The1993–94 NHL season was the77th regular season of theNational Hockey League. The league expanded to 26 teams with the addition of theMighty Ducks of Anaheim and theFlorida Panthers. TheMinnesota North Stars relocated to become theDallas Stars. And the league was realigned to geographically-named conferences and divisions. TheNew York Rangers defeated theVancouver Canucks in seven games to become the Stanley Cup champions. It was the Rangers' fourth championship overall, and their first in 54 seasons, since1939–40.

The spectacular play ofDominik Hasek of theBuffalo Sabres ushered in a new era of goaltending dominance in the NHL. Only three teams reached the 300-goal plateau, and only one team, theDetroit Red Wings, averaged more than four goals scored per game.^[1] Goaltenders combined for 99 shutouts during the regular season,^[2] a mark that broke the all-time regular-season record of 85 set in 1974–75.^[3]

TheMighty Ducks of Anaheim and theFlorida Panthers started play this season, increasing the league to 26 teams. The Ducks became the second team in theGreater Los Angeles area after theLos Angeles Kings, while the Panthers became the second team in the state ofFlorida after theTampa Bay Lightning. The1993 NHL expansion draft was held on June 24 to fill the rosters of the Mighty Ducks and the Panthers.

TheMinnesota North Stars relocated toDallas,Texas to become theDallas Stars. It was the first franchise relocation for the NHL since theColorado Rockies became theNew Jersey Devils in1982–83.

The names of the conferences were changed from Campbell and Wales toWestern andEastern respectively, and the divisions' names were changed fromAdams,Patrick,Norris, andSmythe toNortheast,Atlantic,Central, andPacific respectively.^[4] 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 commissionerGary Bettman, who had previously worked in theNational 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 changed to a conference based seeding over division specific brackets: 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.^[4][5] However, unlike the NBA, the NHL matched 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 that was only used for the 1993–94 season.

The1993 NHL entry draft was held on June 26, 1993, at theColisée de Québec inQuebec City,Quebec.Alexandre Daigle was selected first overall by theOttawa Senators.

Thehigh-sticking rules were amended to allow goals hit by a stick below the height of the crossbar, instead of the height of the player's shoulders like other situations.^[6]

• The expansionMighty Ducks of Anaheim moved into theArrowhead Pond of Anaheim, withArrowhead Water acquired the naming rights.
• The relocatedDallas Stars moved from theMet Center inBloomington, Minnesota toReunion Arena in Dallas.
• The expansionFlorida Panthers moved intoMiami Arena.
• TheSan Jose Sharks moved from theCow Palace inDaly City, California to theSan Jose Arena inSan Jose, California.
• TheTampa Bay Lightning moved fromExpo Hall inEast Lake-Orient Park, Florida to theThunderdome inSt. Petersburg, Florida.
• TheWashington Capitals' home arena, theCapital Centre, was renamedUSAir Arena afterUSAir acquired the naming rights.

This was the second regular season that the NHL and Bruce McNall's Multivision Marketing and Public Relations Co. organized games held in cities without a franchise as a litmus test for future expansion. With the addition of theMighty Ducks of Anaheim and theFlorida Panthers to the league, the number of these games increased from 24 to 26.

TheDallas Stars played a neutral-site game in their previous market of Minnesota at theTarget Center inMinneapolis, where they were greeted enthusiastically. TheMinnesota North Stars' tradition of playing on New Year's Eve and holding a post-game skate on the ice was also continued with a game between thePhiladelphia Flyers andBoston Bruins.

TheTampa Bay Lightning–Detroit Red Wings contest in Minneapolis was scheduled forMartin Luther King Day, a Monday, with an afternoon face-off at 2:05 PM. However, due to an error on the NHL's part, 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 inWinnipeg, flying back to the U.S., and playing again 18 hours later in Minneapolis.

The Panthers, in the midst of a playoff race, played a March "home" game against theToronto Maple Leafs inHamilton, Ontario.

TheAll-Star Game was held inMadison Square Garden inNew York City, home of theNew York Rangers, on January 22, 1994. The conference-based all-star teams were renamed to reflect the league's new Eastern and Western conferences.

The Panthers and Mighty Ducks set new records for first-year expansion teams. Both teams finished with 33 wins, surpassing the 31 wins of thePhiladelphia Flyers andLos Angeles Kings in1967–68. That mark would not be topped by another expansion team until theVegas Golden Knights notched their 34th win in theirinaugural season on February 1, 2018, finishing with 51.^[7] The Panthers also set a high-water mark in points, with 83 points, surpassing the previous record set by the Flyers' 73 points in 1967–68. The Golden Knights would eventually shatter this inaugural expansion team record by 26 points notching a total of 109 points in 2017–18.Wayne Gretzky became the all-time goal-scoring leader on March 23rd, 1994, surpassingGordie Howe's record of 801 goals. The record would eventually be broken byAlexander Ovechkin on April 6, 2025.

bold – Qualified for playoffs;x – Won division;p – WonPresidents' Trophy (and division); * – Division leader

Divisions:CEN – Central,PAC – Pacific

bold – Qualified for playoffs;x – Won division;y – Won Conference (and division); * – Division leader

       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 top eight teams in each conference made the playoffs, with the two division winnersseeded 1–2 based on regular season records, and the six remaining teams seeded 3–8. In each round, teams competed in abest-of-seven series (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-seven series). 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.

TheNHL awards presentation took place on June 16, 1994.

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The following is a list ofplayers of note who played their first NHL game in 1993–94 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Chris Osgood, 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
• Markus Naslund, Pittsburgh Penguins
• Jocelyn Thibault, Quebec Nordiques
• Ian Laperriere, St. Louis Blues
• Chris Gratton, Tampa Bay Lightning
• Yanic Perreault, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Michael Peca, Vancouver Canucks
• Jason Allison, Washington Capitals

The following is a list ofplayers of note who 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
• Keith Acton, New York Islanders
• Rob Ramage, Philadelphia Flyers
• Bryan Trottier, Pittsburgh Penguins

This was the sixth season of the league's Canadian national broadcast rights deals withTSN andHockey Night in Canada onCBC. This was the last regular season before Saturday night doubleheaders became permanent onHNIC on CBC. TSN televised selected regular season weeknight games. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs was primarily on CBC, with TSN airing first round all-U.S. series.

This was the second season ofESPN's deal for U.S. national broadcast rights,^[12] whileNBC televised the All-Star Game for the fifth and final consecutive season.

ESPN's weekly regular season games were generally broadcast on Wednesdays and Fridays. ESPN also had Sunday games between theNFL andbaseball seasons.^[13]ESPN2 also began showing up to five games per week, branded asNHL Fire on Ice.^[14]

ESPN'sbrokered deal with sister broadcast networkABC expanded to include weekly regional telecasts on the last three Sunday afternoons of the regular season.^[15][16] This marked the first time that regular season NHL games were broadcast on American network television since1974–75.^[17] ABC then televised playoff games on first three Sundays of the postseason.^[18] ESPN and ESPN2 televised selected first and second-round games. ESPN then had the Conference finals and the Stanley Cup Finals.

After the season, the NHL reached a five-year deal withFox, replacing ABC and NBC as the league's U.S. broadcast television partner.^[19]

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• 1993 NHL entry draft
• 1993 NHL expansion draft
• 1993 NHL supplemental draft
• 1993-94 NHL transactions
• 45th National Hockey League All-Star Game
• National Hockey League All-Star Game
• NHL All-Rookie Team
• Lester Patrick Trophy
• Ice hockey at the 1994 Winter Olympics
• 1993 in sports
• 1994 in sports

• 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

• Hockey Database 1994 season

• 1993–94 NHL season
• 1993–94 in Canadian ice hockey by league
• 1993–94 in American ice hockey by league
• 1994 in American sports

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from August 2023
• Short description matches Wikidata