What teams were the 19th to the 30th to come into the NHL?

Answer 1

Hi -- odd question you've posed, but perhaps you're asking "which were the most recent twelve of the current 30 NHL teams to enter the league." The 10th- through 13th-most recent actually entered the league together in 1979 when four former WHA franchises were merged into the NHL -- Edmonton, Hartford (since moved to Carolina), Quebec (since moved to Colorado), and Winnipeg (since moved to Phoenix). San Jose joined in 1991, Ottawa and Tampa Bay in 1992, Anaheim and Florida in 1993, Nashville in 1998, a new Atlanta franchise in 1999, and most recently Columbus and a new Minnesota franchise in 2000. Strictly speaking, however, the 19th team to enter the league came on board along with the 18th, when Buffalo and Vancouver both joined the NHL in 1970 (the NHL had 12 teams in operation at the time those two new teams entered the league, but five other earlier franchises had gone defunct throughout the league's history). Atlanta (since moved to Calgary) and New York Islanders joined in 1972, Kansas City (later moved to Denver, now in New Jersey) and Washington joined in 1974, followed next in 1979 by the four WHA franchises mentioned above, making Ottawa and Tampa the 29th and 30th teams to join the NHL.