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The National Hockey League (NHL) is set to begin its 2020-2021 season on January 13, 2021.
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Introduction
The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league composed of 30 teams, 23 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the North American major professional sports leagues.
The NHL Season
The National Hockey League (NHL) Season is a time when professional ice hockey teams from all over North America compete against each other for the Stanley Cup, which is considered to be the most prestigious trophy in all of professional ice hockey. The regular season typically begins in October and ends in April, with the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning in late April and ending in early June.
The NHL Playoffs
The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America, currently comprising 31 teams: 24 in the United States and seven in Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the playoff champion at the end of each season.
The NHL playoffs are an elimination tournament held after the conclusion of the NHL’s regular season to determine the league’s champion for that season. The playoffs consist of four rounds, each best-of-seven games.
The Stanley Cup Finals
The Finals are the last round of the playoffs. The two teams remaining face each other in a best-of-seven series to determine the champion of the Stanley Cup.
NHL Awards
The National Hockey League awards are given out annually to recognize the top performers in the league. The Calder Memorial Trophy is awarded to the best rookie, the Hart Memorial Trophy is given to the player judged to be most valuable to their team, and the Stanley Cup is awarded to the playoff champion.
NHL All-Star Game
The NHL All-Star Game is an annual event that takes place at the end of January or the beginning of February. It is a chance for the best players from around the league to come together and compete against each other in a friendly, yet highly-competitive, game. The game itself is typically not very important, but it is a fun event for fans to watch and enjoy.
NHL Entry Draft
The National Hockey League Entry Draft is an annual meeting in which every franchise of the National Hockey League systematically select the rights to available ice hockey players who meet draft eligibility requirements.
Free Agency
The NHL’s free agency period begins on July 1st every year.
Salary Cap
In the NHL, a salary cap is an upper limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on player salaries in a given season. The salary cap was first introduced in the NHL in 2005-2006, as part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and the National Hockey League Players Association. The salary cap for the 2005-2006 season was set at $39 million per team.
The salary cap is calculated using a formula that takes into account factors such as league revenues and arena costs. The salary cap ceiling (the maximum amount that a team can spend on salaries) and floor (the minimum amount that a team must spend on salaries) are typically set at around $10 million apart. For example, in the 2017-2018 season, the NHL salary cap ceiling was $75 million, while the floor was $55 million.
NHL teams must stay within their specified salary cap during both the regular season and playoffs. If a team exceeds the salary cap by more than $1 million during the regular season, they will be subject to a luxury tax. If a team exceeds the salary cap by more than $3 million during the playoffs, they will be ineligible to win the Stanley Cup.
NHL Expansion
The NHL has undergone several rounds of expansion over the years, most recently in 2017 when the Las Vegas Golden Knights became the league’s 31st team.
NHL expansion began in 1917 with the addition of the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators, followed by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1918. The Boston Bruins joined the league in 1924, and the New York Americans began play in 1925.
The NHL continued to expand throughout the 1950s and 1960s, adding teams like the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, and Pittsburgh Penguins. In 1967, six new teams were added at once in what was then the largest expansion in professional sports history.
The most recent round of expansion took place in 2017, when the Las Vegas Golden Knights became the NHL’s 31st team. The Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Finals in their inaugural season, becoming one of only a handful of expansion teams to enjoy such success.
