The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference in the National Hockey League (NHL). The club was founded in 1926 as one of the league's first American franchises and are today considered one of the NHL's "Original Six" teams—a term reserved for the six teams that comprised the NHL from the 1942–43 season until the league expanded in 1967.