The World's Biggest Ice Hockey Leagues and Championships

How the NHL is structured

The NHL is divided into two conferences: The American League and the National League. These two conferences battle it out during the regular season from early October to April, with the postseason commencing immediately afterwards. It’s during the postseason when the intensity really starts to heat up. Each team is assigned 82 games, with 41 of these game played at home and the remaining 41 played on the road. Eastern teams play 28 games in their own division, which is based on geographic regions: four games against each of the seven other teams in the division. The other 24 games are comprised of three games each against the remaining eight teams in the conference. So now for the Western conference. This may be a lot to take in but we’re almost there… Western teams play either 26 or 29 interdivisional games- either four or five against the six or seven divisional opponents- and either 21 or 24 against the conference’s remaining teams- with one cross-division game in four games. Each team plays every team in the opposing conference twice- one game at home and one game on the road, bringing the total number of games for each team to 82.

Players in the NHL

The NHL is a star-driven league and acknowledges its players with a number of awards based on the season’s performance. These awards include the William M. Jennings Trophy, which goes to the goaltender on the team that has conceded the fewest goals, the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy for the player who has scored the most goals, and the Art Ross Trophy for the league scoring champion, which takes both goals and assists into account.

Players, along with coaches, team builders, and officials, who have enjoyed some of the most successful careers in the history of the sport are eligible to be awarded a place into the Hockey Hall of Fame. There’s no greater individual accolade in the sport than a place in the Hall. In 1999, a gentleman by the name of Wayne Gretzky was given this very honour. Heard of him? You should have. Gretzky is often regarded as the greatest ice hockey player ever to walk on the ice. Some would opt for Mario Lemieux but then only Gretzky is known as “The Great One”.

How the Stanley Cup is structured

At the end of each NHL season, 16 teams compete in the Stanley Cup playoffs, a tournament which comprises three rounds in a best-of-seven series in a bid to progress to the next round. The winner of this tournament is awarded the mighty Stanley Cup. Eight teams from each of the two conferences qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. These eight teams are comprised of the three best-performing teams in each division and the two teams in each conference with the next highest points tally. In each round, the team with the higher ranking is given home-ice advantage, which means that four of the seven games are played at that team’s venue. When it comes to the final, the team with the highest number of points scored during the regular season is awarded home-ice advantage.

Teams with the highest number of Stanley Cup wins:

How the Ice Hockey World Championships are structured

There are 16 teams in the main group, which are divided into two, based on their present world ranking. The previous four Ice Hockey World Championships, along with the previous Winter Olympics, determine the rankings. The results of the most recent tournaments, however, have a stronger influence on the ranking i.e. the most recent World Championships were assigned 100 per cent value, the prior tournament 75 per cent, and so on. The two groups of eight teams see each team play seven games in a preliminary round. The best four performing teams from these groups are awarded a place in the knockout playoff stage. In the last eight, the top-ranked team from one group competes against the fourth-ranked team from the opposite group and the second-ranked team plays the third-ranked team in the opposite group. The four winners then progress to the semi-final stage.

Players in the Ice Hockey World Championships

Since 1977, both amateur and professional players have been eligible to participate in the Ice Hockey World Championships. However, in the case of a player who has no experience in an IIHF tournament and who decides to change citizenship, he has no choice but to represent his newly-adopted country in national tournaments for a minimum of two years in a row, as well as possess an International Transfer Card (ITC).

Should a player who has previously taken part in an IIHF competition request to represent a different national team, he must have at least four years experience of playing in his new country. A player is only allowed to do this on a single occasion.

How Ice Hockey in the Winter Olympics is structured

Since 1976, there have been 12 teams taking part. Once the NHL granted permission for its players to participate in the 1998 Winter Olympics, the Big Six teams were given automatic qualification and byes to the final round. In that same year, the number of teams increased from 12 to 14 in order to accommodate a preliminary round-robin competition comprised of eight teams. The same format was used in 2002 before reverting back to 12 teams in the following competition. The 2008 IIHF World Ranking was used to determine qualification for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The top-ranked teams automatically qualified, with those teams that ranked 19th-30th batting it out in a qualifying round. The top three ranking teams progressed to a further qualification round, along with teams that ranked 10th-18th. Finally, the top three ranking teams from this round progressed to the Olympics.

Players in the Winter Olympics

Prior to the Winter Olympics in 1984, there was some argument as to how a professional player should be defined. So a rule was established by the International Olympic Committee that said any player contracted to an NHL team but who had been on the ice for under 10 games was able to play in the Olympics. Not to be outdone, the U.S. Olympic Committee asserted that any NHL player should be deemed professional and was, therefore, ineligible. The IOC then decided that any players who had signed with an NHL team were only eligible if they hadn’t played at all for the NHL. In 1988, a new ruling was introduced by the IOC that stated all athletes were able to play in the Olympics. But that wasn’t the end of it. Not ones to give in easily, the NHL decided to forbid any of its players to take part in the Winter Olympics in 1988-1994, as well as in 2018, due to the Games take place during the NHL regular season.

How the EIHL is structured

The EIHL comprises three conferences: the Gardiner Conference, the Patton Conference, and the Erhardt Conference.

Each team is assigned two points for a win and one for a shootout or overtime loss. In overtime, there are five minutes of three-on-three play, which ends as soon as a goal has been scored. The team that has amassed the highest number of points at the end of the season is named the champion.

Players in the EIHL

EIHL teams import many of their players. A large number of these players are imported from North America, where they typically played in the minor leagues like the AHL and ECHL. The league does place a restriction, however, on how many of these players can suit up for any one game, with 14 being the current limit. As so many players are from North America, the North American style of play is prevalent in the EIHL i.e. it’s far more physical than in Europe, where they demonstrate a more technical playing style.

While there is only a small amount of British players in the EIHL, there’s no shortage of these players representing their country for the Great Britain team. Each of the 22 players on the 2018 World Championships squad played on EIHL teams the season prior.