The 1994–95 NHL season was the 78th regular season of the National Hockey League. The teams played a shortened season, due to a lockout of the players by the owners. In addition, the NHL All-Star Game, which had been scheduled to take place January 20–21, 1995, in San Jose, California, was canceled. San Jose was soon selected as the venue for the 1997 NHL All-Star Game. The New Jersey Devils swept the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings for their first Stanley Cup win. It was also their first appearance in the finals overall. This is also the first time in both NHL and NBA history where both finals involved a sweep. Both finals consist of the number one seeded team both being swept.
The Hartford Whalers were purchased by Peter Karmanos.
This was the last season in Quebec City for the Quebec Nordiques, as they announced that they would move to Denver after the season and become the Colorado Avalanche.
The regular season was shortened because of a 103-day lockout, which ended on January 11, 1995. The season got underway nine days later.
The Boston Bruins played their final season at the Boston Garden. They would then move to their current arena, the TD Garden (then named the FleetCenter).
The Vancouver Canucks played their last season at Pacific Coliseum. They would play at GM Place (now known as Rogers Arena) the following year.
The Chicago Blackhawks moved to the United Center.
The St. Louis Blues moved to the Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center).
Due to the 1994–95 NHL lockout, the league shortened the season length from 84 games, the length of the previous two seasons, to 48.[2] Furthermore, the season would last from January 20 to May 3; this was the first time in NHL history that the regular season extended into May. The next time was the 2020–21 NHL season. Regular-season games would be limited to intra-conference play (Eastern Conference teams did not play Western Conference teams).
This was the first season since 1969–70, that the Montreal Canadiens missed the playoffs.
Divisions: AT – Atlantic, NE – Northeast
bold – Qualified for playoffs
Divisions: CEN – Central, PAC – Pacific
bold – Qualified for playoffs; x – Won division; p – Won Presidents' Trophy
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Note: No. = Division rank, CR = Conference rank, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points
Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.
The NHL Awards presentation took place on July 6, 1995.
Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points
Regular season
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The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1994–95, listed with their first team (asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
The following is a list of players of note who played their last game in the NHL in 1994–95 (listed with their last team):
This was the seventh season that the league's Canadian national broadcast rights were split between TSN and Hockey Night in Canada on CBC. This was the first season that HNIC had doubleheaders on every Saturday night of the regular season. TSN continued to televise regular season weeknight games, primarily on Mondays and Thursdays. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs was primarily on CBC, with TSN airing first round all-U.S. series.
This was the first season of the league's five-year U.S. national broadcast rights deals with Fox and ESPN. Fox's deal marked the NHL's first major American broadcast network agreement since the 1974–75 season. ESPN's original deal that began 1992–93 season was also restructured, as Fox replaced ESPN's brokered deal with its sister broadcast network ABC. Fox had the All-Star Game and weekly regional telecasts on the last five Sunday afternoons of the regular season, while ESPN and ESPN2 had weeknight games.[7][8]
For playoff coverage, this was the first time that all Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals games were exclusive to Fox or ESPN. American regional sports networks could still carry their teams' first and second-round games, but they could no longer televise local coverage beyond those rounds. During the first two rounds, ESPN and ESPN2 televised selected games, while Fox had regional Sunday afternoon telecasts. Fox's Sunday telecasts continued into the Conference Finals, while ESPN had the rest of the Conference Finals games. The Stanley Cup Finals were also split between Fox and ESPN.[9]