The history of ice hockey.

Most accounts trace ice hockey to stick-and-ball games such as bandy, hurling and shinty, played in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere in the 18th and 19th centuries, with lacrosse as another influence. That is Wikipedia's summary, and it is about as far as the sources agree. England, Windsor in Nova Scotia, Deline in the Northwest Territories and Kingston in Ontario have all been put forward as the birthplace. What is better documented is a game at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink on 3 March 1875, which the Dictionary of Canadian Biography calls the first public exhibition of the sport. From there the story runs through the first published rules in 1877, Lord Stanley's challenge cup in 1892, the founding of the international federation in Paris in 1908 and of the National Hockey League in Montreal in 1917, and on to the Olympics, the women's game and today's NHL, which Wikipedia lists at 32 teams.

How these pages handle disputed history

Hockey history is full of firsts that more than one person, town or club claims. We follow the same rules on every page in this section.

• Where sources disagree, we give each version and say who says it. The year Franklin's men played on Great Bear Lake, who won the first Stanley Cup, which countries founded the international federation and who was the first Indigenous NHL player all come in more than one version.
• Legends are left out or labelled. A claim that rests on one source with no supporting evidence is either dropped or presented as that source's claim.
• Weaker sources are named in the text. Much of the material on NHL expansion, the World Hockey Association and early rule changes comes from Wikipedia or from Scouting the Refs, a site that covers officiating. Where a fact rests only on one of those, the page says so.
• Results and records carry their year. Records are given as of a stated date, because some are still moving. The 2026-27 NHL season is in progress as of October 2026, so no 2027 champion is named anywhere here.

What this section covers

• Origins: the rival birthplace claims, the 1875 Montreal game, James Creighton and the first published rules.
• The Stanley Cup: Lord Stanley's donation, the challenge era, the move to an NHL-only trophy and the engraving tradition.
• The founding of the NHL: the National Hockey Association, the meetings at the Windsor Hotel in November 1917 and the league's first seasons.
• The Original Six and expansion: the six-team era, the 1967 doubling, the World Hockey Association and the road to 32 teams.
• International hockey: the federation founded in 1908, Olympic hockey from 1920, the 1972 Summit Series and the 1980 Miracle on Ice.
• Women's hockey history: from Rideau Hall in the 1890s to the first Women's World Championship, the Olympics and the PWHL.
• Integration: the players who broke racial barriers in the NHL, with dates and sources.
• Equipment history: goalie masks, helmets, visors, neck guards, sticks and pucks.
• Rule changes: the forward pass, the red line, icing, overtime, the shootout and the 2005-06 changes.
• Notable players: titles and records across eras, each with its year.
• Timeline: the dated events in one table, with each row's source and the disputed dates marked.

For the game as it is played now, the Learn section explains the rules and who writes them. Current champions and seasons in progress are in Events.