The1967–68 NHL season was the51stseason of theNational Hockey League. The league expanded to 12 teams, putting the new six in the newly created West Division, while the "Original Six" were all placed in the newly created East Division. The regular season schedule was expanded to 74 games per team and featured the first time all twelve teams played games on the same day on October 18, 1967. TheMontreal Canadiens won theStanley Cup against the newSt. Louis Blues, in four games.

This season saw the NHL expand from the "original six" teams by addingsix new franchises, including theSt. Louis Blues,California Seals,Philadelphia Flyers,Minnesota North Stars,Pittsburgh Penguins, andLos Angeles Kings. On December 8, 1967, the California Seals were renamed the Oakland Seals before being renamed again to theCalifornia Golden Seals in 1970.^[1] As a result of the expansion, the League reorganized its teams into two divisions, placing the Original Six teams into the East Division and the expansion franchises into the West Division. The NHL, furthermore, increased its regular season schedule from 70 to 74 games per team^[2] with each team playing 50 games against opponents within its own division (10 against each divisional opponent) and 24 games with teams in the opposite division (4 games per opponent). The newly createdClarence S. Campbell Bowl was awarded to the team that finished first in the West Division during the regular season, thePrince of Wales Trophy was likewise awarded the East Division first-place team. A new format for the playoffs would also be introduced which would see the top four teams in each division qualify for the post-season with the first and third and the second and fourth place teams in each respective division pairing off in a divisional semi-final series. The winners of the latter would then compete in their respective divisional final series and a berth in the Stanley Cup finals. All series would be best-of-seven contests.^[2]

The1967 NHL expansion draft was held on June 6, at theQueen Elizabeth Hotel inMontreal,Quebec to fill the rosters of the six expansion teams. The1967 NHL amateur draft was then held one day later at the same hotel. Under the agreement signed with theCanadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), all players who graduated from junior hockey became eligible for the amateur draft this year, and the minimum age of players subject to amateur draft was changed to 20.^[1][3] The Kings had the first overall picks in both drafts, selectingTerry Sawchuk first overall in the expansion draft, and draftingRick Pagnutti first overall in the amateur draft.

This season, the NHL also added a new player award called theBill Masterton Memorial Trophy, named in honour ofBill Masterton who died on January 15, 1968, after sustaining an injury during a game (the first time an NHL player had ever died directly as a result of an on-ice injury).

There were a large number of holdouts this year. Three New York Ranger players, includingRod Gilbert,Arnie Brown andOrland Kurtenbach were fined $500 by their team. However,Ed Van Impe of the Flyers refused to sign his contract, followed byEarl Ingarfield andAl MacNeil also refused to sign, thenTim Horton of Toronto,Norm Ullman of Detroit andKenny Wharram andStan Mikita of Chicago. Led byAlan Eagleson, the newNational Hockey League Players' Association was up and running.

• The expansionBlues moved intoSt. Louis Arena.
• The expansionFlyers moved into theSpectrum.
• The expansionKings played their first two home games atLong Beach Arena inLong Beach, California, then their next 14 atLos Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles before the team's permanent arena,The Forum inInglewood, California, opened on December 30, 1967.
• The expansionNorth Stars moved into theMetropolitan Sports Center inBloomington, Minnesota.
• TheRangers moved from thethird Madison Square Garden to thefourth by February 18, 1968.
• The expansionPenguins moved intoPittsburgh Civic Arena.
• The expansionSeals moved into theOakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena.

All twelve of the League's member teams played games on the same day for the first time on October 18, 1967, competing in six scheduled games — the most the League had ever scheduled on one day.^[4]

On October 11, 1967,Jean Beliveau of Montreal scored his 400th career goal on goaltenderHank Bassen of thePittsburgh Penguins. This also happened to be the first game in Penguins franchise history.

The Canadiens stumbled out of the gate. In their first west coast road trip, the Seals beat them 2–1 and the Kings beat them 4–2. The Habs lost quite a few more and were in last place by December. But by January, Jean Beliveau began to score and others were inspired also. The Habs got very hot, winning 12 consecutive games and then put together 10 more wins to take the East Division lead. Paced byGump Worsley, who had 6 shutouts and a 1.98 goals against average and backstopped the team to the fewest goals allowed in the league, they managed to keep first place thereafter. Worsley, for the first time, made the first all-star team.

On February 24, 1968,Rogie Vachon of Montreal was the victim of four goals byRod Gilbert, who set an NHL record with 16 shots on goal.

Eddie Giacomin again led the league with 8 shutouts, and led the Rangers to second place, bolstered byJean Ratelle's emergence into stardom.

Boston obtainedPhil Esposito,Ken Hodge andFred Stanfield in a blockbuster trade with Chicago. This trade, as shown over time, heavily favored the Bruins. This, coinciding with the rise ofBobby Orr, led to an improvement in Boston's play, and the Bruins led the league in scoring behind Esposito's 84 points and made the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade. Though he missed action with a knee injury, Orr still won theNorris Trophy as the league's top defenceman.

By contrast, theChicago Black Hawks fell into a tailspin, and despite the scoring heroics ofBobby Hull andStan Mikita, were hard pressed to make the playoffs. Mediocre team defence and goaltending was the culprit. However, they were able to beat the Rangers in the quarter-final round, but lost in the semi-final round to eventual Stanley Cup champion Montreal Canadiens.

Roger Crozier felt the strain of goaltending and walked out on Detroit. He came back, but the Red Wings finished last anyway, despite a potent offense led byGordie Howe,Alex Delvecchio andNorm Ullman. Even a late season trade of Ullman andPaul Henderson for Toronto starFrank Mahovlich and future Blues starGarry Unger was too little, too late. However, on March 24, 1968, Mahovlich became only the 11th player to score 300 goals as he scored both his 300th and 301st goals in a 5–3 win over the Boston Bruins.

Meanwhile, the defending Cup championToronto Maple Leafs, still steady on defence in front of elder statesmanJohnny Bower and backupBruce Gamble, had numerous problems. Mahovlich spent time in hospital with a nervous breakdown, and the season was marred by contract disputes and tension with the high-strung coach,Punch Imlach. A late season charge failed to win a playoff berth.

In the West Division, thePhiladelphia Flyers became the first regular season champion of the expansion clubs. While their offense was poor (career minor-leagueLeon Rochefort led the team with just 21 goals), ex-Bruins' goaltendersBernie Parent andDoug Favell showed surprising form. Behind such hardnosed players asGary Dornhoefer,Ed Van Impe,Larry Zeidel andForbes Kennedy, the team showed the first glimmers of the "Broad Street Bullies" of future years.

TheLos Angeles Kings were a team that writers predicted to finish last in the new West Division.^[5] OwnerJack Kent Cooke had purchased theAmerican Hockey League'sSpringfield Indians for $1 million to bolster the Kings roster. Surprisingly, the Kings finished second, just one point out of first.Bill Flett scored 26 goals, whileEddie Joyal scored 23 goals, adding 34 assists for 57 points and was the second leading scorer in the West Division. Among the expansion teams, the Kings had the best record against the established teams, going 10–12–2 vs. the Eastern Division.

Oakland, predicted to finish first, fell far short of the mark, amidst poor attendance. DefencemanKent Douglas, a formerCalder Memorial Trophy winner, played far below expected form and was traded to Detroit forTed Hampson and defencemanBert Marshall. The Seals finished last in the West Division.

Glenn Hall may have been deemed too old by the Black Hawks, which left him unprotected in the expansion draft, but not for theSt. Louis Blues, who rode his five shutouts to a third-place finish. A surprising benefit was their leading scorer, previously unheraldedRed Berenson (with only 45 points in 185 previous NHL games) who exploded into stardom, more than doubling his career total in only 55 games.

By contrast, thePittsburgh Penguins finished fifth, led by former Ranger starAndy Bathgate. Behind an elderly roster—nine of their top ten scorers and both of their goaltenders were over thirty—they could neither muster much offense nor defence.

TheMinnesota North Stars had their bright moments despite finishing fourth in the West Division. On December 30, 1967,Bill Masterton andWayne Connelly each scored goals in a 5–4 upset win over the Boston Bruins. On January 10, Connelly—who would finish the season with 35 goals to lead his team and the West Division—had a hat trick in a 6–4 win over the West Division power, thePhiladelphia Flyers and Masterton was the architect on all three goals.

Tragedy struck the league on January 13, 1968. In a game at theMetropolitan Sports Center inBloomington, Minnesota, the Oakland Seals were in town to play the North Stars and Bill Masterton led a rush into the Oakland zone. Two defencemen,Larry Cahan andRon Harris braced for the old fashioned sandwich check and as Masterton fired the puck into the Seals zone, the two hit Masterton hard but cleanly. Masterton flipped backwards and hit his head on the ice. He was removed to aMinneapolis hospital where doctors were prevented from doing surgery by the seriousness of the head injury. Early on the morning of January 15, 1968, Bill Masterton died. He was the first—and as of 2023, the only—player to die as the direct result of injuries suffered in an NHL game, the only such incident in a senior gamesince 1907.

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes
Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold

Under the new postseason format, the top four teams in each division qualified for the playoffs. In the first round, the first-place vs. third-place and second-place vs. fourth-place playoff format that had been in place for the previous 25 seasons was retained within the East and West Divisions. The two winning teams from each division's first round series then met in the Stanley Cup Semifinals. The two winners of the Semifinals then advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals. This guaranteed that an expansion team would at least reach the Finals, but also highlighted the competitive imbalance between the Original Six teams in the East Division and the expansion teams in the West Division.

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).

All series but Bruins-Canadiens had a game postponed after theAssassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4.^[7]

The Canadiens drew the third-place Boston Bruins in the first round. The Bruins, making their first appearance in the playoffs since 1959, were swept in four games. In the other East series, the second-place Rangers faced off against the fourth-place Chicago Black Hawks. The Black Hawks, led byBobby Hull andStan Mikita defeated the Rangers in six to set up a Montreal-Chicago East Division showdown. The Black Hawks could not provide another upset, and lost to the Canadiens in five games, giving Montreal their only defeat of the playoffs.

In the West, all four teams played their first playoff series. The first-placePhiladelphia Flyers lost their first-ever playoff series to the Blues, led by goaltenderGlenn Hall and coached by future Hall of Fame coachScotty Bowman in seven games, while the second-placeLos Angeles Kings lost to the fourth-placeMinnesota North Stars in seven games. The Blues would defeat the North Stars in seven games to advance to their first final.

The Blues faced the Canadiens for the Stanley Cup. Blues coach Bowman, a long-time member of the Canadiens organization was unable to spur the Blues to an upset, but they made it a hard-fought series, with each game being decided by one goal and two going to overtime. However, the Canadiens, led byJean Beliveau andHenri Richard, were not to be denied and swept the series in four games. Despite this, the exceptional performance of the heavy underdog Blues impressed and surprised most hockey fans who were expecting an utter blowout by the Canadiens, to the point that their goaltenderGlenn Hall, who helped lead the team to the Cup Finals, was named the MVP of the playoffs.

Note: GP = Games played; G Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes

Source: NHL.^[8]

Note: GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts

The NHL began tracking the plus-minus statistic this season. It measures the difference between the number of goals scored by a player's team while a player is on the ice against the number of goals scored by the opposing team. Power play goals do not count toward the statistic; it does include short-handed goals scored by the opposing team during power plays.

• Plus-Minus leader:Dallas Smith, Boston Bruins

• Boston Bruins:Harry Sinden
• Chicago Black Hawks:Billy Reay
• Detroit Red Wings:Sid Abel
• Montreal Canadiens:Toe Blake
• New York Rangers:Emile Francis
• Toronto Maple Leafs:Punch Imlach

• Los Angeles Kings:Red Kelly
• Minnesota North Stars:Wren Blair
• Oakland Seals:Bert Olmstead andGord Fashoway
• Philadelphia Flyers:Keith Allen
• Pittsburgh Penguins:George "Red" Sullivan
• St. Louis Blues:Lynn Patrick andScotty Bowman

The following is a list of notable players who played their first NHL game in 1967–68 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Bobby Schmautz, Chicago Black Hawks
• Bill White, Los Angeles Kings
• Walt McKechnie, Minnesota North Stars
• Mickey Redmond, Montreal Canadiens
• Jacques Lemaire, Montreal Canadiens
• Garry Monahan, Montreal Canadiens
• Walt Tkaczuk, New York Rangers
• Dennis Hextall*, New York Rangers
• Simon Nolet, Philadelphia Flyers
• Barclay Plager, St. Louis Blues
• Garry Unger, Toronto Maple Leafs

The following is a list of notable players who played their last game in the NHL in 1967–68 (listed with their last team):

• Bill Masterton, Minnesota North Stars
• Bronco Horvath, Minnesota North Stars
• Bernie Geoffrion, New York Rangers
• Dickie Moore, St. Louis Blues
• Don McKenney, St. Louis Blues
• Al MacNeil. Pittsburgh Penguins

Hockey Night in Canada onCBC Television televised Saturday night regular season games and Stanley Cup playoff games.HNIC also produced Wednesday night regular season game telecasts forCTV. Games were typically not broadcast in their entirety until the1968–69 season, and were typically joined in progress.

This was the second season under the U.S. rights agreement withCBS. This season, CBS aired Saturday afternoon games between December 30 and January 20, then Sunday afternoon games from January 28 through March. The network then aired Sunday afternoon playoff games.

• 1967–68 NHL transactions
• 1967 NHL Expansion
• List of Stanley Cup champions
• 1967 NHL amateur draft
• 1967 NHL expansion draft
• 21st National Hockey League All-Star Game
• National Hockey League All-Star Game
• Ice hockey at the 1968 Winter Olympics
• 1967 in sports
• 1968 in sports

• Diamond, Dan, ed. (2000).Total Hockey. Kingston, New York: 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, Illinois: Publications International Inc.ISBN 0-7853-9624-1.
• McFarlane, Brian (1973).The Story of the National Hockey League. New York: Pagurian Press.ISBN 0-684-13424-1.

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com

• 1967–68 NHL season
• 1967–68 in American ice hockey by league
• 1967–68 in Canadian ice hockey by league

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