The West Division of the National Hockey League existed from 1967, when the NHL was made up of a single division, until 1974 when the league realigned its format into two conferences of two divisions each. In 1967 the NHL doubled in size, going from six teams to twelve. The Original Six, as the pre-1967 teams were known, were grouped into the East Division, while the expansion teams were placed into the new West Division. This was done in order to keep teams of similar strength in the same division, regardless of geographic distance.