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

League business

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 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 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.

This season 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 latter two arenas opened before the end of this season. With the Montreal Forum closed, Maple Leaf Gardens was the last remaining arena from the Original Six era at the time. The Boston Bruins played their first season at Fleet Center 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 where it remains to this very day.

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.^[1] 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.

Playoffs

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. Joe Sakic won the Conn Smythe Trophy.

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.

Awards

All-Star teams

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

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

Leading goaltenders

Regular season

^[5]

Milestones

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):

• Martin Biron, Buffalo Sabres
• Jarome Iginla*, Calgary Flames
• Jere Lehtinen, Dallas Stars
• Miroslav Satan, Edmonton Oilers
• Ed Jovanovski, Florida Panthers
• Jeff O'Neill, Hartford Whalers
• 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
• Shane Doan, Winnipeg Jets

Last games

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

• Cam Neely, Boston Bruins
• Troy Murray, Colorado Avalanche
• Bob Kudelski, Florida Panthers
• Jimmy Carson, Hartford Whalers
• Joe Cirella, Ottawa Senators
• Glenn Anderson, St. Louis Blues

Trading deadline

Trading deadline: March 20, 1996.^[6]

• 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.

Coaches

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

See also

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• 1995 NHL Entry Draft
• 46th National Hockey League All-Star Game
• National Hockey League All-Star Game
• NHL All-Rookie Team
• 1995 in sports
• 1996 in sports

References

• Diamond, Dan, ed. (2000). Total Hockey. Kingston, New York: Total Sports. ISBN 1-892129-85-X.
• Dinger, Ralph, ed. (2011). The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2012. Toronto: Dan Diamond & Associates. ISBN 978-1-894801-22-5.CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Dryden, Steve, ed. (2000). Century of hockey. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd. ISBN 0-7710-4179-9.CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Fischler, Stan; Fischler, Shirley; Hughes, Morgan; Romain, Joseph; Duplacey, James (2003). The Hockey Chronicle: Year-by-Year History of the National Hockey League. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International Inc. ISBN 0-7853-9624-1.

Notes

External links

• Hockey Database
• http://nhl.com/