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 (CBA) 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.

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.

During the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons, each team played 84 games (including two neutral site 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.

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.

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.

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 (with slight changes) 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.

• 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.

The All-Star Game was held on January 20, 1996, at the FleetCenter in Boston, home of the Boston Bruins.

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 (62). 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.

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.

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 (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each 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.

Czech superstar Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins broke the record for assists and points by a right winger in a single season [1]. 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.^[3] This also marked the final season of the 1990s where at least one NHL player would score at least 60 goals (Jagr and Lemieux), 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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[6]

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

Regular season

^[8]

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

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 (Last active player to have been a member of the Colorado Rockies)
• Glenn Anderson, St. Louis Blues

This was the eighth season that the league's Canadian national broadcast rights were split between TSN and Hockey Night in Canada on CBC. During the regular season, Saturday night games aired on CBC, while TSN primarily had Monday and Thursday night games. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs was primarily on CBC, with TSN airing first round all-U.S. series.

This was the second season of the league's five-year U.S. national broadcast rights deals with Fox and ESPN. Both ESPN and ESPN2 aired weeknight games throughout the regular season, and Fox had the All-Star Game and weekly regional telecasts on six selected weekend afternoons between January and April. During the first two rounds of the playoffs, ESPN and ESPN2 aired selected games, while Fox had Sunday regional telecasts. Each U.S. team's regional broadcaster produced local coverage of first and second round games (except for those games on Fox). Fox's Sunday telecasts continued into the Conference Finals, while ESPN had the rest of the third round games. The Stanley Cup Finals were also split between Fox and ESPN.

• 1995 in sports
• 1995 NHL Entry Draft
• 1995-96 NHL Transactions
• 1996 in sports
• 46th National Hockey League All-Star Game

• 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.
• Dryden, Steve, ed. (2000). Century of hockey. Toronto: 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, Illinois: Publications International Inc. ISBN 0-7853-9624-1.

Notes

• Hockey Database
• http://nhl.com/