First and foremost: the likelihood of this being true seems very, very slim to me. The Bleacher Report's article refers to a statement by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that I can't find elsewhere; it mentions leaked documents that are purportedly related to the contracts between the NHL and the Japanese studios-- suggested to be KyoAni, Madhouse, and J.C. Staff. I can't find these documents either. According to these alleged docs the Japanese studios would EACH be required to buy a 10% stake in the NHL, meaning that Japanese anime studios would own 30% of the NHL-- which doesn't seem very likely to me, even if they did get to "rename and redesign the presentation of individual player awards."
As such, I give this a 2 out of 10 for likelihood. The only reason it's not a one is that it IS true, as one commenter on the original article points out, that the NFL sponsored some Eyeshield 21 related stuff in both Japan and the US (there's an NFL Japan, did you know that? I didn't!), so there's a tiny possibility that the NHL could be involved in sponsoring a production of some kind, maybe.
But all in all, I think the article in the Bleacher Report is probably just false-- perhaps intended as a badly-labeled satire. I have not been able to get in touch with anyone at the BR, but I do have an e-mail out to the NHL.
PS: Eyeshield 21 is a nice show and on Crunchy Roll for those who use it. Check it out if sports anime is your bag.
You forgot about Germany, which has a 15 team strong professional league in the country. Sweden has two professional leagues with the first tier one being 12 teams and the lower 14. Switzerland also has two professional leagues that are set up similarly to Swedens two leagues.
Getting to professional hockey in Japan there is the Asian League Ice Hockey, which has over half the teams being from Japan. (there are 7 teams total with two from Korea and one from China along with the aformentioned 4 Japanese teams) From what I gather though hockey isn't as popular in mainland Japan (Honshu) compared to the less densely populated Hokkaido, which makes sense when you consider that Hokkaido is better suited climate wise for winter sports than the rest of Japan. In fact 2 of those 4 Japanese professional hockey teams are from Hokkaido and were founded in 1925 and 1949.
As for this story, ya it sounds like a load of bull.
I guess not then. :(