1989–90 NHL season

The 1989–90 NHL season was the 73rd season of the National Hockey League. The Stanley Cup winners were the Edmonton Oilers, who won the best of seven series 4–1 against the Boston Bruins. The championship was the Oilers' fifth Stanley Cup in seven seasons.

The 1989 NHL Entry Draft was held on June 17, at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. Mats Sundin was selected first overall by the Quebec Nordiques.

This season marked the first time that all three New York City area NHL teams, including the New Jersey Devils, made the playoffs in the same season, a feat which has since been repeated thrice more: in the 1993–94, the 2006–07, and the 2022–23 seasons.

Until 2017, this was last time the Detroit Red Wings missed the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sam St. Laurent of the Red Wings became the last goalie to wear a full fiberglass mask during an NHL game.

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

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The top four teams in each division qualified for the playoffs. In each round, teams competed in a best-of-seven series (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each 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.

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

Sources: NHL,^[2] Quanthockey.com.^[3]

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

Source: Quanthockey.com.^[4]

• New Jersey Devils: Jim Schoenfeld and John Cunniff
• New York Islanders: Al Arbour
• New York Rangers: Roger Neilson
• Philadelphia Flyers: Paul Holmgren
• Pittsburgh Penguins: Gene Ubriaco and Craig Patrick
• Washington Capitals: Bryan Murray and Terry Murray

• Boston Bruins: Mike Milbury
• Buffalo Sabres: Rick Dudley
• Hartford Whalers: Rick Ley
• Montreal Canadiens: Pat Burns
• Quebec Nordiques: Michel Bergeron

• Chicago Blackhawks: Mike Keenan
• Detroit Red Wings: Jacques Demers
• Minnesota North Stars: Pierre Page
• St. Louis Blues: Brian Sutter
• Toronto Maple Leafs: Doug Carpenter

• Calgary Flames: Terry Crisp
• Edmonton Oilers: John Muckler
• Los Angeles Kings: Tom Webster
• Vancouver Canucks: Bob McCammon
• Winnipeg Jets: Bob Murdoch

This season would be the last the Toronto Maple Leafs would play under the 29 year ownership of Harold Ballard as a result of his death in April 1990 and the subsequent sale of the franchise.

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1989–90 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Wes Walz, Boston Bruins
• Alexander Mogilny, Buffalo Sabres
• Rob Ray, Buffalo Sabres
• Donald Audette*, Buffalo Sabres
• Sergei Makarov, Calgary Flames
• Rob Blake, Los Angeles Kings
• Helmut Balderis, Minnesota North Stars
• Mike Modano, Minnesota North Stars
• Andrew Cassels, Montreal Canadiens
• Lyle Odelein, Montreal Canadiens
• Vyacheslav Fetisov, New Jersey Devils
• Alexei Kasatonov, New Jersey Devils
• Murray Baron, Philadelphia Flyers
• Curtis Joseph, St. Louis Blues
• Tie Domi, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Vladimir Krutov, Vancouver Canucks
• Igor Larionov, Vancouver Canucks
• Olaf Kolzig, Washington Capitals

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1989–90 (listed with their last team):

• Reed Larson, Buffalo Sabres
• Al Secord, Chicago Blackhawks
• Bob Murray, Chicago Blackhawks
• Duane Sutter, Chicago Blackhawks
• Bernie Federko, Detroit Red Wings
• Borje Salming, Detroit Red Wings
• Reijo Ruotsalainen, Edmonton Oilers
• Barry Beck, Los Angeles Kings
• Helmut Balderis, Minnesota North Stars
• Curt Fraser, Minnesota North Stars
• Mark Johnson, New Jersey Devils
• Ron Greschner, New York Rangers
• Doug Smith, Pittsburgh Penguins
• Vladimir Krutov, Vancouver Canucks
• Paul Reinhart, Vancouver Canucks
• Doug Wickenheiser, Washington Capitals

This was the second season of the league's Canadian national broadcast rights deals with TSN and Hockey Night in Canada on CBC. Saturday night regular season games continued to air on CBC, while TSN televised selected weeknight games. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs was primarily on CBC, with TSN airing first round all-U.S. series.

This was also the second season of the league's U.S. national broadcast rights deal SportsChannel America, with up to three regular season games a week and coverage of the playoffs. Meanwhile, NBC agreed to televise the All-Star Game, reportedly wanting to test the appeal of hockey.^[5]

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• 1989 NHL Entry Draft
• 1989-90 NHL Transactions
• 41st National Hockey League All-Star Game
• National Hockey League All-Star Game
• NHL All-Rookie Team
• 1989 in sports
• 1990 in sports

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

Notes

• Hockey Database