1930–31 NHL season

League business

Art Ross bitterly complained about the Stanley Cup final setup. His team had been vanquished in two consecutive games by the Montreal Canadiens in 1929–30. As a result, the Board of Governors decided to make the final a best-of-five series.

The Great Depression was starting to take its toll on the NHL. In attempts to solve financial problems, the Pittsburgh Pirates moved to Philadelphia and became the Philadelphia Quakers, but there was nothing about the team to win games or fans. It was intended that the team stay in Philadelphia only until a new arena was built in Pittsburgh. The arena was never built, and the team folded after only one season in the new city. The state of Pennsylvania would be without an NHL team until the league doubled in size 36 years later.

The Ottawa Senators were in a similar financial boat but instead of relocating, they sold a star asset and future Hall of Famer, King Clancy, to the Toronto Maple Leafs for $35,000 and two players. Even after the sale of Clancy, the Senators' owners put the team up for sale for $200,000, although no bids approached anywhere near that figure. The team would suspend operations before the start of the next season.

The Detroit Cougars changed the team name to the Detroit Falcons.

Regular season

Howie Morenz led the league in scoring.

Dick Irvin started his career in coaching with Chicago and they finished second in the American Division. He resigned at season's end after having taken the Black Hawks to the finals.

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

On 26 March, during the second game of the best-of-five series between the Bruins and Canadiens, coach-GM Art Ross of Boston pulled his goalie for an extra attacker while down 1–0 with 40 seconds left in the final period. The attempt was unsuccessful. This marked the first time in Stanley Cup play that a goalie was pulled for an extra attacker.

Stanley Cup Final

In the final series, the Chicago Black Hawks took an early two games to one lead in the newly expanded best-of-five Stanley Cup finals but the Montreal Canadiens came back and won the series three games to two for their second consecutive Stanley Cup win.

Montreal Canadiens vs. Chicago Blackhawks

Montreal wins best-of-five series three games to two.

Awards

Howie Morenz won the Hart Trophy for the second time in his career. Frank Boucher won the Lady Byng for the fourth consecutive year. Roy Worters won the Vezina Trophy for the one and only time in his career.

All-Star teams

This was the first season that the NHL named its 'all-stars'. Although Roy Worters won the Vezina Trophy for "most valuable goaltender", Charlie Gardiner and Tiny Thompson were named to the all-star teams at the goaltender position.

Source: NHL.

Scoring leaders

GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties In Minutes

Source: NHL.

Leading goaltenders

Note: GP = Games played; Mins = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average

Source: NHL.

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1930–31 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1930–31 (listed with their last team):