1995–96 NHL season

Updated on Jan 26, 2024

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League National Hockey League Presidents' Trophy Detroit Red Wings Eastern runners-up Pittsburgh Penguins Start date 1995 Number of teams 26		Sport Ice hockey Eastern champions Florida Panthers Champion Colorado Avalanche Number of games 82
Duration October 5, 1995 – June 10, 1996 Top scorer Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) Season MVP Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) Similar 1998–99 NHL season, 1991–92 NHL season, 2001–02 NHL season, 1992–93 NHL season, 2003–04 NHL season

The 1995–96 NHL season was the 79th regular season of the National Hockey League. The Stanley Cup winners were the Colorado Avalanche, who, in their first year as the Avalanche, swept the Florida Panthers in four games.

League business

1995–96 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 New Jersey Devils played in from 1976 to 1982 when they were known as the Colorado Rockies. The Avs would play in that building until they moved to the Pepsi Center in 1999.

It was also the last season of existence for the Winnipeg Jets, as they announced that they would be moving from Manitoba to Arizona and become the Phoenix Coyotes at the 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.

1995–96 would mark the last season the Buffalo Sabres would play in the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, the Philadelphia Flyers at the CoreStates Spectrum, the Senators at the Ottawa Civic Centre, and the Canadiens at the Montreal Forum. The Sabres made their new home at the Marine Midland Arena, the Flyers at the CoreStates Center, the Senators at the Corel Centre, and the Canadiens at the Molson Centre. The two latter arenas opened before the end of this season. With the Montreal Forum closed, The Maple Leaf Gardens was the last remaining arena from the Original Six at the time. The Boston Bruins played their first season at Fleetcenter after spending the last 67 at the old Boston Garden, and the Vancouver Canucks played their first game at General Motors Place.

During the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons, each team played 84 games (including two neutral site games). Starting in the 1995–96 season, the neutral site games were eliminated, which reduced the regular season to 82 games per team.

Regular season

The Detroit Red Wings had a spectacular season, finishing with the second-highest regular-season point total in NHL history (131 points), and setting the NHL record for most wins ever in the regular season (62). However, they fell to the Avalanche in the Western Conference Final, the sixth game of which marked the beginning of the heated Detroit-Colorado rivalry, which would last for years to come. Jaromir Jagr broke the record for assists and points by a right winger in a single season [1]. Mario Lemieux had the NHL's last 150+ point season with 161 points in 70 games. This would be the last season in which at least one player would score at least 60 goals (Jagr and Lemieux) until 2008. The New Jersey Devils became the first team since the 1969–70 Montreal Canadiens to miss the playoffs after winning the Stanley Cup the previous season.

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.

Stanley Cup Final

The Colorado Avalanche swept the final series over the Florida Panthers in the minimum four games. Both teams were making their first appearance in the Final. For Colorado, it followed the team's first season in Denver, Colorado after moving from Quebec City.

Playoff bracket

During the first three rounds home ice is determined by seeding number, not position on the bracket. In the Finals the team with the better regular season record has home ice.

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points

Leading goaltenders

Regular season

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1995–96 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

Kyle McLaren, Boston Bruins

Jay McKee, Buffalo Sabres

Martin Biron, Buffalo Sabres

Jarome Iginla*, Calgary Flames

Stephane Yelle, Colorado Avalanche

Jere Lehtinen, Dallas Stars

Miroslav Satan, Edmonton Oilers

Ed Jovanovski, Florida Panthers

Jeff O'Neill, Hartford Whalers

Sami Kapanen, Hartford Whalers

Darcy Tucker, Montreal Canadiens

Jose Theodore, Montreal Canadiens

Saku Koivu, Montreal Canadiens

Patrik Elias, New Jersey Devils

Petr Sykora, New Jersey Devils

Steve Sullivan, New Jersey Devils

Bryan McCabe, New York Islanders

Todd Bertuzzi, New York Islanders

Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa Senators

Daymond Langkow, Tampa Bay Lightning

Andrew Brunette, Washington Capitals

Brendan Witt, Washington Capitals

Shane Doan, Winnipeg Jets

Last games

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1995–96 (listed with their last team):

Cam Neely, Boston Bruins

Alexei Kasatonov, Boston Bruins

Troy Murray, Colorado Avalanche

Paul Cavallini, Dallas Stars

Bob Kudelski, Florida Panthers

Jimmy Carson, Hartford Whalers

Brett Lindros, New York Islanders

Joe Cirella, Ottawa Senators (The last active player to have been a member of the Colorado Rockies.)

Glenn Anderson, St. Louis Blues

Greg Gilbert, St. Louis Blues

Jim Sandlak, Vancouver Canucks

Trading deadline

Trading deadline: March 20, 1996.

March 20, 1996: C Jesse Belanger traded from Florida to Vancouver for Vancouver's third round pick in 1996 Entry Draft and future considerations.

March 20, 1996: LW Ken Baumgartner traded from Toronto to Anaheim for Winnipeg's fourth round pick in 1996 Entry Draft (previously acquired).

March 20, 1996: D J. J. Daigneault traded from St. Louis to Pittsburgh for Pittsburgh's sixth round pick in 1996 Entry Draft.

March 20, 1996: LW Kevin Miller traded from San Jose to Pittsburgh for Pittsburgh's fifth round choice in 1996 Entry Draft and future considerations.

March 20, 1996: LW Pat Conacher and Calgary's sixth round pick in 1997 Entry Draft traded from Calgary to NY Islanders for C Bob Sweeney.

March 20, 1996: RW Kirk Maltby traded from Edmonton to Detroit for D Dan McGillis.

March 20, 1996: D Jaroslav Modry and Ottawa's eighth round pick in 1996 Entry Draft traded from Ottawa to Los Angeles for RW Kevin Brown.

March 20, 1996: LW Patrick Poulin, D Igor Ulanov and Chicago's second round pick in 1996 Entry Draft traded from Chicago to Tampa Bay for D Enrico Ciccone and Tampa Bay's second round pick in 1996 Entry Draft.

March 20, 1996: LW Yuri Khmylev and Buffalo's eighth round pick in 1996 Entry Draft traded from Buffalo to St. Louis for D Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre, Ottawa's second round pick in 1996 Entry Draft (previously acquired) and St. Louis' third round pick in 1997 Entry Draft.

March 20, 1996: C Dave Hannan traded from Buffalo to Colorado for Colorado's sixth round pick in 1996 Entry Draft.

March 20, 1996: RW Alek Stojanov traded from Vancouver to Pittsburgh for RW Markus Naslund.

March 20, 1996: RW Ravil Gusmanov traded from Winnipeg to Chicago for Chicago's fourth round pick in 1996 Entry Draft.

March 20, 1996: RW Joe Kocur traded from NY Rangers to Vancouver for G Kay Whitmore.

References

1995–96 NHL season Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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