Producers – imagine having access to over 70 years worth of historical NHL footage – what would you most want to get your hands on? Wayne Gretzky’s first game back in Edmonton after being traded, or his final game with the New York Rangers? Maybe Bill Barilko’s OT goal in game five to clinch the 1951 Stanley Cup for the Toronto Maple Leafs? What about Bobby Orr’s first shift in a Boston Bruins uniform as an 18-year-old rookie?

We could go on reminiscing about all-time highlights from the world’s greatest game, but if you are looking to make a project on a hockey theme, you can now get clips of these momentous events through the NHL Hockey Archive.

Until now, options for procuring archival National Hockey League footage would have included approaching Tappan, NY-based NHL Productions for material dating from 1994 onwards, and Molson for older footage. The NHL Hockey Archive, a joint venture between the two organizations, offers a one-stop stock shop for producers’ hockey footage needs.

Molson, best known for its sudsy bottled offerings, has a wealth of visual hockey material dating from 1993 back to the game’s early days. (The archive’s oldest footage is from a 1929 game between the Detroit Cougars and the New York Rangers at the old Madison Square Garden.) Molson comes by this library from several historical associations with the NHL.

Molson was longtime owner of the Montreal Canadiens (and remains a 19.9% shareholder) and has made a 20-year, $150-million commercial commitment as the team’s prime sponsor. As the chief sponsor of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada prior to Labatt’s taking over in 1997, Molson owned the rights to the national telecast. Its Sports and Entertainment division produces more than 750 hours of live primetime sports programming annually, including Toronto Maple Leafs games.

‘Molson had an extensive library, and the idea was to organize that into a useful archive that could be of interest to the film community at large,’ says David Jones, director of PR, Molson Ontario/West.

The NHL Hockey Archive has acquired the CBC’s collection of 2,000 complete games from the early 1960s to the 1993/94 season. It has also recently restored the Chisolm Collection, which consists of more than 800 cans of 16mm film, mostly from the 1960s, of games (including 100 complete matches), interviews and Stanley Cup presentations and celebrations, some of which have never aired.

Sports diginets ESPN Classic Canada and Leafs TV, which rely on retro material to fill their airtime, have aired some of the complete games.

With several disparate original sources, footage has come to the archive in a variety of formats, including 35mm, 16mm and the spectrum of video. The NHL Hockey Archive has digitally remastered the material to Betacam SP, the most common form of client delivery, although other formats can be provided upon request. NHL Productions has kept high-definition masters of games, including All-Star and Stanley Cup Finals matches originated on HD.

Requesting footage consists of filling out a form downloadable at the NHL Hockey Archive website that asks for a description of both the project in question and the material required. Prices vary depending on the number of hours devoted to research and dubbing combined with the royalty fees in question.

Clearance on footage, secured from the league, teams, players or whoever might apply, usually takes three to seven days, according to Jones. Broadcasters that use substantial footage on a daily basis can clear agreed amounts ahead of time, he adds.

Jones says that, going forward, the NHL Hockey Archive is looking to expand its website offerings to include an online research and preview tool, and the organization is bandying about the concept of digital delivery.

Playback has heard from broadcasters claiming to have run into difficulty maintaining absolute editorial control over footage they have requested of the league in the past. Jones acknowledges that the NHL reserves the right to exercise restrictions on the footage and the way it is manipulated.

The wealth of footage available through the archive begs the question of what are its most popular requests so far.

‘For the most part, it’s career highlights of big players – Gretzky, Orr, Howe, Lemieux, Stanley Cup games, presentations of the Stanley Cup – those defining moments in the big players’ histories,’ Jones says.

-www.nhlhockeyarchive.com