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This NHL hockey trivia quiz has 158 free questions with answers and covers the league from its 1917 beginnings to the newest franchises: the Original Six and the 1967 doubling, the Canadiens' record Stanley Cup haul, the year the Cup was not awarded, Gretzky's league-wide retired 99, the Nordiques, Whalers, North Stars and Thrashers moves, the Golden Knights' debut run, the draft lottery, the Calder, Hart and Conn Smythe trophies and the season that never happened. The early questions suit anyone who watches a game now and then, such as what the C on a jersey means or where the Rangers play; the later ones ask about the Lindros trade, the Cleveland Barons and the first salary cap figure. It works for a hockey night, a sports bar round or a solo test before the playoffs. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and NHL records, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 158 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which of these teams joined the NHL after its 'Original Six' era?
Philadelphia Flyers
Philadelphia Flyers arrived in the expansion that doubled the league, and within seven seasons beat one of the old six, Boston, in the Final to become the first of the newcomers to win the Stanley Cup.
Q 02In 2024–25 the NHL had 32 teams, matching which other North American league?
NFL
NFL teams have numbered 32 since 2002; the NHL matched it in 2021–22 after adding two clubs, in 2017 and 2021, whose owners paid entry fees of $500 million and $650 million.
Q 03Which Connecticut-based NHL team relocated in 1997 to become the Carolina Hurricanes?
Whalers
Whalers owner Peter Karmanos pulled the team out of Hartford in 1997 after talks on a new arena collapsed; it spent two seasons in Greensboro before its Raleigh rink was ready, as the Carolina Hurricanes.
Q 04What are the NHL's two conferences called?
Eastern and Western
Eastern and Western have been the names only since 1993; before that the conferences were called Wales and Campbell, after a prince's trophy and a league president, and the divisions carried the names of four hockey builders.
Q 05Which NHL team plays its home games at Madison Square Garden?
New York Rangers
New York Rangers home ice has sat on top of Penn Station since 1968; the outcry over demolishing the old station to build the arena led the city to create its Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Q 06Which NHL team began play in 2021 as the league's 32nd team?
Seattle Kraken
Seattle Kraken skate under a roof six decades older than the team: the arena from the city's 1962 World's Fair was dug out and rebuilt beneath its landmark roof, held up on temporary steel columns during the work.
Q 07Which province has two NHL teams, the Flames and the Oilers?
Alberta
Alberta's two clubs contest the 'Battle of Alberta'; one Game 7 between them ended the Oilers' run as two-time champions when Edmonton rookie Steve Smith banked a clearing pass into his own net.
Q 08When the NHL doubled to twelve teams in 1967, all six new clubs were placed in which new division?
West
West Division took all six newcomers, which guaranteed one of them a place in the Stanley Cup Final against the champion of the East, where the six established clubs stayed.
Q 09Which division did the Tampa Bay Lightning play in during the 2024-25 season?
Atlantic Division
Atlantic Division took in Florida's two clubs in the league's last big realignment, adding them to the old Northeast Division, so most of Tampa Bay's division rivals play far to the north, in Canada and the northern United States.
Q 10Where do the Toronto Maple Leafs play their home games?
Scotiabank Arena
Scotiabank Arena began as a basketball project, built inside the shell of a 1941 postal depot for the Raptors; the Leafs' owners bought the NBA team and its half-built arena in 1998 and moved in the next year.
Q 11Which team beat the first-year Vegas Golden Knights in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final for its first title?
Washington Capitals
Washington Capitals took the series 4–1, giving Alex Ovechkin a first Cup in his 13th season; Vegas had reached the Final with a roster of players other clubs left unprotected in the expansion draft.
Q 12Which team did the Quebec Nordiques become after relocating in 1995?
Colorado Avalanche
The Quebec Nordiques relocated to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche in 1995. They won the Stanley Cup in their very first season in Colorado.
Q 13The Boston Bruins' logo nods to which nickname for Boston?
The Hub
Q 21To which city did the Minnesota North Stars relocate in 1993?
Dallas
The North Stars moved to Dallas in 1993 and became the Dallas Stars; Minnesota returned to the NHL with the expansion Wild in 2000.
Q 22What is the name of the Montreal Canadiens' home arena?
Bell Centre
Bell Centre opened in 1996 as the Molson Centre, named for the brewery that owned the Canadiens; when Molson sold the team it gave up the naming rights, and the telecom company Bell took them over in 2002.
Q 23Sidney Crosby was drafted 1st overall in 2005 by which NHL team?
Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Penguins won a lottery open to all 30 teams, held because the cancelled 2004–05 season left no standings to rank them; the club had been in bankruptcy court only seven years earlier.
The Hub: the wheel around the 'B' arrived in 1948 for the club's 25th anniversary, borrowing a nickname that goes back to Oliver Wendell Holmes calling Boston's State House the hub of the solar system.
Q 14What is the name of the annual event where NHL teams select young prospects?
NHL Entry Draft
NHL Entry Draft was called the Amateur Draft until 1979, when the name changed because players who had already turned professional became eligible to be picked.
Q 15Which team relocated in 2011 to become the Winnipeg Jets?
Atlanta Thrashers
Atlanta Thrashers were sold in May 2011 to a Winnipeg group, True North, after years of losses and feuding owners in Georgia; when season tickets for the new team went on public sale, they were gone in 17 minutes.
Q 16Which league did the NHL replace in 1917?
National Hockey Association
National Hockey Association owners wanted rid of one of their own, Toronto's Eddie Livingstone, so in 1917 they suspended their league and started a new one without him: the NHL.
Q 17Who was named a team captain at 19 in 2007 and two years later became the NHL's youngest Cup-winning captain?
Sidney Crosby
Sidney Crosby got the 'C' at 19 years and 9 months; in 2008 his team lost the Final to Detroit, and a year later it beat the same opponent in Game 7, making him at 21 the youngest NHL captain to lift the Cup.
Q 18Connor McDavid was selected 1st overall in the 2015 NHL Draft by which team?
Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton Oilers won the lottery from third-last place, jumping two worse teams to pick first overall for the fourth time in six drafts; Buffalo, bottom of the league, settled for Jack Eichel.
Q 19Which jersey number did the NHL retire league-wide in 2000?
99
99 became Wayne Gretzky's number in junior hockey only because the No. 9 he wanted was taken: his coach suggested doubling it. The NHL retired it for every team at the 2000 All-Star Game.
Q 20The NHL's salary cap, $39 million in 2005, is recalculated each year from what?
League revenue
League revenue sets the cap, because players are guaranteed a fixed share of the money the NHL takes in; as income grew, the ceiling climbed from $39 million to $95.5 million for 2025–26.
Q 24Which team won the 1967 Stanley Cup, the last Final of the six-team era?
Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs won it with the oldest line-up ever to lift the Cup, average age 31 with a 42-year-old goalie, against a much younger Montreal side; through 2026 they had not reached another Final.
Q 25What trophy is awarded annually to the NHL's most valuable player during the regular season?
Hart Memorial Trophy
The Hart Memorial Trophy is awarded to the player judged most valuable to his team during the regular season, as voted by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association.
Q 26The Buffalo Sabres' classic primary logo shows a bison standing above what?
Two crossed sabers
Two crossed sabers illustrate a name chosen in a fan contest: the owners wanted to avoid 'Bisons', and the club's press release praised the sabre as sharp and decisive in attack and a strong parrying weapon in defence.
Q 27Which NHL team absorbed the struggling Cleveland Barons in a 1978 merger?
Minnesota North Stars
Minnesota North Stars and the Barons were both close to folding, so the league let them combine: the merged club kept Minnesota's name and colours, while Cleveland's owners, the Gund brothers, took charge.
Q 28What kind of dispute cancelled the NHL's 2004–05 season?
Owners' lockout
An owners' lockout lasted 310 days and made the NHL the first major North American league to lose a whole season to a labour dispute; the deal that ended it brought in a $39 million salary cap.
Q 29The Conn Smythe Trophy is awarded to the most valuable player during which part of the NHL season?
Stanley Cup Playoffs
The Conn Smythe Trophy is awarded to the MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It is named after Conn Smythe, the former coach and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Q 30Which Penguins star returned from Hodgkin lymphoma treatment in March 1993?
Mario Lemieux
Mario Lemieux flew to Philadelphia on the day of his final radiation treatment, was cheered by the rival crowd and scored that night; he had missed two months yet still won the scoring title, with 160 points in 60 games.