1991–92 NHL season
The 1991–92 NHL season was the 75th regular season of the National Hockey League. The league expanded to 22 teams with the addition of the expansion San Jose Sharks. For the first time, the Stanley Cup Finals extended into June, with the Pittsburgh Penguins repeating as Stanley Cup champions, winning the best of seven series four games to none against the Chicago Blackhawks.
League business
This was the first season for the San Jose Sharks, the first expansion team in the NHL since 1979. The birth of the Sharks returned NHL hockey to the San Francisco Bay Area after the California Golden Seals had relocated to Cleveland, Ohio in 1976.This was also the last season for John Ziegler as NHL president. He would be succeeded by Gil Stein, who held the position for one year before being replaced by newly named commissioner Gary Bettman, during and after the 1992–93 season. After Stein's departure, the league presidency was merged into the new office of commissioner.
A new rule was added in which the final minute of every period is measured in tenths of a second, unlike whole seconds as in past seasons. This timekeeping procedure matches that of the IIHF, which began doing so in 1990.
75th season celebration
To celebrate the 75th anniversary season for the NHL, all players wore a special anniversary patch on their uniforms during this season.Taking cues from Major League Baseball's "Turn Back The Clock" uniform program, throwback uniforms were worn by Original Six teams for select games, and throwbacks were also worn for the All-Star Game.
The uniform styles that were worn include:
- Boston Bruins - c. 1933
- Chicago Blackhawks - c. 1940
- Detroit Red Wings - c. 1928
- Montreal Canadiens - c. 1926
- New York Rangers - c. 1940
- Toronto Maple Leafs - c. 1940
- Wales All-Stars - white All-Star jersey c. 1952
- Campbell All-Stars - red All-Star jersey c. 1952
Regular season
defenseman Brian Leetch became the fifth, and last as of 2019, defenseman to score 100 points in a season. He finished the season with 102 points and captured the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the league's best defenseman. The Rangers ended the season with 105 points, winning the Presidents' Trophy as the top regular-season team in the NHL. It was the first time the Rangers had topped the league since 1942.For the first time, the NHL finished play in the month of June. A primary reason for this was the 10-day NHL strike, the first work stoppage in league history, that started on April 1. The games that were supposed to be played during the strike were not canceled, but rescheduled and made up when play resumed on April 12.
For the first time in his NHL career, Wayne Gretzky failed to finish in the top two in scoring. The Pittsburgh Penguins' Kevin Stevens became only the third person in NHL history to outscore Gretzky in the regular season.
Final standings
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals AgainstWales Conference
Campbell Conference
Playoffs
Playoff bracket
Stanley Cup Finals
The series was held between the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins and the Clarence Campbell Conference champion Chicago Blackhawks. The Penguins won in four games, three out of four won by a one-goal margin. Mario Lemieux of Pittsburgh won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' MVP.Awards
All-Star teams
Player statistics
Scoring leaders
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = PointsPlayer | Team | GP | G | A | Pts |
Mario Lemieux | Pittsburgh | 64 | 44 | 87 | 131 |
Kevin Stevens | Pittsburgh | 80 | 54 | 69 | 123 |
Wayne Gretzky | Los Angeles | 74 | 31 | 90 | 121 |
Brett Hull | St. Louis | 73 | 70 | 39 | 109 |
Luc Robitaille | Los Angeles | 80 | 44 | 63 | 107 |
Mark Messier | NY Rangers | 79 | 35 | 72 | 107 |
Jeremy Roenick | Chicago | 80 | 53 | 50 | 103 |
Steve Yzerman | Detroit | 79 | 45 | 58 | 103 |
Brian Leetch | NY Rangers | 80 | 22 | 80 | 102 |
Adam Oates | St. Louis/Boston | 80 | 20 | 79 | 99 |
Leading goaltenders
Note: GP = Games Played; TOI = Time On Ice ; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals Against; SO = Shutouts; Sv% = Save Percentage; GAA = Goals Against AveragePlayer | Team | GP | TOI | W | L | T | GA | SO | Sv% | GAA |
Patrick Roy | Montreal | 67 | 3935 | 36 | 22 | 8 | 155 | 5 | .914 | 2.36 |
Ed Belfour | Chicago | 52 | 2928 | 21 | 18 | 10 | 132 | 5 | .894 | 2.70 |
Kirk McLean | Vancouver | 65 | 3852 | 38 | 17 | 9 | 176 | 5 | .901 | 2.74 |
John Vanbiesbrouck | NY Rangers | 45 | 2526 | 27 | 13 | 3 | 120 | 2 | .910 | 2.85 |
Bob Essensa | Winnipeg | 47 | 2627 | 21 | 17 | 6 | 126 | 5 | .910 | 2.88 |
Coaches
Patrick Division
- New Jersey Devils: Tom McVie and Herb Brooks
- New York Islanders: Al Arbour
- New York Rangers: Roger Neilson
- Philadelphia Flyers: Paul Holmgren and Bill Dineen
- Pittsburgh Penguins: Scotty Bowman
- Washington Capitals: Terry Murray
Adams Division
- Boston Bruins: Rick Bowness
- Buffalo Sabres: John Muckler
- Hartford Whalers: Jim Roberts
- Montreal Canadiens: Pat Burns
- Quebec Nordiques: Pierre Page
Norris Division
- Chicago Blackhawks: Mike Keenan
- Detroit Red Wings: Bryan Murray
- Minnesota North Stars: Bob Gainey
- St. Louis Blues: Brian Sutter
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Tom Watt
Smythe Division
- Calgary Flames: Doug Risebrough and Guy Charron
- Edmonton Oilers: Ted Green
- Los Angeles Kings: Tom Webster
- San Jose Sharks: George Kingston
- Vancouver Canucks: Pat Quinn
- Winnipeg Jets: John Paddock
Milestones
Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1991–92 :- Stu Barnes, Winnipeg Jets
- Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils
- Pavel Bure, Vancouver Canucks
- Keith Carney, Buffalo Sabres
- Evgeny Davydov, Winnipeg Jets
- Ted Donato, Boston Bruins
- Pat Falloon, San Jose Sharks
- Adam Foote, Quebec Nordiques
- Bill Guerin, New Jersey Devils
- Derian Hatcher, Minnesota North Stars
- Bret Hedican, St. Louis Blues
- Arturs Irbe, San Jose Sharks
- Trevor Kidd, Calgary Flames
- Igor Kravchuk, Chicago Blackhawks
- Ray Whitney, San Jose Sharks
- Joe Juneau, Boston Bruins
- Valeri Kamensky, Quebec Nordiques
- Vladimir Konstantinov, Detroit Red Wings
- Vyacheslav Kozlov, Detroit Red Wings
- Martin Lapointe, Detroit Red Wings
- Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings
- Shawn McEachern, Pittsburgh Penguins
- Marty McInnis, New York Islanders
- Glen Murray, Boston Bruins
- Scott Niedermayer, New Jersey Devils
- Felix Potvin, Toronto Maple Leafs
- Jozef Stumpel, Boston Bruins
- Darryl Sydor, Los Angeles Kings
- Keith Tkachuk, Winnipeg Jets
- Rob Zamuner, New York Rangers
Last games
- Barry Pederson, Boston Bruins
- Rick Vaive, Buffalo Sabres
- Tony Tanti, Buffalo Sabres
- Clint Malarchuk, Buffalo Sabres
- Greg Millen, Detroit Red Wings
- Ilkka Sinisalo, Los Angeles Kings
- Larry Robinson, Los Angeles Kings
- Chris Nilan, Montreal Canadiens
- Patrik Sundstrom, New Jersey Devils
- Rick Green, New York Islanders
- John Tonelli, Quebec Nordiques
- Mark Pavelich, San Jose Sharks
- Ken Linseman, Toronto Maple Leafs
- Mike Bullard, Toronto Maple Leafs
- Randy Gregg, Vancouver Canucks
- Mike Liut, Washington Capitals
- Mario Marois, Winnipeg Jets
- Lucien DeBlois, Winnipeg Jets
- Aaron Broten, Winnipeg Jets
Hat tricks