The NHL and other leagues in North America
Extended value – NHL
Ice hockey is one of the four major sports in North America. The National Hockey League (NHL), established in 1917, is the top league in North America and is considered the best and most popular globally. The NHL is an independent league that is not subject to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), and its games are conducted according to its own rule book, some of which differ from those in the IIHF rule book.
The league has 32 teams, 7 of which are based in Canada and the rest in the United States.
As of the 2021/22 season, the teams are divided into two divisions (conferences) - eastern and western, according to geographical division, divided into two houses each. The length of the regular season is 82 games. At the end of the regular season, eight teams from each division advance to the playoffs, playing in a series using the best-of-seven-games method. The loser of each series is eliminated from the rest of the games. The East and the West champions meet for the final series for winning the Stanley Cup, the oldest trophy in North American sports, and for the title of NHL champion.
In addition to the NHL, there are many other ice hockey leagues in North America - from minor professional leagues (Minor Leagues) to local amateur leagues and age leagues up to children's ages. The league that is considered the best and most important among them is the American Hockey League (AHL), a secondary professional league with 32 teams where each NHL team has a subsidiary team that is used for the development of young players or as a framework for players who have lost their ability or are recovering from injuries.
In the field of age leagues, the most prominent organization is the Canadian Hockey League (abbreviations CHL)—an umbrella organization under which the three main leagues for young people up to the age of 20 (in English: Major Junior) operate. These leagues are the main providers of players for the NHL draft every summer. Despite the name of the organization and the complete identification of the leagues with Canada, two of them are also active in the United States.
The equivalent of the CHL in the United States is the United States Hockey League (USHL), which operates in the Midwest region. It is considered the top junior league (Tier 1) in the United States[39] and also produces a respectable number of players for the NHL draft.
Another league in North America, whose weight in terms of the number of players coming from it to the NHL draft has been established over the years, is the college league of the United States, organized within the National Collegiate Sports Association (NCAA). The league's Final Four - the semi-final and final games for its annual championship title - is known as the "Frozen Four."
Other main ice hockey frameworks
Extended entries – IIHF, KHL
The world's governing body for ice hockey is the IIHF - the International Ice Hockey Federation, established in 1908. The IIHF is responsible for determining the game's rules and organizing all international events for clubs and national teams. Its flagship enterprises are the Olympic tournament played at the Winter Olympics; the world championship played every year in the months of April - May And the Women's Ice Hockey World Championship is also played every year. The IIHF brings together 82 countries (of which 58 are full members with the right to vote in the organization's institutions), and the local associations in all its member countries are subject to it and run according to its rules (although Canada and the United States gain a certain degree of independence). Israel has been a full member of the IIHF since 1991.
High-level domestic leagues exist mainly in Scandinavia and Eastern and Central Europe. The league considered to be the best in Europe, and the second best in the world after the NHL, is the KHL (Continental Hockey League), which mainly includes the leading teams in Russia but also teams from Belarus, Kazakhstan and China, and in the past also included teams from Latvia, Finland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and Ukraine. Ice hockey is Finland's most popular commercial sport and the second most popular in Sweden after soccer. Successful and popular leagues also exist in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria, where the Austrian league also includes teams from Italy, Hungary, Croatia, and a team from the Czech Republic that left the league in its country. The Swiss league is the most successful ice hockey league in Europe today in terms of average crowd at the courts.
High-level women's ice hockey is played primarily in Canada and the United States. The women's league considered the best in the world was the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL), which operated mainly in Canada, with one American team and two teams in China, which the league expanded in 2017. The two best teams in the league met at the end of each season in a tournament to win the Clarkson Cup, considered the equivalent of the Stanley Cup for women's hockey. After being founded in 2007 as a non-professional league, the league became professional in 2017 at the same time as expanding to China, but in 2019, it announced the cessation of its activities due to financial difficulties[43]. The National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), a thoroughly professional league that initially includes four teams[44], began operating on the East Coast of the United States, which expanded with the addition of a fifth team in Minnesota in 2018 and a sixth team in Toronto in -2020 which is the first Canadian team in the league. The league's championship trophy is called the Isobel Cup, named after Lady Isobel Gatham-Hardy - one of the first known women to play the game, who is also the daughter of Lord Stanley, the sixth Governor General of Canada, the initiator and donor of the Stanley Cup.
The closure of the CWHL highlighted the deep crisis women's professional ice hockey is in as of 2019. Low public interest and a lack of a sustainable business model meant that the players' salaries were meagre and practically did not make their lives possible (so that the leagues that declared themselves to be professional are only semi-professional), social benefits did not exist, and team owners preferred to abandon them. As a result, about 200 Canadian and American actresses have announced the suspension of their activities until the situation changes. The striking players formed a professional association, PWHPA, which has a tournament that competes with the NWHL. The new union was able to form partnerships with NHL teams and its players union, with the organization's goal being the creation of a fully-fledged, sustainable professional league for women's ice hockey.
In 2023, the NWHL league was also closed, which, in the meantime, changed its name to the Premier Hockey Federation, and in the initials PHF. Its assets were bought by businessman Mark Walter, CEO of the Guggenheim family's holding company and former tennis player and women's rights activist Billie Jean King. The two established a new professional league in place of the PHF called the Professional Women's Hockey League, abbreviated PWHL, and the latest league Signed a collective agreement with the PWHPA and returned the striking players to activity as part of an organized professional league. The new league, which includes six teams - 3 in Canada and 3 in the USA - opened its first season on January 1, 2024.
Outside of North America and China, women's ice hockey is relatively widespread, mainly in Russia, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland.
Ice hockey in the Olympics
Ice hockey has been an Olympic sport since the Antwerp Olympics (1920), when the first tournament was played as part of the Summer Olympics. In 1924, the first Winter Olympics took place, and since then, ice hockey has been played as part of the Winter Olympics.
From the Nagano Olympics (1998) to the Sochi Olympics (2014), NHL players participated in the Olympics, according to an agreement between the IIHF, the NHL, the NHL Players Association, and the International Olympic Committee. However, ahead of the PyeongChang Olympics (2018), the NHL announced that it would not allow its players to participate in the Olympics due to financial disputes with the International Olympic Committee and because there was no proven business benefit to the league and the industry from its participation in the Olympics. Despite the intention to return to the Olympic framework and take part in the Beijing Olympics (2022), the NHL and the players' organization withdrew from their intention due to a renewed outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic that caused the postponement of many games in the 2021/22 season, the need for alternative dates for their existence did not allow the league to go into recess for the Olympics.
In the Olympic tournament, Canada and the Soviet Union/Commonwealth/"Olympic Athletes from Russia" won the gold medal nine times each, the United States and Sweden twice each, and Great Britain, the Czech Republic, and Finland once each.
Since the Nagano Olympics (1998) there has also been an Olympic tournament for women. Canada won the gold medal five times and the silver medal twice, the United States won the gold medal twice and the silver medal four times. The two faced each other in all the women's Olympic finals, except for the Turin Olympics (2006)[3].
Finland is the current men's Olympic champion, and Canada is the current women's Olympic champion, having won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics (2022).
World Championship
Extended entries - World Ice Hockey Championship, Women's Ice Hockey World Championship
The IIHF Men's World Championship has been held every year since 1930 except for the years of World War II and the Olympic years until 1964 and between 1980 and 1988 (until 1964, the Olympic tournament was also officially considered the World Championship), when as of 2020 its member countries are divided into eight tiers: top tier There are 16 national teams. Lower levels numbered 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B and 4. Every year, there is a world championship for each of the tiers. Between them, there is a movement of teams in a method of promotions and relegations - for example, the winner of the tier 2A world championship goes up to tier 1B for the next year, the last two in the top tier go down to tier 1A, and so on. The winner of the top-tier world championship, held in April and May, is the world champion for that year.
Since 1977, NHL players have been allowed to participate in the championship and represent their teams. Still, since the tournament occurs at the same time as the first rounds of the NHL playoffs, this option is open mainly to players whose teams did not make the playoffs. During the championship, players whose teams have been eliminated from the playoffs can also join, and teams with players in the NHL sometimes reserve vacant spots in their rosters at the beginning of the championship.
Canada is the current world champion (2023), having won the top-tier 2023 championship held in Finland and Latvia.
Since 1990, the Women's World Championship has also been held. Since 1997, it has been held regularly every year without the Winter Olympics except for 2003, when the Women's World Championship that was to be held in China was cancelled due to the Sars epidemic, and 2020, when the championship that was supposed to be held in Canada was cancelled Due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Starting in 2018, it is also held in the years when the Winter Olympics are held. Canada and the United States proved absolute superiority over the other teams, playing each other in all but one of the finals. Canada has won the championship 13 times and is also the reigning champion (2024) after winning the Women's World Championship held in the United States. The United States has won the championship ten times. The Women's World Championship takes place in a tier system similar to that of the men, with, as of 2024, 10 top-tier companies selected.
Extended values:
The NHL.
The KHL league.
IIHF organization.
World Ice Hockey Championship.
Women's Ice Hockey World Championship.
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