1984–85 NHL season

The 1984–85 NHL season was the 68th season of the National Hockey League. The Edmonton Oilers won their second straight Stanley Cup by beating the Philadelphia Flyers four games to one in the final series.

League business
Referee Andy Van Hellemond becomes the first on ice official in league history to wear a helmet. Soon, several officials would follow his lead and wear helmets before it became mandatory for all officials for the 2006–07 season.

Regular season
The Philadelphia Flyers had the best record in the NHL, four points ahead of second place Edmonton Oilers. Flyers goaltender Pelle Lindbergh went on to become the first European to win the Vezina Trophy. Oilers' star Wayne Gretzky once again won the Art Ross Trophy by reaching the 200 plateau for the third time in four years. He also set a new record for assists in a season with 135 and won his sixth straight Hart Memorial Trophy. Mario Lemieux made his NHL debut by scoring 100 points and winning the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year. On October 26, 1984, Paul Coffey of the Edmonton Oilers would be the last defenceman in the 20th century to score four goals in one game. It occurred in a game versus the Detroit Red Wings.

The last two players active in the 1960s, Butch Goring and Brad Park, retired after the playoffs. Goring was the last active, playing his last playoff game three days after Park's last game.

Final standings
''Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes. Teams qualifying for the playoffs shown in bold.''

Playoffs
The defending champion Edmonton Oilers returned to the Final, meeting the overall regular season champion Philadelphia Flyers. In the Final, Edmonton would lose the first game to the Flyers but would then take the next four to win their second consecutive Stanley Cup.

For the second consecutive and last season, the finals used the 2–3–2 home ice format.

Scoring leaders
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points Source: NHL.

Leading goaltenders
Note: GP = Games played; W = Won; L = Lost; T = Tied; GA = Goals allowed; GAA = Goals against average; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage

Patrick Division

 * New Jersey Devils: Doug Carpenter
 * New York Islanders: Al Arbour
 * New York Rangers: Herb Brooks and Craig Patrick
 * Philadelphia Flyers: Mike Keenan
 * Pittsburgh Penguins: Bob Berry
 * Washington Capitals: Bryan Murray

Adams Division

 * Boston Bruins: Gerry Cheevers and Harry Sinden
 * Buffalo Sabres: Scotty Bowman
 * Hartford Whalers: Jack Evans
 * Montreal Canadiens: Jacques Lemaire
 * Quebec Nordiques: Michel Bergeron

Norris Division

 * Chicago Black Hawks: Orval Tessier and Bob Pulford
 * Detroit Red Wings: Nick Polano
 * Minnesota North Stars: Glen Sonmor
 * St. Louis Blues: Jacques Demers
 * Toronto Maple Leafs: Dan Maloney

Smythe Division

 * Calgary Flames: Bob Johnson
 * Edmonton Oilers: Glen Sather
 * Los Angeles Kings: Pat Quinn
 * Vancouver Canucks: Bill LaForge and Harry Neale
 * Winnipeg Jets: Barry Long

Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1984–85 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
 * Gino Cavallini, Calgary Flames
 * Joel Otto, Calgary Flames
 * Ed Olczyk, Chicago Black Hawks
 * Marc Bergevin, Chicago Black Hawks
 * Gerard Gallant, Detroit Red Wings
 * Esa Tikkanen*, Edmonton Oilers
 * Steve Smith, Edmonton Oilers
 * Kevin Dineen, Hartford Whalers
 * Ray Ferraro, Hartford Whalers
 * Sylvain Cote, Hartford Whalers
 * Ulf Samuelsson, Hartford Whalers
 * Garry Galley, Los Angeles Kings
 * Patrick Roy, Montreal Canadiens
 * Petr Svoboda, Montreal Canadiens
 * Stephane Richer, Montreal Canadiens
 * Greg Adams, New Jersey Devils
 * Kirk Muller, New Jersey Devils
 * Dave Gagner, New York Rangers
 * Grant Ledyard, New York Rangers
 * Kelly Miller, New York Rangers
 * Tomas Sandstrom, New York Rangers
 * Rick Tocchet, Philadelphia Flyers
 * Doug Bodger, Pittsburgh Penguins
 * Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh Penguins
 * Steve Thomas, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * Todd Gill, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * Al Iafrate, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * Petri Skriko, Vancouver Canucks
 * Kevin Hatcher, Washington Capitals
 * Dave Ellett, Winnipeg Jets

Last games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1984–85 (listed with their last team):
 * Terry O'Reilly, Boston Bruins
 * Butch Goring, Boston Bruins
 * Craig Ramsay, Buffalo Sabres
 * Jerry Korab, Buffalo Sabres
 * Jim Schoenfeld, Buffalo Sabres
 * Real Cloutier, Buffalo Sabres
 * Bob MacMillan, Chicago Black Hawks
 * Brad Park, Detroit Red Wings
 * Colin Campbell, Detroit Red Wings
 * Darryl Sittler, Detroit Red Wings
 * Ivan Boldirev, Detroit Red Wings
 * Steve Shutt, Los Angeles Kings
 * Paul Holmgren, Minnesota North Stars
 * Pierre Mondou, Montreal Canadiens
 * Anders Hedberg, New York Rangers
 * Robbie Ftorek, New York Rangers
 * Rick Kehoe, Pittsburgh Penguins
 * John Garrett, Vancouver Canucks

Note: Goring and Park were the last two players to have played in the NHL in the 1960s.

Broadcasting
This was the first season in more than a decade that CBC was not the lone Canadian national broadcaster. While Molson continued to present Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday nights, rival brewery Carling O'Keefe began airing Friday night games on CTV. The two networks also split the playoffs and finals. CTV had previously aired HNIC-produced telecasts in the 1960s.

This was the third and final season of the league's U.S. national broadcast rights deal with USA, covering a slate of regular season games and selected playoff games. ESPN then signed a three-year agreement with the league after bidding about twice as much as USA had been paying. USA would not televise the NHL again until after the network was acquired by NBCUniversal in the early 2000s, airing selected playoff games as part of NBC Sports' overall NHL coverage between 2015 and 2021.