1987–88 NHL season

The 1987–88 NHL season was the 71st season of the National Hockey League. It was an 80-game season with the top four teams in each division advancing to the Stanley Cup playoffs. This season would see the Edmonton Oilers win their fourth [List of List of Stanley Cup champions|Stanley Cup champions|Stanley Cup] in five years by sweeping the Boston Bruins 4–0 in the Stanley Cup Finals. In the process of their Cup win, Edmonton lost only two games, a record for the "16 wins" playoff format.

Entry draft

The 1987 NHL entry draft was held on June 13, at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. This was the first draft held in the United States instead of in Canada. Pierre Turgeon was selected first overall by the Buffalo Sabres.

Regular season

This was Wayne Gretzky's final season with the Edmonton Oilers and, as injuries held him out of 20% of the season, this would be the only season of the decade in which he was not the winner of the Hart Memorial Trophy and the first season of his career that he did not hold or share the league lead in points. Mario Lemieux would capture his first Hart Trophy and lead the league in scoring.
On December 8, Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers became the first goalie to directly score a goal, shooting the puck into an empty net after their opponent had pulled their goalie for a sixth attacker.
On December 19, the St. Louis Blues and Boston Bruins combined to score two goals in two seconds. The Bruins were trailing 6-4 in the third period when Ken Linseman scored with 10 seconds remaining, followed by Blues center Doug Gilmour scoring off the resulting faceoff into an empty net.
The New Jersey Devils qualified for the playoffs for the first time, since their move from Denver in 1982.
Linesman John D'Amico retires after the season, becoming the last on-ice official from the Original Six era.

Final standings

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

Playoffs

Bracket

The top four teams in each division qualified for the playoffs. In each round, teams competed in a best-of-seven series. In the division semifinals, the fourth seeded team in each division played against the division winner from their division. The other series matched the second and third place teams from the divisions. The two winning teams from each division's semifinals then met in the division finals. The two division winners of each conference then played in the conference finals. The two conference winners then advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Awards

The NHL introduced a new trophy, the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, which was to be awarded to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and who has made a significant humanitarian contribution in his community.

Award	Recipient	Runner-up/Finalists
Presidents' Trophy	Calgary Flames	Montreal Canadiens
Prince of Wales Trophy	Boston Bruins	New Jersey Devils
Clarence S. Campbell Bowl	Edmonton Oilers	Detroit Red Wings
Art Ross Trophy	Mario Lemieux	Wayne Gretzky
Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy	Bob Bourne	N/A
Calder Memorial Trophy	Joe Nieuwendyk	Darren Pang Ray Sheppard
Conn Smythe Trophy	Wayne Gretzky	N/A
Emery Edge Award	Brad McCrimmon	Petr Svoboda
Frank J. Selke Trophy	Guy Carbonneau	Jan Erixon Steve Kasper
Hart Memorial Trophy	Mario Lemieux	Grant Fuhr Wayne Gretzky
Jack Adams Award	Jacques Demers	Terry Crisp Jean Perron
James Norris Memorial Trophy	Ray Bourque	Scott Stevens Gary Suter
King Clancy Memorial Trophy	Lanny McDonald	Wayne Gretzky Bryan Trottier
Lady Byng Memorial Trophy	Mats Naslund	Wayne Gretzky Joe Nieuwendyk
Lester B. Pearson Award	Mario Lemieux	N/A
Vezina Trophy	Grant Fuhr	Tom Barrasso Kelly Hrudey
William M. Jennings Trophy	Patrick Roy and Brian Hayward	Clint Malarchuk and Pete Peeters

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes, PPG = Powerplay Goals, SHG = Shorthanded Goals, GWG = Game Winning Goals

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	+/-	PPG	SHG	GWG
Mario Lemieux	Pittsburgh Penguins	77	70	98	168	92	+23	22	10	7
Wayne Gretzky	Edmonton Oilers	64	40	109	149	24	+39	9	5	3
Denis Savard	Chicago Blackhawks	80	44	87	131	95	+4	14	7	6
Dale Hawerchuk	Winnipeg Jets	80	44	77	121	59	-9	20	3	4
Luc Robitaille	Los Angeles Kings	80	53	58	111	82	-9	17	0	6
Peter Stastny	Quebec Nordiques	76	46	65	111	69	+2	20	0	2
Mark Messier	Edmonton Oilers	77	37	74	111	103	+21	12	3	7
Jimmy Carson	Los Angeles Kings	80	55	52	107	45	-19	22	0	7
Hakan Loob	Calgary Flames	80	50	56	106	47	+41	9	8	4
Michel Goulet	Quebec Nordiques	80	48	58	106	56	-31	29	1	4

Source: NHL.

Leading goaltenders

GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage

Goalie	Team	GP	Min	W	L	T	SO	GAA	Sv%
Grant Fuhr	Edmonton Oilers	75	4304	40	24	9	4	3.43	88.1
Mike Vernon	Calgary Flames	64	3565	39	16	7	1	3.53	87.7
Ron Hextall	Philadelphia Flyers	62	3561	30	22	7	0	3.5	88.6
Mike Liut	Hartford Whalers	60	3532	25	28	5	2	3.18	88.5
John Vanbiesbrouck	New York Rangers	56	3319	27	22	7	2	3.38	89.0
Daniel Berthiaume	Winnipeg Jets	56	3010	22	19	7	2	3.51	88.2
Ken Wregget	Toronto Maple Leafs	56	3000	12	35	4	2	4.44	87.0
Tom Barrasso	Buffalo Sabres	54	3133	25	18	8	2	3.31	89.6
Mario Gosselin	Quebec Nordiques	54	3002	20	28	4	2	3.78	86.7
Clint Malarchuk	Washington Capitals	54	2926	24	20	4	4	3.16	88.5

Source: Quanthockey.com

Coaches

Patrick Division

New Jersey Devils: Doug Carpenter and Jim Schoenfeld
New York Islanders: Terry Simpson
New York Rangers: Michel Bergeron
Philadelphia Flyers: Mike Keenan and Paul Holmgren
Pittsburgh Penguins: Pierre Creamer
Washington Capitals: Bryan Murray

Adams Division

Boston Bruins: Terry O'Reilly
Buffalo Sabres: Ted Sator
Hartford Whalers: Jack Evans
Montreal Canadiens: Jean Perron
Quebec Nordiques: Andre Savard and Ron Lapointe

Norris Division

Chicago Blackhawks: Bob Murdoch
Detroit Red Wings: Jacques Demers
Minnesota North Stars: Herb Brooks
St. Louis Blues: Jacques Martin
Toronto Maple Leafs: John Brophy

Smythe Division

Calgary Flames: Terry Crisp
Edmonton Oilers: Glen Sather
Los Angeles Kings: Robbie Ftorek
Vancouver Canucks: Bob McCammon
Winnipeg Jets: Dan Maloney

Milestones

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1987–88:

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1987–88:

Bob Bourne, Los Angeles Kings
Richard Brodeur, Hartford Whalers
Clark Gillies, Buffalo Sabres
Doug Jarvis, Hartford Whalers
Pierre Larouche, New York Rangers
Dave Lewis, Detroit Red Wings
Gilles Meloche, Pittsburgh Penguins
Rick Middleton, Boston Bruins
Wilf Paiement, Pittsburgh Penguins
Steve Payne, Minnesota North Stars
Denis Potvin, New York Islanders
Dave Semenko, Toronto Maple Leafs
Charlie Simmer, Pittsburgh Penguins
Brian Sutter, St. Louis Blues
Perry Turnbull, St. Louis Blues
Tiger Williams, Hartford Whalers

Firsts

Ron Hextall, Philadelphia Flyers, First goaltender in NHL history to shoot and score a goal.

Broadcasting

In Canada, the cable network TSN began airing a schedule of Monday and Thursday night regular season games. The Molson-sponsored Hockey Night in Canada on CBC continued to air Saturday night regular season games. This was the last season of the Carling O'Keefe-sponsored telecasts on Canwest/Global, with Global airing selected regular season games between January and March. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs were split between CBC and Global, with the later branding its postseason broadcasts as Stanley Cup '88. Carling O'Keefe's rights expired at the end of the season, and 1989 merger between Molson and Carling O'Keefe eventually put an end to the competition.
This was the third and final season of the league's U.S. national broadcast rights deal with ESPN, airing up to 33 regular season games each season as well as the All-Star Game and the playoffs. SportsChannel America then signed a three-year contract to take over the rights from ESPN.