1995–96 NHL season
The 1995–96 NHL season was the 79th regular season of the National Hockey League. As part of the league's new collective bargaining agreement signed after the 1994–95 NHL lockout, each team began playing 82 games per season. The Quebec Nordiques relocated to Denver, Colorado, becoming the Colorado Avalanche. The Stanley Cup winners were the Avalanche, who swept the Florida Panthers in the finals, in four games.
League business
Franchise relocation
The 1995–96 season was the first season in Denver for the Avalanche, who had relocated from Quebec City where they were previously known as the Quebec Nordiques. Prior to the season, Colorado was assigned to the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They played at McNichols Arena, the building that the Colorado Rockies played in from 1976 to 1982 before they were purchased and moved to become the New Jersey Devils. The Avs would play in that building until they moved to the Pepsi Center in 1999.It was also the final season for the original Winnipeg Jets, as they announced that they would be moving from Manitoba to Arizona and become the Phoenix Coyotes at season's end. The NHL would not return to Manitoba until the Atlanta Thrashers moved there to become the "new" Winnipeg Jets following the 2010–11 season.
Implementation of an 82-game schedule
During the 1992–93 and 1993-94 seasons, each team played 84 games. The 1994–95 NHL lockout had resulted in a shortened 48-game season and the cancellation of the planned neutral site games. Starting in the 1995–96 season, the neutral site games were eliminated, reducing the regular season to 82 games per team where it remains to date.Implementation of the entry draft lottery
This was the first year that the entry drafting order was partially set by a draft lottery system, allowing teams who had missed the playoffs to have a chance to move up in the order. Teams would no longer be guaranteed the first overall pick if they finished with the worst record during the previous regular season, and therefore have less incentive to "tank".The 1995 NHL entry draft was then held at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alberta, on July 8. Bryan Berard was selected first overall by the Ottawa Senators.
Uniform changes
Third jersey program
Improvements in dye-sublimation printing on modern uniform fabrics, having been featured in recent seasons on uniforms in the National Basketball Association and the Canadian Football League, had caught the interest of the NHL, which decided to allow alternate jerseys that could take advantage of this technology to produce new and unusual designs not possible under traditional jersey-making techniques. Six teams elected to participate in the process, but St. Louis Blues coach and general manager Mike Keenan vetoed the Blues' proposed third jersey, which would have featured blaring trumpets across the front. The five teams that did participate were the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Vancouver Canucks.The Ducks' and Kings' third jerseys proved unpopular at the time and were retired by the end of the season, while the Canucks underwent a complete rebrand for the 1997–98 season. The Penguins' third jersey was promoted to their primary road jersey for the 1997 Stanley Cup playoffs through the 2001–02 season, and the Bruins retained their third jersey the longest, through the 2005–06 season.
Additional uniform changes
In addition to the Avalanche, two other teams underwent rebrands prior to the season, albeit only changing their logos and colors. The New York Islanders used the dye-sublimation technique to create new jerseys with wavy stripes as well as a logo bearing a fisherman mascot, which ended up being heavily derided and phased out over the next few seasons. The Washington Capitals abandoned their patriotic red, white, and blue scheme and their 1970s uniform design for a more modern look featuring a less saturated blue, black, and bronze, with the new logo featuring an attacking eagle with stars in its wings. This look would last through the 2006–07 season.The arrival of the Avalanche would also see the first new provider of on-ice jerseys in the NHL since 1989, when Nike ended its relationship with the Edmonton Oilers. For the next six seasons, CCM had been the sole provider of NHL jerseys; however, Starter, which had begun providing select NFL teams with their on-field jerseys and had also been selling consumer replica NHL jerseys, were tapped to provide Colorado's initial jerseys. Following the season, Starter would expand its presence in the NHL to nine other teams, while Nike would re-enter the league through the use of its subsidiary, Bauer Hockey.
Arena changes
- The Boston Bruins moved from Boston Garden, where they spend the last 67 seasons, to the FleetCenter, with FleetBoston Financial acquiring the naming rights.
- The Calgary Flames' home arena, Olympic Saddledome, was renamed Canadian Airlines Saddledome as part of a new naming rights agreement with Canadian Airlines.
- The relocated Colorado Avalanche moved from Colisée de Québec in Quebec City, Quebec to McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado.
- The Edmonton Oilers' home arena, Northlands Coliseum, was renamed Edmonton Coliseum as part of a new leasing agreement between the team and the building's operator, Northlands, to instead reference the city.
- The Montreal Canadiens moved from the Montreal Forum to Molson Centre on March 16, 1996, with Molson Brewery acquiring the naming rights. With the Montreal Forum closed, Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens became the last remaining arena from the Original Six era.
- The Ottawa Senators moved from Ottawa Civic Centre to the Palladium on January 17, 1996. It was then renamed the Corel Centre after Corel acquired the naming rights one month later.
- The Vancouver Canucks moved from Pacific Coliseum to General Motors Place, with General Motors Canada acquiring the naming rights.
Regular season
All-Star Game
The All-Star Game was held on January 20, 1996, at the FleetCenter in Boston, home of the Boston Bruins.Highlights
The Detroit Red Wings enjoyed a spectacular season, having finished the year as the Western Conferences's top seed with 131 points, and at the time second only to the 1976–77 Montreal Canadiens, and setting the NHL record for most wins ever in the regular season. Neither mark was eclipsed until 27 years later, when the Boston Bruins achieved a record-breaking 65 wins and 135 points in the 2022–23 season. However, the Wings fell to the future Stanley Cup champion Avalanche in the 1996 Western Conference Finals, the sixth game of which marked the beginning of the heated Detroit-Colorado rivalry, which would last for years to come. The New Jersey Devils became the first team since the 1969–70 Montreal Canadiens to miss the playoffs after winning the Stanley Cup during the previous season.Four teams allowed 300 or more goals in 1995-96. A total of three would do so from 1996-97 through 2003-04.
Final standings
GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against''Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.''
Playoffs
Bracket
The top eight teams in each conference made the playoffs, with the two division winners seeded 1–2 based on regular season records, and the six remaining teams seeded 3–8. In each round, teams competed in a best-of-seven series. The NHL used "re-seeding" instead of a fixed bracket playoff system. During the first three rounds, the highest remaining seed in each conference was matched against the lowest remaining seed, the second-highest remaining seed played the second-lowest remaining seed, and so forth. The higher-seeded team was awarded home-ice advantage. The two conference winners then advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals.Awards
All-Star teams
Player statistics
Scoring leaders
Czech superstar Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins broke the record for assists and points by a right winger in a single season . Mario Lemieux, a fellow teammate of Jagr's, achieved 161 points in 70 games, marking the NHL's final season in which a player would surpass the 150 point plateau during the 1990s. This record remained unbroken until Connor McDavid scored 153 points in the 2022–23 season, which would not occur until 27 years later. This also marked the final season of the 1990s where at least one NHL player would score at least 60 goals, a feat not repeated until Alexander Ovechkin's groundbreaking record of 65 goals in the 2007–08 season, set 12 years later in the modern era following the 2004–05 NHL lockout. Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs would later go on to break Ovechkin's modern record by scoring his 66th goal on April 9, 2024, achieving the rare distinction of being the first NHL player in 28 years to score more than 65 goals in a single season since Lemieux last accomplished the feat nearly three decades earlier. Matthew's would later equal Lemieux's feat by scoring a grand total of 69 goals as the 2023-24 NHL season drew to a close.| Regular season | Playoffs | - | - | - | - | - | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
''Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points'' Leading goaltendersRegular season
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