History of the National Hockey League ( 1942 - 1967 ) The Original Six era of the National Hockey League ( NHL ) began in 1942 with the demise of the Brooklyn Americans , reducing the NHL to six teams . The NHL , comprising the Boston Bruins , Chicago Black Hawks , Detroit Red Wings , Montreal Canadiens , New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs , remained stable for a quarter century . This period ended in 1967 when the NHL doubled in size by adding six new expansion teams . Maurice Richard became the first player to score 50 goals in a season in 1944 – 45 . In 1955 , Richard was suspended for assaulting a linesman , leading to the Richard Riot . Gordie Howe made his debut in 1946 . He retired 35 seasons later as the NHL ' s all - time leader in goals and points . Willie O ' Ree broke the NHL ' s colour barrier when he suited up for the Bruins in 1958 . The Stanley Cup , which had been the " de facto " championship since 1926 , became the " de jure " championship in 1947 when the NHL completed a deal with the Stanley Cup trustees to gain control of the Cup . It was a period of dynasties , for the Maple Leafs would win the Stanley Cup nine times from 1942 onwards and the Canadiens ten times , including five consecutive titles between 1956 and 1960 . However , the 1967 championship is the last Maple Leafs title to date . The NHL continued to develop throughout the era . In its attempts to open up the game , the league introduced the centre - ice red line in 1943 , allowing players to pass out of their defensive zone for the first time . In 1959 , Jacques Plante became the first goaltender to regularly use a mask for protection . Off the ice , the business of hockey was changing as well . The first amateur draft was held in 1963 as part of efforts to balance talent distribution within the league . The National Hockey League Players Association was formed in 1967 , ten years after Ted Lindsay ' s attempts at unionization failed . Background . The Great Depression and World War II had a detrimental impact on the NHL in the 1930s and early 1940s . The league peaked at ten teams between 1926 and 1931 ; however financial pressures led to the demise of several teams . The Pittsburgh Pirates relocated to become the Philadelphia Quakers in 1930 before folding in 1931 . The Ottawa Senators became the St . Louis Eagles in 1934 , and likewise ceased operations after one year in their new market . The Montreal Maroons suspended operations in 1937 as the Montreal market was unable to support two teams . The New York Americans , renamed the Brooklyn Americans , suspended operations in 1942 , citing financial difficulty and a lack of players due to the war . By the 1942 – 43 season , the league was reduced to six teams . There was also change at the top ; in February 1943 , league President Frank Calder collapsed during a meeting , dying shortly after . Red Dutton agreed to take over as president after receiving assurances from the league that the Brooklyn franchise he had operated would resume play after the war . When the other team owners reneged on this promise in 1946 , Dutton resigned as league president . With Dutton ' s recommendation , Clarence Campbell was named president of the NHL in 1946 . He remained in that role until his retirement in 1977 . Campbell ' s tenure matched the stability of the league . For the first 21 years of his presidency , the same six teams competed for the Stanley Cup and that period has been called the " golden age of hockey " . The NHL featured increasingly intense rivalries coupled with rule innovations that opened up the game . Post - war period . World War II had ravaged the rosters of many teams to such an extent that by the 1943 – 44 season , teams were battling each other for players . In need of a goaltender , The Bruins won a fight with the Canadiens over the services of Bert Gardiner . Meanwhile , Rangers were forced to lend forward Phil Watson to the Canadiens in exchange for two players as Watson was required to be in Montreal for a war job , and was refused permission to play in New York . With only five returning players from the previous season , Rangers general manager Lester Patrick suggested suspending his team ' s play for the duration of the war . Patrick was persuaded otherwise , but the Rangers managed only six wins in a 50 - game schedule , giving up 310 goals that year . The Rangers were so desperate for players that 42 - year old coach Frank Boucher made a brief comeback , recording four goals and ten assists in 15 games . The Canadiens , on the other hand , dominated the league that season , finishing with a 38 – 5 – 7 record ; five losses remains a league record for the fewest in one season while the Canadiens did not lose a game on home ice . Their 1944 Stanley Cup victory was the team ' s first in 14 seasons . The Canadiens again dominated in 1944 – 45 , finishing with a 38 – 8 – 4 record . They were beat in the playoffs by the underdog Maple Leafs , who went on to win the Cup . NHL teams had exclusively competed for the Stanley Cup following the 1926 demise of the Western Hockey League . Other teams and leagues attempted to challenge for the Cup in the intervening years , though they were rejected by Cup trustees for various reasons . In 1947 , the NHL reached an agreement with trustees P . D . Ross and Cooper Smeaton to grant control of the Cup to the National Hockey League ( NHL ) , allowing the league to reject challenges from other leagues . The last such challenge came from the Cleveland Barons of the American Hockey League in 1953 , but was rejected as the AHL was not considered of equivalent calibre to the NHL , one of the conditions of the NHL ' s deal with trustees . The Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1943 under the leadership of James T . Sutherland , a former President of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association ( CAHA ) . The Hall of Fame was established as a joint venture between the NHL and the CAHA in Kingston , Ontario , considered by Sutherland to be the birthplace of hockey . Originally called the " International Hockey Hall of Fame " , its mandate was to honour great hockey players and to raise funds for a permanent location . The first eleven honoured members were inducted on April 30 , 1945 . It was not until 1961 that the Hockey Hall of Fame established a permanent home at Exhibition Place in Toronto . The first official All - Star Game took place at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on October 13 , 1947 to raise money for the newly created NHL Pension Society . The NHL All - Stars defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4 – 3 and raised C $ 25 , 000 for the pension fund . The All - Star Game has since become an annual tradition . " Rocket " Richard . The 1940s Canadiens were led by the " Punch line " of Elmer Lach , Toe Blake and Maurice " Rocket " Richard . In 1944 – 45 , Lach , Richard and Blake finished first , second and third in the NHL ' s scoring race with 80 , 73 and 67 points respectively . It was Richard who became the focus of the media and fans as he attempted to score 50 goals in a 50 game season , a feat no other player had accomplished in league history . During that season , Richard set a single - game scoring record , scoring five goals and three assists , in a 9 – 1 victory over Detroit on December 28 , 1944 . By later scoring his 45th goal in his 42nd game , he broke Joe Malone ' s goal scoring record . Opposing teams did all they could to prevent him from reaching the 50 - goal mark : he was slashed , elbowed and held as no team wanted to be known as the one that gave up the goal . Richard finally scored his 50th goal in Boston at 17 : 45 of the third period of Montreal ' s final game of the season . No other player scored 50 goals in 50 games until Mike Bossy in 1980 – 81 . In March 1955 , Richard was suspended for the remainder of the season , including the playoffs , after he received a match penalty for slashing Boston ' s Hal Laycoe then punching a linesman who attempted to intervene . The suspension touched off a wave of anger towards Campbell , who was warned not to attend a scheduled game in Montreal after receiving numerous death threats , mainly from French - Canadians accusing him of anti - French bias . Campbell dismissed the warnings , and attended the March 17 game as planned . His presence at the game was perceived by many fans as a provocation and he was booed and pelted with eggs and fruit ; an hour into the game , a fan lobbed a tear - gas bomb in Campbell ' s direction , and firefighters decided to clear the building . Fans leaving the Forum were met by a growing mob of angry demonstrators outside , who overwhelmed the 250 police officers on the scene , and rioted outside of the Forum . Seventy people were arrested , 37 people injured , fifty stores were looted and $ 100 , 000 in property damage was reported in the melee , which became known as " l ' affaire Richard " , or the Richard Riot . The following day , Richard went on the Montreal radio and asked the fans to stop rioting and instead to support the Canadiens in the playoffs ; he also said he would take his punishment and come back the following year to win the Cup . While the Canadiens were eliminated in the 1955 Stanley Cup Finals , Richard led Montreal to the 1956 Stanley Cup . The incident highlighted the growing cultural gap between French Quebec and English Canada and the riot is often described as an early manifestation of Quebec ' s Quiet Revolution . . Campbell ' s decision to suspend Richard was widely supported by fans outside of Quebec . Some , including Detroit ' s Ted Lindsay , said the suspension did not go far enough and argued that Richard , a man who had paid more fines than any other player in league history , should have been banned for life . Richard became the first player to score 500 career goals on October 19 , 1957 . He retired in 1960 as an eight - time Stanley Cup champion , as well as the NHL ' s all - time leading scorer with 544 goals . In 1961 , the league waived the customary three - year waiting period and Richard was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame . " Hockey Night in Canada " . In the fall of 1951 , Conn Smythe watched special television feeds of Maple Leaf games in an attempt to determine whether it would be a suitable medium for broadcasting hockey games . Television already had its detractors within the NHL , especially in Campbell who declared it to be " the greatest menace of the entertainment world " . In 1952 , even though only 10 % of Canadians owned a television set , the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ( CBC ) began televising games . On November 1 , 1952 , " Hockey Night in Canada " was first broadcast on television , with Foster Hewitt calling the action between the Leafs and Bruins at Maple Leaf Gardens . The broadcasts quickly became the highest - rated show on Canadian television . The broadcast came three weeks after Montreal radio host René Lecavalier presented a French - language telecast of the Montreal Canadiens ' opener against Chicago , marking the beginning of " La Soirée du hockey " which Radio - Canada , the French arm of the CBC , broadcast until 2004 . On that same night , Danny Gallivan made his debut as the English language play - by - play announcer for the Canadiens . While Campbell feared televised hockey would cause people to stop attending games in person , Smythe felt the opposite . " There ' ll be thousands of people seeing hockey as played by the pros for the first time . They ' ll be sold on it because it ' s a great game , and they won ' t be satisfied to stay [ at home ] but will turn out to the rinks . " CBS first broadcast hockey games in the United States in the 1956 – 57 season as an experiment . Amazed with the initial popularity of the broadcasts , it inaugurated a 21 - game package of games the following year . The NHL itself adapted to be viewer - friendly . In 1949 , the league mandated that the ice surface be painted white to make the puck easier to see . In 1951 , it required that the home team wear coloured jerseys , and the road team wear white so that each team was distinguishable on black and white television . For the same reason , teams began to paint the centre red line in a checkered pattern to set it apart from the solid blue lines . Dynasties . Toronto Maple Leafs . In the 1951 Stanley Cup Finals , the Maple Leafs defeated the Canadiens four games to one in the only final in NHL history when all games were decided in overtime . The Cup - winning goal was scored by Leafs ' defenceman Bill Barilko after he dashed in from his defensive position , despite an earlier warning from Smythe not to take unnecessary chances , and hammered the puck past Montreal goaltender Gerry McNeil . The goal completed Toronto ' s fourth Stanley Cup championship in five seasons and made Barilko a national hero . Four months later , Barilko and a friend disappeared in Northern Ontario , where they had flown out on a fishing trip . Barilko ' s disappearance became front page news across Canada , and a massive search failed to locate the missing plane . Barilko ' s remains were not found until 1962 , the first year the Maple Leafs won the Cup since Barilko ' s overtime winner eleven years previous . Barilko ' s disappearance was immortalized 40 years later by Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip in their 1992 song " Fifty Mission Cap " . By 1962 , the disappearance of Bill Barilko and the Maple Leafs ' subsequent failure to win the Stanley Cup had led fans in Toronto to believe a curse had been placed on the team . The Leafs won the 1962 championship shortly before Barilko ' s remains were discovered . They repeated as champions in 1963 . In 1964 , the Leafs again played for the Stanley Cup against the Red Wings . Trailing the series 3 – 2 , Maple Leafs ' defenceman Bobby Baun suffered a broken ankle from a Gordie Howe slap shot in the third period of game six . Despite the injury , Baun returned with his ankle taped up and scored the winning goal in overtime . Baun also played the seventh game as the Maple Leafs defeated the Red Wings to win their third consecutive title . Detroit Red Wings . Beginning in 1948 – 49 , the Red Wings won seven consecutive regular season titles , a feat that no other team has accomplished . During that time , the Wings won four Stanley Cups . It was during the 1952 Stanley Cup Finals that the Legend of the Octopus was created . Brothers Pete and Jerry Cusimano brought a dead octopus to the Detroit Olympia for the fourth game of the finals . They reasoned that the eight tentacles of an octopus represented the eight wins required to win the Stanley Cup at the time . The Wings had already won seven consecutive playoff games , and they hoped that the octopus would inspire Detroit to an eighth victory . Detroit went on to defeat Montreal 3 – 0 and the tradition was born . The Wings were led by Gordie Howe . In 1943 , Howe was invited to the Rangers player camp in Winnipeg at the age of 15 but quickly became homesick and failed to make an impression on the Rangers coaches . The Red Wings invited him to their camp the next season where coach Jack Adams called him " the best prospect I ' ve seen in 20 years . " Two years later , Howe made his NHL debut for Detroit at the age of 18 . On March 28 , 1950 , he was nearly killed during a playoff game against the Leafs . Howe mistimed an attempted check on Toronto ' s Ted Kennedy , causing him to slam into the boards head first . Howe was rushed to a hospital where doctors drilled a hole into his skull to relieve pressure on his brain . Despite fears that he would never play again , " Mr . Hockey " not only recovered to start the following season , he won his first of four consecutive scoring titles in 1950 – 51 and was 52 years old when he retired from professional hockey . Montreal Canadiens . The Red Wings faced the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals in three consecutive seasons between 1954 and 1956 . Detroit won the first two match - ups , however Montreal captured the 1956 Stanley Cup , ending one dynasty and starting another . The Canadiens won five consecutive championships between 1956 and 1960 , a feat no other team has duplicated . The Canadiens signed Jean Beliveau , a prospect whose arrival in the NHL had been anticipated for years , in 1953 . Beliveau had repeatedly refused to turn professional with Montreal , as his Quebec Senior Hockey League team , the Quebec Aces , matched any contract offer the Canadiens made . Montreal ultimately bought the entire league outright , along with the rights to all players , and turned it professional . Beliveau finally signed with Montreal for $ 105 , 000 over five years and a $ 20 , 000 bonus , an unprecedented contract for a rookie . Beliveau ultimately won ten Stanley Cups in Montreal . Led by Richard and Beliveau , the 1950s Canadiens had so much offensive ability the NHL was forced to amend its rules to slow their offence down . The 1955 – 56 Canadiens frequently scored multiple goals during the same two - minute powerplay . In one game against Boston , Beliveau scored three goals in 44 seconds on the same Bruins penalty . The league instituted a rule for the following season that permitted a player serving a minor penalty to return to the ice early if one goal was scored against his team . Breaking the colour barrier . On January 18 , 1958 , Willie O ' Ree joined the Bruins as an injury call - up for a game in Montreal . In doing so he became the first black player in the NHL . O ' Ree played only two games with the Bruins in the 1957 – 58 season . He returned to the NHL in 1960 – 61 , playing another 43 games with Boston . Although he only played 45 NHL games , scoring four goals , it was enough for him to be labeled the " Jackie Robinson of hockey " . O ' Ree faced blatant racism from opponents throughout the season , remarking that " people just wanted a piece of me , maybe because they thought I was different , so I had to defend myself . I wasn ' t going to be run out of any rink . " He faced racial slurs from fans when he played in Chicago , Detroit and New York , though the taunts were mostly absent in Montreal and Toronto . O ' Ree was supported by his teammates and the fans in Boston . He stated that " they were mean to me in places like Detroit and New York , too . But never in Boston . I ' ll never forget how my teammates there — men like Johnny Bucyk , Doug Mohns , Charlie Burns and Don McKenney — took care of me . They accepted me totally . All of them had class . " O ' Ree was traded to Montreal in 1961 but was unable to crack the Canadiens ' line - up . He played over 20 minor league seasons , twice winning the Western Hockey League ' s scoring title , with the Los Angeles Blades in 1964 and the San Diego Gulls in 1969 . O ' Ree ' s breakthrough came several years after another black player , Herb Carnegie was denied the same opportunity . Playing junior hockey with the Ontario Hockey Association ' s Toronto Rangers in 1938 – 39 , Carnegie was pulled aside by his coach during a practice : " See that man sitting in the blues ? That ' s Conn Smythe , owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs . He says he ' d take you tomorrow if he could turn you white . " Stung by the comments , Carnegie resolved to excel at the game . He was offered a tryout with the Rangers in 1950 , and a spot on their lowest minor league team . " They told me that if I signed with the Rangers and went to New Haven , I would make international headlines . I told them my family couldn ' t eat headlines . That was probably when the Rangers decided to forget about me . " " Norris House League " . During the 1960s , it was often joked that " NHL " stood for " Norris House League " as the Norris family held interests in several of the league ' s teams , interests inherited from the patriarch , James E . Norris . James E . Norris had once played ice hockey for the Montreal Hockey Club , and fashioned the Red Wings logo to resemble the Montreal team ' s logo . When he died in 1952 , he passed his interests along to his sons Bruce and James D . James D . Norris was a co - owner of the Black Hawks along with Arthur Wirtz , while his brother Bruce inherited ownership of the Red Wings . James D . Norris was also the largest shareholder in Madison Square Garden , giving him control over the Rangers . The Black Hawks qualified for the playoffs only once between 1949 and 1957 . The team ' s fortunes turned in 1958 – 59 , following the acquisition of Ted Lindsay and Glenn Hall from Detroit . The Black Hawks made the playoffs , losing to Montreal in the semi - finals in 1959 and 1960 before capturing their first championship in 23 years in the 1961 Stanley Cup Finals . This stood as the longest active cup drought in the NHL until the 2009 - 10 season when Chicago won the cup . The Hawks ' resurgence in the 1960s led Norris and Wirtz to take advantage of their customers . Dubbed the " Chicken Wings " by fans , the Hawks were famous for fleecing their fans . Ticket sellers were arrested for scalping from the box office , while the team charged $ 9 for playoff tickets in 1965 , $ 3 more than Detroit , Toronto or Montreal . The Hawks also refused to broadcast road playoff games in Chicago , preferring to charge fans to watch the games via closed - circuit television at Chicago Stadium . Fans responded to the announcements by littering the ice and passing out leaflets urging a boycott of the team during Chicago ' s last regular season game in 1964 – 65 . Expansion . In 1963 , Rangers governor William Jennings introduced to his peers the idea of expanding the league to the American West Coast by adding two new teams for the 1964 – 65 season . His argument was based around concerns that the Western Hockey League intended to operate as a major league in the near future . He also hoped that teams on the west coast would make the league truly national , and improve the chances of returning to television in the United States as the NHL had lost its deal with CBS . While the governors did not agree to the proposal , the topic of expansion came up every time the owners met from then on out . In 1965 , it was decided to expand by six teams , doubling the size of the NHL . San Francisco – Oakland and Vancouver were declared " acceptable cities " with Los Angeles and St . Louis as potential sites . Fourteen applications were received from across Canada and the United States , including four from Los Angeles . In February 1966 , the governors met and decided to award franchises to Los Angeles , Minnesota , Philadelphia , Pittsburgh , San Francisco and St . Louis . The league rejected bids from Baltimore , Buffalo and Vancouver . The six winning bids each paid $ 2 million for their franchises . St . Louis was awarded despite no bid being received . The league ' s decision to grant the city a team if a potential owner stepped forward was influenced by the Norris and Wirtz families , who owned the St . Louis Arena . Canadians were outraged that none of the expansion teams were awarded to Canada . Prime Minister Lester B . Pearson stated that " the NHL decision to expand only in the U . S . impinges on the sacred principles of all Canadians . " Maple Leafs coach Punch Imlach stated that Vancouver was " sold out " and that Toronto and Montreal did not want to share television revenue with another Canadian team . Leafs co - owner Stafford Smythe put the blame on the city of Vancouver . Smythe had offered to build and operate an $ 8 million facility in the city ' s downtown area but a proposal to sell a $ 2 . 5 million section of land to Smythe for $ 1 was defeated in a municipal referendum . " Vancouver lost its chance the day it turned down the referendum on our arena proposal " , Smythe said . " That proved to me that the people out there aren ' t interested in going major league . " The Original Six era ended with the 1967 Stanley Cup Finals between the two - time defending champion Canadiens , and the Maple Leafs . The oldest team in the league , the third place Leafs were led in goal by 37 - year old Terry Sawchuk and 42 - year old Johnny Bower . Known as the " over the hill gang " , Toronto became the oldest team to win the Cup by defeating the favoured Canadiens in six games . The Maple Leafs have not appeared in the Stanley Cup finals since . Rules and innovations . Due to travel restrictions required during World War II , league president Frank Calder abolished the 10 - minute overtime for regular season games in 1942 so that teams could catch their trains without delays . Regular season overtime did not return with the conclusion of the war , though playoff games continued until a winner was decided . Overtime was not re - introduced for the regular season until the 1983 – 84 season . In 1943 , the rules committee was looking for ways to increase the speed of the game and make it more entertaining . Rangers coach Frank Boucher proposed that the neutral zone be divided by a centre red line , and that teams be allowed to pass the puck out of the defensive zone into their half of the neutral zone . Previously , the league required that defensive players skate the puck out of their defensive zone , not permitting a pass across the blue line . Introduced in 1943 – 44 , the new rule changed how the game was played . Where strong forechecking teams were previously able to pin their opponents in their own zone for minutes at a time , teams were able to create rushes up the ice by having defencemen pass to forwards across the blue line . Scoring increased 10 % league - wide , and four of six teams topped 200 goals , the first teams to do so . Stan Mikita inadvertently introduced the curved blade to the hockey stick in the early 1960s . Having cracked his blade during a practice and not wanting to go get another , Mikita shot the puck in anger . He noticed that the curve made by the crack caused the puck to behave differently . Mikita and Bobby Hull experimented with heating and bending the blade of their sticks to create different curves . Mikita went on to win four Art Ross Trophies as the NHL ' s leading scorer using a curved blade . He later said that he regretted the idea . " It ' s one of the worst inventions in hockey , because it eliminated the use of the backhand . " The NHL Amateur Draft was first held on June 5 , 1963 at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal , Quebec . It was created by Campbell as a means to distribute talent on a more even basis . To that point , teams had sponsored junior clubs directly , buying the rights to players on those teams . The first player selected in the 1963 draft was Garry Monahan , a 16 - year - old player with the St . Michaels Juveniles . Monahan remains the youngest player ever selected in an NHL draft . The Entry Draft system did not fully replace the sponsorship system until 1969 . Goaltending . Clint Benedict was the first goaltender to wear facial protection , donning it in 1930 to protect a broken nose . He quickly abandoned his mask as its design interfered with his vision . Twenty - nine years later , Jacques Plante made the goalie mask a permanent fixture in hockey . Plante began wearing a mask in practice in 1956 after twice suffering broken cheekbones on shots from his teammates during workouts . Montreal coach Toe Blake refused to allow Plante to wear his mask in games . That changed on November 1 , 1959 when Plante was struck in the face early in a game at Madison Square Garden . As teams did not dress backup goaltenders during this time , the game was delayed 20 minutes while doctors frantically stitched Plante up . When Blake asked Plante if he was ready to return to play , Plante refused to return to the ice unless he was allowed to wear his mask . Blake was livid , but agreed only if Plante removed the mask when his face was healed . Wearing the mask , Plante led the Canadiens on an 18 - game unbeaten streak . He finally removed the mask at Blake ' s urging and promptly lost the first game . Defeated , Blake relented . Plante ' s mask became a permanent fixture as he led the Canadiens to their fifth consecutive Stanley Cup . Other goalies followed Plante ' s lead soon after . Despite not wearing a mask for most of his career , Terry Sawchuk played goal crouched down so low that his shoulders nearly touched his knees , a technique which became known as the " gorilla crouch " . Sawchuk relied on his ability to see the puck under the players ' bodies , his increased mobility and his own reflexes to win four Vezina Trophies during his career . By 1955 , he was regarded as the greatest goaltender to ever play the game . Sawchuk ' s career was cut short when he died in 1970 from injuries suffered in a drunken incident with teammate Ron Stewart . The Hall of Fame waived its waiting period , immediately inducting Sawchuk , who died as the NHL ' s all - time record holder in wins ( 447 ) and shutouts ( 103 ) . Sawchuk ' s style of play was a precursor to the modern butterfly style of goaltending . The butterfly style , which is used by almost all modern goaltenders , was invented by Glenn Hall : considered both unique and foolish , Hall ' s style of dropping to his knees and kicking his pads out in a V formation forced shooters to aim for the top half of the net . Hall adopted the technique as a youth when he lacked the arm strength to stop shots with his stick . Hall , an eight - time All - Star , became an NHL regular at the start of the 1955 – 1956 season and began a sequence of 502 consecutive games as a goaltender for Detroit and Chicago , a record that has been hailed as one of the NHL ' s most unbreakable . Unionization . The first players ' union was formed February 12 , 1957 by Red Wings player Ted Lindsay who had sat on the board of the NHL ' s Pension Society since 1952 . Lindsay and his fellow players were upset by the league ' s refusal to let them view the books related to the pension fund . The league claimed that it was barely breaking even financially , and so could not contribute more than it did . Players on the Pension Committee suspected otherwise , leading Lindsay and Doug Harvey of the Canadiens to discussions on forming a union in 1956 . The idea quickly gained popularity and when the union ' s founding was announced publicly , every NHL player had signed up with the exception of Ted Kennedy , who was retiring . The owners immediately worked to crush the union . Toronto owner Conn Smythe compared the players association to communism : " I feel that anything spawned in secrecy as this association was certainly has to have some odour to it . " Red Wings president Bruce Norris responded by trading Lindsay to his brother ' s team , the Black Hawks . The move was widely seen as punitive , as the Hawks had finished last in the NHL every season , save one , from 1949 until 1957 . Lindsay was not the only player sent to Chicago as punishment ; Glenn Hall was included as he refused to distance himself from Lindsay . In Toronto , Smythe repeatedly benched Jim Thomson , who was the union ' s secretary , before also dealing him to the Black Hawks . The Players ' Association responded by filing a $ 3 million anti - trust lawsuit against the NHL . Persuaded by teammates Gordie Howe and Red Kelly , the Red Wings players voted to withdraw from the association in November 1957 . Other teams quickly followed , and the union capitulated . Union leadership ultimately agreed to drop the lawsuit in exchange for small concessions , which included a minimum annual salary of $ 7 , 000 , increases to the pension contributions and moving expenses for traded players . Led by Alan Eagleson , the National Hockey League Players ' Association ( NHLPA ) was formed in 1967 . Eagleson became the sport ' s first player agent in 1966 when he negotiated a deal on behalf of Bobby Orr with the Bruins that saw the 18 - year - old rookie become the highest paid player in the NHL . At its peak , Eagleson ' s practice represented 150 professional athletes . Eagleson had also helped settle an American Hockey League players strike sparked by mistreatment of players . In June 1967 , the NHLPA was announced , and quickly received acceptance from the owners .