The 1998–99 NHL season was the 82nd regular season of the National Hockey League. The league expanded to 27 teams with the addition of the Nashville Predators. The NHL also realigned to a strictly geographic six-division structure, with three per conference. The 1998–99 season marked the retirement of Wayne Gretzky, the NHL's all-time leading scorer, who played his final three NHL seasons with the New York Rangers. The Dallas Stars finished first in regular season play, and won the Stanley Cup championship over the Buffalo Sabres on a controversial triple-overtime goal by Brett Hull.

League business

Expansion and realignment

The Nashville Predators joined the NHL, increasing the league to 27 teams. The 1998 NHL expansion draft was held on June 26 to fill the Predators' roster. With the debut of the Predators, and the planned expansion of three more teams within the next two seasons (Atlanta, Columbus, and Minnesota), the NHL realigned to a strictly geographic six-division structure (three per conference). This erased the last vestiges of the traditional Adams/Patrick/Norris/Smythe four-division structure abandoned in 1993–94. Other than the reassignment of Colorado to the Western Conference in 1995 due to its move from Quebec, the divisions' membership had remained static for five years although several franchises had relocated. As part of this realignment, the Toronto Maple Leafs moved from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference. This put three of the Original Six teams in the Northeast Division (Boston, Montreal, and Toronto), and the three original cities of the NHL in the Northeast (Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto). The playoff format was subsequently modified so the three division winners in each conference were seeded one through three by order of point finish, then the top five remaining teams in the conference were seeded four through eight.

Entry draft

The 1998 NHL Entry Draft was held on June 27 at the Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo, New York. Vincent Lecavalier was selected first overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Rule changes

Preseason games in Austria

Three preseason games were held in Austria. The Tampa Bay Lightning played against Austrian team VEU Feldkirch at Vorarlberghalle in Klagenfurt on September 15. One day later at the same arena, the Buffalo Sabres faced of against KAC Klagenfurt. The Sabres and the Lightning then met at Olympiahalle in Innsbruck on September 18.

Uniform changes

Arena changes

Regular season

International games

The Calgary Flames and the San Jose Sharks played a two-game series on October 9 and 10, 1999 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.

All-Star Game

The All-Star Game was held on January 24, 1999, at Ice Palace in Tampa, home to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Final standings

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Playoffs

Bracket

In each round, teams competed in a best-of-seven series following a 2–2–1–1–1 format (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-seven series). The team with home ice advantage played at home for games one and two (and games five and seven, if necessary), and the other team played at home for games three and four (and game six, if necessary). The top eight teams in each conference made the playoffs, with the three division winners seeded 1–3 based on regular season record, and the five remaining teams seeded 4–8. 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, where home ice advantage was awarded to the team that had the better regular season record.

Awards

The Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy for the most goals by a player in a season made its debut this year.

All-Star teams

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points Source: NHL.

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 1998–99 (listed with their first team, an 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 1998–99 (listed with their last team):

Broadcasting

Canada

This was the first season of the league's Canadian national broadcast rights deals with CBC and CTV Sportsnet. CBC continued to air Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada regular season games. The fledgling CTV Sportsnet replaced TSN as the league's cable broadcaster. Tuesday Night Hockey became CTV Sportsnet's signature weekly regular season telecasts. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs continued to primarily be on CBC, while CTV Sportsnet aired first round all-U.S. series.

United States

This was the fifth and final season of the league's 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 11 weekend afternoons between February 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. The league then signed a new five-year deal with ESPN that also called for sister network ABC to become the new broadcast network partner.