Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
The Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (French: la Ligue de hockey junior Maritimes Québec, shortened as QMJHL in English, LHJMQ in French) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which make up the Canadian Hockey League. Because the name of the league is so long, it is sometimes called the "Q".
Current season, competition or edition: 2020–21 QMJHL season | |
Sport | Ice hockey |
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Founded | 1969 |
Founder | Robert Lebel |
President | Gilles Courteau |
No. of teams | 18 |
Country | Canada |
Most recent champion(s) | Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (2) |
Most titles | Gatineau Olympiques (7) |
TV partner(s) | Sportsnet Sportsnet One EastLink TV TVA Sports |
Official website | theqmjhl |
There are 18 teams in the QMJHL that are in Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island in Canada. The winner of the QMJHL plays against the winners of the Western Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League for the Memorial Cup. Many good players go from the QMJHL to the National Hockey League, and nine players from the QMJHL are in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
History
changeThe QMJHL was created in 1969 from two different junior leagues in Quebec, the Quebec Junior Hockey League and the Metropolitan Montreal Junior Hockey League. These two teams wanted to make a better junior league for the province, so combined teams from their leagues. Eight teams were from the QJHL and two from the MMJHL and another team came from a town in Ontario on the Ontario-Quebec border. Nearly every team was within a close distance of Montreal, the largest city in Quebec, though no team played in Montreal.
In 1972 the QMJHL finally wanted a team in Montreal, and tried to get the Montreal Junior Canadiens, who played in the Ontario Hockey Association, to join. The OHA made a deal with the QMJHL and gave them the Junior Canadiens while creating a new team in a different city to keep an OHA team with the same name.