The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional sports league in North America that consists of ice hockey clubs. The Ligue Nationale de Hockey is its French name (LNH). It is the world's leading professional ice hockey league, as well as one of the main professional sports leagues in North America. The teams in the league are split into two conferences, each with three divisions.

The league began in 1917 with five teams in Montreal, Quebec, and has since grown to 30 clubs, 24 of which are situated in the United States and six in Canada, following a sequence of expansions, reductions, and relocations. Following a labor dispute that resulted in the cancellation of the whole 2004–05 season, the league had a successful regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2005–06.

The National Hockey League has traditionally had a considerable number of Canadian players due to its origins in Canada. There has been an increasing presence of American and European players in the NHL over the last 25 years, thanks to the league's continued expansion into the United States, its high standard of play compared to other leagues, and the availability of highly skilled European players from Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. Despite this, more than half of the league's players were born in Canada in 2005–06.