, Jr., is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender, most famous for his time with the Montreal Canadiens with whom he won the 1993 Stanley Cup as the backup goaltender to Patrick Roy.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. They are members of the Big Ten Conference and compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I ice hockey. The Golden Gophers are one of the most prominent and storied programs in college hockey, having made 41 NCAA Tournament appearances and 23 trips to the Frozen Four. They have won five NCAA national championships, in 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002 and 2003. The team also shared the 1929 National Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship with Yale, and captured the national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championship for amateur hockey in 1940.
Professional ice hockey (hockey) is the competition of ice hockey in which participants are paid to play. Professional competition began in North America in the United States—in Pennsylvania and Michigan—and in Canada around 1900. Professional ice hockey expanded across Canada and the United States and eventually to many other countries. There are major leagues around the world, including the National Hockey League in North America, the Kontinental Hockey League in Europe and Asia, and the Swedish Hockey League in Europe, as well as minor leagues such as the American Hockey League and ECHL in North America, and the Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey in Canada. High-level professional hockey is also present in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland and Switzerland; professional hockey is also played in many other countries, as diverse as Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Austria, Australia and Japan. The major professional women's league is the Professional Women's Hockey League, which began play in 2024.
The International Ice Hockey Federation is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 84 member countries.
Frederik Andersen is a Danish professional ice hockey goaltender for the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League (NHL). He previously played for the Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Queen's Cup is a trophy awarded annually to the champion in men's ice hockey of the Ontario University Athletics conference of U Sports. It has been awarded since 1903 to the champion between Ontario and Quebec universities. It is the second-oldest ice hockey trophy still being awarded, after the Stanley Cup.
U Sports men's ice hockey is the highest level of play of men's ice hockey at the university level and operates under the auspices of U Sports, Canada's governing body for university sports. As of the 2018 season, 48 teams from Canadian universities are divided into three athletic conferences, drawing from three regional associations of U Sports: Canada West Universities Athletic Association, Ontario University Athletics, and Atlantic University Sport. At the end of every season, eight teams compete for the David Johnston University Cup, awarded to the U Sports Men's Hockey Championship team.
Bob Nadin is a Canadian retired ice hockey referee and administrator. He refereed at the 1972 Winter Olympics, and served as a referee supervisor for the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the National Hockey League, and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. He was involved with the Winter Olympic Games every Olympiad from 1972 until 2012, and was honoured by the International Olympic Committee with the Pierre de Coubertin Medal. The IIHF honoured Nadin with the Paul Loicq Award, and inducted him into the IIHF Hall of Fame.
The J. Ross Robertson Cup is a Canadian ice hockey trophy. It is awarded annually in senior ice hockey to the champion of Allan Cup Hockey by the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA). It was donated by John Ross Robertson in 1899, and is the first of three similarly named trophies he established. His other eponymous trophies for the OHA include, the J. Ross Robertson Cup awarded to the annual champions of the junior division, and the J. Ross Robertson Cup which was formerly awarded to the annual champions of the intermediate division.
