1992–93 NHL season
Commemorative patch celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Stanley Cup
League	National Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	October 6, 1992 – June 9, 1993
Number of games	84
Number of teams	24
TV partner(s)	CBC, TSN, SRC (Canada) ESPN, ABC, NBC[lower-alpha 1] (United States)
Draft
Top draft pick	Roman Hamrlik
Picked by	Tampa Bay Lightning
Regular season
Presidents' Trophy	Pittsburgh Penguins
Season MVP	Mario Lemieux (Penguins)
Top scorer	Mario Lemieux (Penguins)
Playoffs
Playoffs MVP	Patrick Roy (Canadiens)
Stanley Cup
Champions	Montreal Canadiens
Runners-up	Los Angeles Kings

The 1992–93 NHL season was the 76th regular season of the National Hockey League. Each player wore a patch on their jersey throughout the season to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Stanley Cup. The league expanded to 24 teams with the addition of the Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Montreal Canadiens won their league-leading 24th Cup by defeating the Los Angeles Kings four games to one. This remains the last time that a Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup.

It proved, at the time, to be the highest-scoring regular season in NHL history, as a total of 7,311 goals were scored over 1,008 games for an average of 7.25 per game.^[1] Twenty of the twenty-four teams scored three goals or more per game, and only two teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks, allowed fewer than three goals per game. Only 68 shutouts were recorded during the regular season.^[2] A record twenty-one players reached the 100-point plateau, while a record fourteen players reached the 50-goal plateau—both records still stand through the 2022–23 season.

Through the halfway point in this season Mario Lemieux was in the process of putting together one of the most historic seasons in NHL history; being on pace to challenge both the 92 goal and 215 point records of Wayne Gretzky when he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.^[3] Lemieux still went on to win the Art Ross and Hart Trophies, despite every other player in the top five in league scoring playing a complete 84 game season to his 60 games. He also finished with the third highest point per game average in a season in league history.^[4]

League business

This was the final season of the Wales and Campbell Conferences, and the Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe divisions. Both the conferences and the divisions would be renamed to reflect geography rather than the league's history for the following season. This was also the last year (until the 2013 realignment) in which the playoff structure bracketed and seeded teams by division; they would be bracketed and seeded by conference (as in the NBA) for 1993–94.

This season saw two new clubs join the league: the Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Senators were the second Ottawa-based NHL franchise (see Ottawa Senators (original)) and brought professional hockey back to Canada's capital, while the Tampa Bay franchise (headed by Hockey Hall of Fame brothers Phil and Tony Esposito) strengthened the NHL's presence in the American Sun Belt, which had first started with the birth of the Los Angeles Kings in 1967.

This was also the final season of play for the Minnesota North Stars, before relocating to Dallas, Texas, the following season.

All teams wore a commemorative patch this year celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Stanley Cup.

Gil Stein was appointed NHL President in the summer of 1992, on an interim basis with the resignation of John Ziegler, who served in that capacity for 15 years.

On February 1, 1993, Gary Bettman became the first NHL Commissioner, with the office originally created as senior to Stein's position as NHL President. After Stein's tenure expired on July 1, 1993, the President's office was merged into the Commissioner's.

Regular season

Teemu Selanne of the Winnipeg Jets shattered the rookie scoring record by scoring 76 goals and 56 assists for 132 points this season. He was named the winner of the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL Rookie of the Year, and his goals and points marks remain the NHL rookie records as of 2023.

The New York Rangers missed the playoffs. This marked the first time since the President's Trophy had been introduced that the previous season's top team missed the next year's playoffs.

For the first time in his NHL career, Wayne Gretzky did not finish in the top three in scoring. A back injury limited Gretzky to 45 games in which he scored 65 points.

The Pittsburgh Penguins set a new NHL record, winning 17 consecutive games. The streak ending with the regular season.

Playoffs

Player statistics

During the 1992-93 season, a record twenty-one players reached the 100-point plateau, while a record fourteen players reached the 50-goal plateau. As of the 2022-23 season, both records still continue stand after three decades. This was also the last season that a NHL player scored 70 or more goals in a single regular season.

Neutral-site games

As a part of the 1992 strike settlement, the NHL and Bruce McNall's Multivision Marketing and Public Relations Co. organized 24 regular season games in 15 cities that did not have a franchise, providing as a litmus test for future expansion. Four of the cities chosen – Phoenix, Atlanta, Dallas and Miami – were eventually the sites of expansion or relocations, and although neither Cleveland nor Cincinnati received NHL franchises, there would be one placed in Columbus, located halfway between the two cities.

Two arenas that hosted neutral-site games had hosted NHL teams before: Atlanta's The Omni (Atlanta Flames) and Cleveland's Richfield Coliseum (Cleveland Barons).

The Hartford-St. Louis game was originally scheduled to be played on December 29, 1992, in Birmingham, Alabama.

Events and milestones

• Manon Rhéaume became the first woman to play for a major sports league in North America as she tended goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning in an exhibition game on September 23, 1992, against the St. Louis Blues.
• The Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning were two new teams to be added to the league, bringing the league to 24 teams, one-third of which were Canadian teams, as they comprised eight of the twenty-four teams. Both teams would win their opening games and briefly sit atop their respective Divisions, which led to Harry Neale jokingly proclaiming before the end of Ottawa's first win that both the Senators and Lightning would reach the Stanley Cup finals in May.
• October 1992: Gil Stein named NHL President.
• February 1993: Gary Bettman named NHL Commissioner.
• Record set for most 100-point scorers and most 50-goal scorers in one season.
• February 10, 1993: In a 13–1 drubbing of the San Jose Sharks, Calgary Flames goaltender Jeff Reese set NHL records for most points and most assists by a goaltender in one game, with three.
• The 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs marked the 100th anniversary of the Stanley Cup.
• Pittsburgh Penguins set the NHL record for longest win streak at 17 games. Conversely, the San Jose Sharks tied the NHL record for longest losing streak at 17 games.

Coaches

Broadcasting

See also

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• 1992 NHL Entry Draft
• 1992 NHL Expansion Draft
• 1992 NHL Supplemental Draft
• 1992–93 NHL Transactions
• 44th National Hockey League All-Star Game
• National Hockey League All-Star Game
• NHL All-Rookie Team
• 1992 in sports
• 1993 in sports

Notes

References

• 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

External links

• Hockey Database
• NHL Official Guide & Record Book 1993–94. Toronto, ON: NHL Publishing. 1993. ISBN 978-1-880141-43-4.