The 1996-97 NHL season was the 80th regular season of the National Hockey League. Twenty-six teams each played 82 games. The Stanley Cup winners were the Detroit Red Wings, who swept the Philadelphia Flyers in four games.

The highlight of the 1996-97 St. Louis Blues season was, after losing Wayne Gretzky the Blues were in turmoil as an ugly public feud between Brett Hull and Coach Mike Keenan developed.

Summary

The Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes before the season began. In another big move, Wayne Gretzky signed with the New York Rangers as a free agent.

Another superstar, Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins announced that he would retire when the season was over. Though only 31, Lemieux had been fighting injury and illness for the better part of seven seasons. Lemieux led the NHL in scoring for the sixth time with 122 points. He and Gretzky tied for the lead with 72 assists apiece, while Keith Tkachuk of Phoenix and Teemu Selanne of Anaheim led in goals with 52 each.

The defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche had the league's best record with 107 points to lead the Pacific Division. The Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils were next with 104 points to lead the Central and Atlantic Divisions, respectively, and the Philadelphia Flyers were just 1 point behind New Jersey. The Buffalo Sabres took first place in the Northeast Division with 94 points.

Much of Buffalo's success was due to great goal tending by Dominik Hasek, who won both the Vezina Trophy and the Hart Trophy as the league's MVP. He was the first goalie to win the Hart Trophy since Jacques Plante of the Montreal Canadiens in 1962.

But Detroit had the hot goalie in the playoffs. The Red Wings beat the Avalanche in six games in the Western Conference final series to advance to the Stanley Cup final. In the East, the Philadelphia Flyers won three five-game series, eliminating the Pittsburg Penguins, the Buffalo Sabres, and the New York Rangers, who had defeated the Devils in the second round.

Detroit won the championship with ease, outscoring the Rangers 16-6 in taking four straight games. Vernon, who had a 16-4 record and a 1.76 goals-against average, won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the playoffs.^[1]

Offseason

After losing Wayne Gretzky the Blues were in turmoil as an ugly public feud between Brett Hull and Coach Mike Keenan developed, as the Blues got off to a slow start. On December 19th the Keenan era would come to a sudden end as he is fired as GM and Coach. Eventually he would be replaced by Joel Quenneville behind the bench as the Blues recovered and made the playoffs for the 18th straight season with a 36-35-11 record. However, once again the Blues would make a quick exit in the playoffs as they are beaten by the Detroit Red Wings in 6 games.^[2]

NHL Draft

The 1996 NHL Entry Draft was held at the Kiel Arena (now called the Scottrade Center) in St. Louis, Missouri on 22 June 1996. It has gone down in NHL history as perhaps the weakest draft class in league history. The Colorado Avalanche has become the model franchise for NHL clubs that hope to duplicate Colorado's draft success. The 1996 NHL draft is not expected to yield the type of superstar talent that has been seen in previous years, but shrewd clubs will find enough to satisfy their needs.

Regardless of where a player is picked, it's important to note that most teams that win the Stanley Cup have a nucleus of first-round talent - and the Avalanche are no exception, with first-rounders Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Mike Ricci, Adam Deadmarsh, Scott Young, Curtis Leschyshyn and Craig Wolanin. Talent was the key to Colorado's triumph over Florida, and when the teams get together Saturday in St. Louis for the 1996 draft, there likely will not be another Gil Perreault, Mario Lemieux or Eric Lindros in the pool, but there could be another Joe Sakic.

Scouts have compared this draft, in fact, with 1989, when Mats Sundin headed the list and the only other regular contributor to emerge from the first round was Bill Guerin. Senators general manager Pierre Gauthier's optimism stems from the fact that his team has the first pick and is likely to come up with a top player. After that, however, the draft slips in quality, with question marks surrounding most players. After Ottawa and San Jose choose between Phillips and Zyuzin, the Capitals, Oilers and Jets figure to help themselves the most because they have two first-round draft picks. Considering that Ed Jovanovski (Panthers) was the first pick in and Bryan Berard (Senators) was the top pick last year, this would be a record third consecutive year in which a defenseman was the top pick. The other major highlight in the draft is that the host Blues will have their first No. 1 pick since 1989, having surrendered five first-rounders to Washington as compensation for signing free-agent defenseman Scott Stevens in July 1990.^[3]

Season Standings

**Eastern Conference**
**Northeast Division**
Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Buffalo Sabres	40	30	12	237	208	92
Pittsburgh Penguins	38	36	8	285	280	84
Ottawa Senators	31	36	15	226	234	77
Montreal Canadiens	31	36	15	249	276	77
Hartford Whalers	32	39	11	226	256	75
Boston Bruins	26	47	9	234	300	61

**Eastern Conference**
**Atlantic Division**
Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
New Jersey Devils	45	23	14	231	182	104
Philadelphia Flyers	45	24	13	274	217	89
Florida Panthers	35	28	19	221	201	89
New York Rangers	38	34	10	258	231	86
Washington Capitals	33	40	9	214	231	75
Tampa Bay Lightning	32	40	10	217	247	74
New York Islanders	29	41	12	240	215	70

**Western Conference**
**Central Division**
Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Dallas Stars	48	26	8	252	198	104
Detroit Red Wings	38	26	18	253	197	94
Phoenix Coyotes	38	37	7	240	243	83
St. Louis Blues	36	35	11	236	239	83
Chicago Blackhawks	34	35	13	223	210	81
Toronto Maple Leafs	30	44	8	230	273	68

**Western Conference**
**Pacific Division**
Team	W	L	T	GF	GA	Pts
Colorado Avalanche	49	24	9	277	205	107
Anaheim Mighty Ducks	36	33	13	245	233	85
Edmonton Oilers	36	37	9	252	247	81
Vancouver Canucks	35	40	7	257	273	77
Calgary Flames	32	41	9	214	239	73
Los Angeles Kings	28	43	11	214	268	67
San Jose Sharks	27	47	8	211	278	62