74 Interesting Facts About Ice Hockey

Last updated on June 28th, 2023

Each of these teams has its unique history that not only its players recall with nostalgia, but also fans and the sporting fraternity. We have compiled a list of interesting facts about NHL teams, so read on to find out what these teams and the league at large have offered to the sporting world and especially ice hockey.

1. New Jersey Devils

It’s Martin Brodeur is the most memorable player in the franchise. He led the New Jersey Devils to clinch three of the prestigious Stanley Cup Championships and remains the league’s all-time ruler in goalie wins, awarded goals as well as shutouts.

2. Tampa Bay Lighting

After bagging 418 points with Tampa Bay Lightning, Victor Hedman entered the team’s immortal records as the all-time scorer any defenseman has ever recorded since its inception. This is a fit that is not easy to achieve at least going by the attempts made by players.

3. Columbus Blue Jackets

The Blues made their first debut at Stanley Cup playoffs in 2009 and even though they lost, a five-year wait could later earn them their first playoff victory and a later becoming the first-ever team to win the President’s Trophy in the first round.

4. Florida Panthers

When it comes to assist records, Florida Panthers cannot go unmentioned, especially because of Stephen Weiss who recorded 249 assists, making him the franchise’s all-time assists leader.

5. Carolina Hurricanes

In 1977 when the Franchise signed the 49-year-old legend in the history of the game Gordie Howe, people thought that was already amazing only to their surprise that he played alongside his two sons for a record three seasons until when he retired.

6. Colorado Avalanche

Overtime goals are unique in the NHL record and Stanley Cup in particular and Joe Sakic has found himself a worth future famer for scoring seven the latest being in 2006 against the Stars.

7. Dallas Stars

Dallas Stars has its fair share of memorable history, but one that remains so intimate with this great team is when Brett Hull became its first player to be included in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009, joining his father Bobby to become the first father-and-son pair of players in the Hall. 

8. Los Angeles Kings

Los Angeles is revered for registering the fastest goals in the league’s playoff history when it scored against the Bruins in the 6th second of the first round during the 1977 season. But as fate would have it, the Kings painfully lost the game in a 4-2 outcome.

9. Chicago Blackhawks

Pundits have agreed that the Stanley Cup Final of 1973 between the Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens is the most thrilling in history in which a total of 56 goals were scored in six games with the first game recording the highest scoring series in which they scored 8 and 7 respectively.

10. The Vancouver Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks have their placed reserved when someone mentions the President’s Trophy but interestingly lost the Stanley Cup Final the same year, something that has never occurred in the game.

11. Edmonton Oilers

So far, no NHL eighth-seeded franchise has won the Stanley Cup Championship, but the Oilers are recognized as the closest when they narrowly lost to Carolina Hurricanes in Game 7 during the 2006 Final.

12. Carolina Hurricanes

After signing up the young Syechnikov at 20 years, Carolina games became the most interesting to watch, but the whole fun and excitement came when the talented player scored the first-ever lacrosse-style goal in the history of NHL.

13. Toronto Maple Leafs

Toronto Maple Leafs has won a total of 13 Stanley Cup Championships, an achievement only challenged by Montreal Canadiens, a 24-time champion. While it is remembered for this great achievement, its 53-season drought between its championships is so far the longest in the NHL. What’s more, the team mistakenly threw its 1962 Stanley Cup Trophy after they were announced the winner.

14. Detroit Red wings

The Red Wings have won four Stanley Cups in six years two of which were won in overtime of the 7th Game and in 1950 when it won in the deciding game when it played New York Rangers and later on in 1954 against the Canadiens. These two games are the only ones in NHL championships to have gone to and won in overtime of the 7th and determining Game.

15. Montreal Canadiens

The Canadiens have the unparalleled record of wining the most Stanley Cup Finals having won 24 Stanley Cups of which 23 were won after the NHL was founded. Cumulatively as of 2019, the Canadiens have won 25 percent of all the Stanley Cup Finals ever to have been played after 1927. This makes Montreal Canadiens the team with the most achievements in the four major sports in both Canada and the U.S.

16. New York Rangers

The general belief that by the Americans, a team in the New York City that the Rangers were the favorites something that caused the team to be wound-up. Since that time, Red Dutton, the general Manager for Americans declared that the Rangers would never record any win in a Stanley Cup for as long as he was alive. And true to his words, it never did until his death. This came to be widely known as the Dutton’s curse.

17. Boston Bruins

The Bruins is the NHL’s third-oldest franchise and the oldest ice hockey team in the United States of America. Its first field was the world’s oldest indoor ice hockey pitch that is still under use having been in existence since 1924.

18. Minnesota Wild

Having given Minnesota Wild all-time 688 points, Mikko Koivu is the team’s leading player. This is not just a feat that Koivu has achieved in the franchise, but it also rivals the record of other players in the NHL.

19. Nashville Predators

Since its inception and debut in the NHL, the Predators recorded their first appearance at the Stanley Cup finals in 2017 but lost to the Penguins. Their luck could only show up the following year when they won the President’s Trophy and the Central Division title, an achievement that remains so sentimental to them.

20. Pittsburg Penguins

When the penguins won their Stanley Cup Finals in 2016 and 2017 back-to-back, they entered the books of history as the first team to have won back-to-back in 19 years after Detroit red Wings did the same and the first team to have done so since the inception of the NHL salary cap.

21. New York Islanders

The Islanders have every reason to boast as the makers of the NHL history at least going by their four consecutive wins of Stanley Cup and the seventh dynasty that is already in the NHL history. So far, their 19 consecutive playoff wins that occurred closest (between 1980 and 1984) is undoubtedly the feat that no other team has challenged not only in NHL but all other professional sports.

22. Ottawa Senators

The franchise has had several managers with each having his own achievements, but Bryan Murray, a seventh manager at the Senators was the longest-serving general manager in the history of the franchise who was at the helm between 2007 and 2016.

23. Arizona Coyotes

Players come and go but this could not apply to Shane Doan, the team’s captain that led the Coyotes for the longest time and for playing the most games. He also remains the last player to have grazed the field for Winnipeg.

24. Philadelphia Flyers

The team boasts of the most appearances in the finals among the 24 expansion teams in which it won 8 of its 16 appearances.

25. Washington Capitals

Nicklas Backstrom is the player in the group of 2007-2008 that included Claude Giroux and Patrick Kane, who has the most assists. He recorded 427 assists in just 98 seasons, which is the highest not only in the team but also in NHL.

26. St. Louis Blues

Perhaps St. Louis is the second team behind Toronto Maple to have had a long wait that lasted for 49 years after their last appearance. After their victory in their fourth Stanley Cup Championship, the Blues became the last active team from the teams that joined the rest in 1967 expansion to win their first Stanley Cup.

27. Anaheim Ducks

Founded as the Mighty Ducks, the franchise was sold in 2005 and changed its name to Anaheim Ducks, a year that came with fortune or luck as one may prefer. It won their first division title in the 2006-2007 season under the leadership of Selanne and the all-time budding stars Ryan Getzlaf ad Corey Perry.

28. San Jose Sharks

After registering 745 regular season assists at the Sharks, Joe Thornton is the team’s holder of the record as the highest in terms of assists to have recorded since the team first came into existence.

29. Vegas Golden Knights

Coaches are less spoken about people when it comes to NHL, but the Vegas coach Gerard Gallant is remembered for defining history while as a player with Red Wings between 1988 and 1989 when he recorded 39 goals, 93 points, and a whopping 230 penalty minutes all behind him made history as a player. He is the first player in NHL to have registered such an achievement in a single season.

30. Calgary Flames

When assessed based on the number of goals scored by a goaltender, Miikka Kiprusoff is so far the player with the most wins to have worn the Flames jersey, and he easily went into the Hockey Hall of Fame alongside four other players who played with the Flames.

31. Tampa Bay Lightning

As the team’s best-ever scorer to have been on record, Victor Hedman has 418 points under his name with the Tampa Bay Lightning, becoming the franchise’s all-time top scorer among the defensemen to have grazed the field since the inception of the team.