Every hockey fan knows all about the Original Six. Even today, those six franchises dominate the game in terms of fan base and media coverage, and their rich histories make any matchup between them feel like something special.
But what about the next six? After all, the NHL added a half-dozen additional teams way back in 1967. While not all of them went on to the same level of success and prestige as their predecessors, surely those next six teams deserve to be just as well known and respected among the current generation of hockey fans.
Here's a historical look back at the NHL's Almost-But-Not-Quite-Original Six.
California Seals
Why they got a team: Satisfied the league's main criteria for a southern California franchise by agreeing not to name the team after a terrible movie.
All-time highlight: Impressively won the first two games in franchise history, although in hindsight celebrating that achievement by giving everyone the rest of the year off may have been a strategic mistake.
Lowest moment: Made a habit of infuriating fans by changing their uniform and color scheme almost every year with a series of increasingly amateurish designs, or as the NHL calls it these days, “marketing.”
Lasting legacy: Eventually relocated to Cleveland, finished last for two straight years, and then folded. So basically, the most successful sports franchise in Cleveland history.
Minnesota North Stars
Why they got a team: Players occasionally complained that it got cold in Toronto and Montreal, and the league figured they might enjoy learning what that word actually means.
All-time highlight: Made appearances in the Stanley Cup final in 1981 and 1991, but were unable to win a championship due to their unfortunate insistence on adhering to the league's skate-in-the-crease rules.
Lowest moment: Were forced to move to Dallas in 1993 after Minnesota hockey fans sent a strong message that they would not support a professional hockey team that had a logo they could understand.
Lasting legacy: Taught us all that your dreams really can come true, assuming you are the 1988 Toronto Maple Leafs and your dream is to make the Norris Division playoffs with fifty-two points.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Why they got a team: The league knew that their new expansion teams could range from star-studded Stanley Cup winners to perpetually bankrupt disasters, and figured they'd kill two birds with one stone.
All-time highlight: Well, we could mention the back-to-back Stanley Cups, the brilliance of Mario Lemieux or Jaromir Jagr or Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby, or the third Cup in 2009, but who's kidding who? It was when Jean-Claude Van Damme played a shift for them as goalie in the movie Sudden Death.
Lowest moment: Were widely accused of tanking the last few weeks of the 1983–84 season in an effort to draft Lemieux, which was unfair because their players showed a ton of hustle every night while repeatedly shooting the puck into their own net.
Lasting legacy: Have shown that even a smaller-market team can win a championship if they stay patient, develop a strong farm system, and remember to finish dead last whenever there's a generational superstar available in the draft.
St. Louis Blues
Why they got a team: Were awarded the last of the six expansion teams in a surprising decision over the consensus favorite, Baltimore, presumably after somebody in the NHL visited Baltimore.
All-time highlight: Played in the Stanley Cup final in each of their first three years after winning the all-expansion West Division, or as it was known back then, “The Division That Will Provide Cannon Fodder for the Actual Good Teams in the Final.”
Lowest moment: Finished dead last in the NHL in the first season after the 2005 lockout after failing to bother signing any impact free agents, since every star player had sworn to never play in a league with a salary cap, and obviously nobody would lie about that sort of thing.
Lasting legacy: Made the playoffs for twenty-five straight years at one point, an era that included such memorable post-season moments as … um … that time they played that other team and then one of them won.
Philadelphia Flyers
Why they got a team: Because they said they wanted one. Do you have a problem with that?
All-time highlight: They became the first of the expansion teams to capture the Stanley Cup in 1974, although it's worth pointing out that they “captured” it by having Dave Schultz beat up all the security guards at the Hall of Fame and walk out with it.
Lowest moment: Wore full-length Cooperalls for a season, marking the only time in history that anyone looked at somebody from Philadelphia and wished they would take their pants off.
Lasting legacy: Apparently not much of one since they didn't even exist until the mid-90s, according to all these people who keep saying hockey is more violent now than ever before.
Los Angeles Kings
Why they got a team: The league had already decided to put the Seals in California, and apparently figured the state deserved a hockey team too.
All-time highlight: Beat Edmonton 6–5 in a 1982 playoff game that came to be known as the “Miracle on Manchester” because, younger fans assume, it featured the Oilers in a playoff game.
Lowest moment: Their blockbuster trade for Wayne Gretzky in 1988 paved the way for the NHL's aggressive expansion into the southern United States over the next decade, and look how well that turned out.
Lasting legacy: Performed an invaluable service to the hockey community by teaching a generation of young players an important lesson about how illegal stick blades are measured.