1993-94 NHL season

The 1993–94 NHL season was the 77th regular season of the National Hockey League. Twenty-six teams each played 84 games. The New York Rangers were the Stanley Cup champions. It was the Rangers' fourth championship.

The spectacular play of Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils and Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres ushered in a new era of goaltending dominance in the NHL. Only three teams reached the 300-goal plateau, and only one team, the Detroit Red Wings, averaged more than four goals scored per game. Goaltenders combined for 99 shutouts during the regular season, a mark that broke the all-time regular-season record of 85 set in 1974-75.

League business
For this season, the names of the conferences were changed from Campbell and Wales to Western and Eastern respectively, and the divisions' names were changed from Adams, Patrick, Norris, and Smythe to Northeast, Atlantic, Central, and Pacific respectively. Each division had changes. The Northeast Division would welcome the Pittsburgh Penguins, previously from the Patrick Division. The Atlantic Division would welcome the newcomer Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning, previously from the Norris Division. The Central Division would welcome the Winnipeg Jets, previously from the Smythe Division. The Pacific Division would welcome the newcomer Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. New league commissioner Gary Bettman, who had previously worked in the National Basketball Association (NBA), thought the old names could be confusing to non-traditional fans and believed that a change to geographically-named divisions, as used in the NBA and most other North American professional sports, would be more easily understandable to new fans.

In addition, the playoff format was slightly altered to resemble that of the NBA. Whereas the playoffs had previously been bracketed and seeded by division, they were now broken down only by conference: the division winners were seeded one-two by order of point finish, then the top six remaining teams in the conference were seeded three through eight. However, unlike the NBA, the NHL matches the highest-seeded winners against the lowest-seeded winners in the second round. In order to reduce the number of long trips to and from the West Coast, whenever a Central Division team played a Pacific Division team in the playoffs, the format was 2–3–2 rather than the traditional 2–2–1–1–1, a format which lasted only for the 1993–94 season.

Franchise changes

 * The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Florida Panthers started play this season.


 * The Minnesota North Stars relocated to Dallas, Texas to become the Dallas Stars. It was the first franchise relocation for the NHL since the Colorado Rockies became the New Jersey Devils in 1982–83.


 * This was the first season that the San Jose Sharks actually played in San Jose, moving into the new San Jose Arena after spending their first two years at the Cow Palace in Daly City.


 * It was the final season that the St. Louis Blues played at the St. Louis Arena.

Final standings
The division first-place finishers qualify for the playoffs as 1-2 seeding. The next six per conference are the teams with the six best records of the non-division winners.

Western Conference
Note: z = won Presidents' Trophy.

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.

Playoffs
For the first time, all four former WHA teams (Edmonton, Hartford, Quebec, and Winnipeg) failed to make the playoffs in the same year.

Final
The Final pitted the New York Rangers, seeking to win their first Cup since 1940, versus the Vancouver Canucks, looking for their first-ever Cup win. The series was hard-fought and went the full seven games. The Rangers took a 3–1 series lead, but the Canucks won the next two to force a game seven in New York. The Rangers won the game 3–2 to win their fourth Stanley Cup.

NHL awards
The NHL awards presentation took place on June 16, 1994.

Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1993–94 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
 * Mariusz Czerkawski, Boston Bruins
 * Chris Osgood, Detroit Red Wings
 * Darren McCarty, Detroit Red Wings
 * Greg Johnson, Detroit Red Wings
 * Jason Arnott, Edmonton Oilers
 * Kirk Maltby, Edmonton Oilers
 * Rob Niedermayer, Florida Panthers
 * Chris Pronger, Hartford Whalers
 * Donald Brashear, Montreal Canadiens
 * Jason Smith, New Jersey Devils
 * Zigmund Palffy, New York Islanders
 * Mattias Norstrom, New York Rangers
 * Todd Marchant, New York Rangers
 * Alexandre Daigle, Ottawa Senators
 * Alexei Yashin, Ottawa Senators
 * Pavol Demitra, Ottawa Senators
 * Mikael Renberg, Philadelphia Flyers
 * Markus Naslund, Pittsburgh Penguins
 * Jocelyn Thibault, Quebec Nordiques
 * Ian Laperriere, St. Louis Blues
 * Chris Gratton, Tampa Bay Lightning
 * Yanic Perreault, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * Mike Peca, Vancouver Canucks
 * Jason Allison, Washington Capitals

Last games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1993–94 (listed with their last team):
 * Gordie Roberts, Boston Bruins
 * Dave Christian, Chicago Blackhawks
 * Michel Goulet, Chicago Blackhawks
 * Mike Foligno, Florida Panthers
 * Brian Propp, Hartford Whalers
 * Dave Taylor, Los Angeles Kings
 * Mark Hardy, Los Angeles Kings
 * Keith Acton, New York Islanders
 * Rob Ramage, Philadelphia Flyers
 * Bryan Trottier, Pittsburgh Penguins

1994 trading deadline
Trading deadline: March 21, 1994.
 * March 19, 1994: Donald Dufresne traded from Tampa Bay to Los Angeles for Los Angeles's sixth round pick in 1994 Entry Draft.
 * March 19, 1994: Jeff Daniels traded from Pittsburgh to Florida for Greg Hawgood.
 * March 19, 1994: Doug Zmolek and Mike Lalor traded from San Jose to Dallas for Ulf Dahlen.
 * March 21, 1994: Joe Juneau traded from Boston to Washington for Al Iafrate.
 * March 21, 1994: Craig Janney traded from Vancouver to St. Louis for Jeff Brown, Bret Hedican and Nathan Lafayette.
 * March 21, 1994: Jim Johnson traded from Dallas to Washington for Alan May and Washington's seventh round pick in 1995 Entry Draft.
 * March 21, 1994: Joe Reekie traded from Tampa Bay to Washington for Enrico Ciccone and Washington's third round pick in 1994 Entry Draft and a conditional draft pick.
 * March 21, 1994: Steve Konroyd traded from Detroit to Ottawa for Daniel Berthiaume.
 * March 21, 1994: Phil Bourque traded from NY Rangers to Ottawa for future considerations.
 * March 21, 1994: Tony Amonte and the rights to Matt Oates traded from NY Rangers to Chicago for Stephane Matteau and Brian Noonan.
 * March 21, 1994: Peter Andersson traded from NY Rangers to Florida for future considerations.
 * March 21, 1994: Robert Dirk traded from Vancouver to Chicago for Chicago's fourth round pick in 1994 Entry Draft.
 * March 21, 1994: Mike Gartner traded from NY Rangers to Toronto for Glenn Anderson, the rights to Scott Malone and Toronto's fourth round pick in 1994 Entry Draft.
 * March 21, 1994: Craig MacTavish traded from Edmonton to NY Rangers for Todd Marchant.
 * March 21, 1994: Paul Ysebaert traded from Winnipeg to Chicago for Chicago's third round pick in 1995 Entry Draft.
 * March 21, 1994: Alexei Kasatonov traded from Anaheim to St. Louis for Maxim Bets and St. Louis's sixth round pick in 1995 Entry Draft.
 * March 21, 1994: Mike Needham traded from Pittsburgh to Dallas for Jim McKenzie.
 * March 21, 1994: Kevin Todd traded from Chicago to Los Angeles for Los Angeles's fourth round pick in the 1994 Entry Draft.
 * March 21, 1994: Pelle Eklund traded from Philadelphia to Dallas for future considerations.
 * March 21, 1994: Roy Mitchell and Reid Simpson traded from Dallas to New Jersey for future considerations.
 * March 21, 1994: Steve Passmore traded from Quebec to Edmonton for Brad Werenka.

Neutral site games
There were a series of neutral-site games in this season which created a few interesting scenarios:
 * The Stars played a neutral-site game in their previous hometown of Minneapolis, where they were greeted enthusiastically.
 * The Minnesota North Stars' tradition of playing on New Year's Eve and holding a post-game skate on the ice was continued. However, the North Stars having moved to Dallas, organizers had to attempt to emulate it by scheduling the Flyers and Bruins. Also, the game was played at the Target Center in Minneapolis rather than the Met Center in Bloomington.
 * The Lightning vs. Red Wings contest at Minneapolis was scheduled for Martin Luther King Day, a Monday, necessitating an afternoon face-off at 2:05 PM. Due to an error on the NHL's part, however, the Lightning believed themselves to be playing at 7:35 PM, an error that was only discovered two weeks prior to the game by reporters. The Lightning ended up playing an 8:05 PM game in Winnipeg, flying back to the U.S., and playing again just 18 hours later in Minneapolis.
 * The Devils and Rangers, whose arenas were located twelve miles apart, played over 1,000 miles away and in a different country (at Halifax, Nova Scotia).
 * Similarly, the Canadiens and Nordiques, both hailing from the province of Quebec, played each other 2,500 miles from home (in Phoenix, AZ), travelling not only to another country but also from a French- to an English-speaking city.
 * The Panthers, in the midst of a playoff race, played a March "home" game against the Maple Leafs 30 miles from Toronto, at Hamilton.

In total, 26 such games were played: