1978–79 NHL season

The 1978–79 NHL season was the 62nd season of the National Hockey League. The Montreal Canadiens beat the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup finals four games to one for their fourth consecutive Cup; two "Original Six" teams would not meet again in the Finals for the next 34 years, when Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Boston Bruins in the 2013 Finals. The Bruins faced the Canadiens in the 1979 semifinals, marking the last appearance by three Original Six teams in the final four for the next 35 years, when the Blackhawks, Canadiens and Rangers reached the semifinals of the 2014 playoffs.

The Cleveland Barons merged with the Minnesota North Stars (continuing as the North Stars), reducing the NHL membership to 17 teams, the last time that a league in the "big four" major professional sports league contracted.

League business
This season saw the first reduction in the total number of teams since the Brooklyn Americans folded following the 1941–42 season. Fearing that two teams were on the verge of folding, the league approved the merger of the financially unstable Cleveland Barons and Minnesota North Stars franchises, reducing the number of teams to 17. The merged team continued as the Minnesota North Stars but assumed the Barons' place in the Adams Division.

This reduction would only be temporary, however, as negotiations continued toward an agreement with the World Hockey Association that would see it fold following this season, with four of its teams joining the NHL as expansion franchises for 1979–80.

For the first time since the NHL All-Star Game became an annual tradition, it was not played. In its stead was the 1979 Challenge Cup, which saw Soviet Union players come over to North America to play against NHL players. The Soviets won the series two games to one.

Regular season
For the past three seasons, the Montreal Canadiens had dominated the regular season, but times were changing. The New York Islanders had been steadily improving over the past few seasons and this season saw them beat out the Canadiens by one point for the best record in the league.

This was the last season until the 2005–06 season that the St. Louis Blues missed the playoffs.

Final standings
GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, PIM = Penalties In Minutes Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold

Playoff seeds
The twelve teams that qualified for the playoffs are ranked 1–12 based on regular season points.

Note: Only teams that qualified for the playoffs are listed here.


 * 1) New York Islanders, Patrick Division champions, Clarence Campbell Conference regular season champions – 116 points
 * 2) Montreal Canadiens, Norris Division champions, Prince of Wales Conference regular season champions – 115 points
 * 3) Boston Bruins, Adams Division champions – 100 points
 * 4) Philadelphia Flyers – 95 points
 * 5) New York Rangers – 91 points
 * 6) Atlanta Flames – 90 points
 * 7) Buffalo Sabres – 88 points
 * 8) Pittsburgh Penguins – 85 points
 * 9) Toronto Maple Leafs – 81 points
 * 10) Los Angeles Kings – 80 points
 * 11) Chicago Black Hawks, Smythe Division champions – 73 points
 * 12) Vancouver Canucks – 63 points

Playoff bracket

 * Division winners earned a bye to the Quarterfinals
 * Teams were re-seeded based on regular season record after the Preliminary and Quarterfinal rounds

Stanley Cup Finals
Prior to 2013, this was the last time two Original Six clubs met in the finals.

Scoring leaders
GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties In Minutes Source: NHL.

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

Other statistics

 * Plus-minus
 * Bryan Trottier, New York Islanders

Patrick Division

 * Atlanta Flames: Fred Creighton
 * New York Islanders: Al Arbour
 * New York Rangers: Fred Shero
 * Philadelphia Flyers: Bob McCammon and Pat Quinn

Adams Division

 * Boston Bruins: Don Cherry
 * Buffalo Sabres: Billy Inglis
 * Minnesota North Stars: Harry Howell and Glen Sonmor
 * Toronto Maple Leafs: Roger Neilson

Norris Division

 * Detroit Red Wings: Bobby Kromm
 * Los Angeles Kings: Bob Berry
 * Montreal Canadiens: Scotty Bowman
 * Pittsburgh Penguins: Johnny Wilson
 * Washington Capitals: Danny Belisle

Smythe Division

 * Chicago Black Hawks: Bill White
 * Colorado Rockies: Pat Kelly
 * St. Louis Blues: Barclay Plager
 * Vancouver Canucks: Harry Neale

Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1978–79 (listed with their first team, asterisk (*) marks debut in playoffs):
 * Joel Quenneville, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * Brad Marsh, Atlanta Flames
 * Reggie Lemelin, Atlanta Flames
 * Al Secord, Boston Bruins
 * Bobby Smith, Minnesota North Stars
 * Steve Payne, Minnesota North Stars
 * Rod Langway §, Montreal Canadiens
 * John Tonelli §, New York Islanders
 * Anders Hedberg §, New York Rangers
 * Ulf Nilsson §, New York Rangers
 * Ken Linseman §, Philadelphia Flyers
 * Pete Peeters, Philadelphia Flyers
 * Greg Millen, Pittsburgh Penguins
 * Wayne Babych, St. Louis Blues
 * Curt Fraser, Vancouver Canucks
 * Thomas Gradin, Vancouver Canucks
 * Stan Smyl, Vancouver Canucks
 * Ryan Walter, Washington Capitals

Players marked with § began their major professional career in the World Hockey Association.

Last games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1978–79 (listed with their last team):
 * Bobby Orr, Chicago Black Hawks
 * Joe Watson, Colorado Rockies
 * Danny Grant, Los Angeles Kings
 * J. P. Parise, Minnesota North Stars
 * Jacques Lemaire, Montreal Canadiens
 * Ken Dryden, Montreal Canadiens
 * Yvan Cournoyer, Montreal Canadiens
 * Ed Westfall, New York Islanders
 * Bernie Parent, Philadelphia Flyers
 * Garry Monahan, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * Pit Martin, Vancouver Canucks

Broadcasting
Hockey Night in Canada on CBC Television televised Saturday night regular season games and Stanley Cup playoff games.

In the U.S., this was the fourth and final season that NHL games aired in national broadcast syndication under the NHL Network package. On February 10, CBS decided to televise Game 2 of the 1979 Challenge Cup, but that was the network's only involvement in broadcasting the NHL this season. Similarly, ABC only agreed to air Game 7 of the 1979 Stanley Cup Finals had the series gone that far. The league then dissolved the NHL Network after the season, signing packages of regular season slates to the fledgling cable networks ESPN and UA-Columbia (later known as the USA Network). The Hughes Television Network, the NHL Network's distributor, also signed a new deal for regular season and postseason games.