The 1996–97 NHL season was the 80th regular season of the National Hockey League. The Winnipeg Jets relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, becoming the Phoenix Coyotes. The Stanley Cup winners were the Detroit Red Wings, who swept the Philadelphia Flyers in four games and won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 42 years. The regular season saw a decline in scoring and rise in the number of shutouts to an all-time record of 127. This trend continued into the playoffs, during which an all-time record of 18 shutouts were recorded. Only two players, Mario Lemieux and Teemu Selanne, reached the 100-point plateau during the regular season (compared with 12 who reached the plateau in 1995–96 ). Many regulatory factors, including ruling changes that resulted in fewer power plays, more calls of the skate-in-the-crease rule, fewer shots on goal and more injuries to star players than the season before, contributed to the reduction in scoring and skyrocketing in shutouts. This was the first time in 30 years—and in the entire expansion era—that the Boston Bruins had a losing record and missed the playoffs, ending a still-unsurpassed North American professional sports streak of 29-straight seasons in the playoffs.

League business

Franchise relocation

This was the first season for the Phoenix Coyotes, who had relocated from Winnipeg and had previously been known as the first incarnation of the Winnipeg Jets. They would remain in the Central Division. On March 26, 1997, the Hartford Whalers announced that they would move from Connecticut following the 1996–97 season. On May 5, they announced that starting in the 1997–98 NHL season, they would be known as the Carolina Hurricanes.

Entry draft

The 1996 NHL Entry Draft was held at the Kiel Center in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 22. Chris Phillips was selected first overall by the Ottawa Senators.

Rule changes

Arena changes

Regular season

All-Star Game

The All-Star Game was held on January 18, 1997, at San Jose Arena in San Jose, home of the San Jose Sharks.

Highlights

The Boston Bruins recorded the league's worst record, missing the playoffs for the first time in 30 seasons and ending the longest consecutive playoff streak ever recorded in the history of North American professional sports. On November 16, 1996, the eight-sided scoreboard at the Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo crashed to the ice during a maintenance check. The accident occurred only 90 minutes after the visiting Boston Bruins players had conducted their morning practice. No-one was injured, but the game between the Buffalo Sabres and the Bruins was postponed. A large-scale on-ice brawl occurred during the Colorado Avalanche–Detroit Red Wings game on March 26. The game featured 18 fighting major penalties and 144 minutes in penalties.

Final standings

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

Playoffs

Bracket

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.

Awards

The NHL Awards presentation took place on June 19, 1997.

All-Star teams

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

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

Leading goaltenders

Regular season

Coaches

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Milestones

Debuts

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1996–97 (listed with their first team, asterisk (*) marks debut in playoffs):

Last games

The following is a list of players of note who played their last game in the NHL in 1996–97 (listed with their last team):

Broadcasting

Canada

This was the ninth 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.

United States

This was the third 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 March. During the first two rounds of the playoffs, ESPN and ESPN2 aired selected games, while Fox provided 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.