When Was Their First Stanley Cup? Quiz

Though preceding Montreal teams also won the Challenge Cup in years prior to the formation of the National Hockey League in 1917, the Montreal Canadiens, which formed as part of the NHA (National Hockey Association), took their first Stanley Cup. The Canadiens would continue to be a major contender for more than a hundred years of North American hockey, winning the Stanley Cup another twenty-three times over the next 100 years.

After Seattle in 1917 and the New York Rangers in 1928, the Bruins would beat the Rangers for the Cup in this 1929 win, making them the third U.S. team to take the prize. Boston is amongst the 'Original Six', the six teams that made up the NHL for twenty-five years starting in 1942. They wouldn't win the Cup in any of those years.

Although both the Toronto Hockey Club and the Toronto St. Patricks won the Stanley Cup in earlier years, the Maple Leafs formed in 1917 and went on to win the Cup for the first time in 1932. This would make the third win by a Toronto team; Toronto would win 12 more in their first fifty years.

The Red Wings, after competing in the NHL for a number of years (formed in 1926), finally won their first Stanley Cup after a stellar playoff season in 1936. They would go on to, as a franchise, win more Stanley Cups than any other U.S.-based teams in the twentieth century; four of those were in the 1950s during Gordie Howe's time on their roster.

The Flyers not only won the Cup in 1974, but claimed it again in 1975 in a back-to-back victory (the first against the Bruins and the second against the Sabres). The 1974 win ended up being the first time that any team not amongst the original six franchises took the Stanley Cup.

They wouldn't end up winning another cup in the twentieth century, but they would go on to have one of the highest consistent all-time points percentages in the league.

Though Calgary was a team for nine years at this point, 1989 was the first instance in which they won the Stanley Cup; they wouldn't get close again until 2004 when they lost the final game of the final series against the Tampa Bay Lightning (who won their first Stanley Cup that year). Before being a Calgary team, the Flames found their home in Atlanta (founded 1972, moved to Calgary in 1980). Atlanta wouldn't get a team again until 1999, but they would soon transfer to Winnipeg, becoming the Jets in 2011.

The Penguins were another team on the NHL roster to take back-to-back wins with their first-ever Stanley Cup coming in 1991 and their second coming the year after. They would do another back-to-back run in 2016 and 2017. In terms of team rankings, the Penguins have, historically, been one of the most celebrated of the 1967 expansion franchises; the first back-to-back wins were led by captain Mario Lemieux while the second two had Sidney Crosby at the helm.

Winners of the Stanley Cup in 1996, 2001, and 2022, the Colorado Avalanche not only won the playoffs in their first year in Colorado (formed in Quebec in 1972), but won it against another newly formed team, the Florida Panthers (formed in 1993). Originally, the Colorado Avalanche was based in Quebec City as the Quebec Nordiques, but during their more-than-two-decades run there, they were the smallest market in the NHL. Looks like the change of scenery in 1996 (and the Rocky Mountain air) worked wonders.

A 1967 expansion team, the Los Angeles Kings took almost fifty years before achieving their very first Stanley Cup win. They would get another in 2014. In both cases, the team was overseen by NHL figurehead Darryl Sutter. He would also lead the Calgary Flames to a Stanley Cup finals as coach in 2004 (though they would lose to Tampa Bay).

The St. Louis Blues would win this, their first Stanley Cup, after fifty-two years in the NHL (they joined as a 1967 expansion team). Their appearance in the playoff finals in 2019 would be their first since the 1960s, when they appeared in three in a row (1968-69-70), losing each one in succession (the first two to the Canadiens and the third to the Bruins).

The Blues were the last remaining team of the 1967 expansion teams to win the Cup with the only remaining team, the California Seals, being divided out and shifted to other teams in the late 1970s.