1985–86 NHL season

The 1985–86 NHL season was the 69th season of the National Hockey League. This season saw the league's Board of Governors introduce the Presidents' Trophy, which would go to the team with the best overall record in the NHL regular season. The Edmonton Oilers would be the first winners of this award.

The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Calgary Flames four games to one in the final series to win the Stanley Cup.

League business
On June 13, 1985, the NHL board of governors voted 17–4 in favour of amending a penalty rule. Previously, coincidental minor penalties would result in 4-on-4 play. The amendment allowed teams to substitute another player to keep the play 5-on-5. It was seen by many as a shot at trying to slow down the high-flying Edmonton Oilers. Wayne Gretzky was quoted as saying, "I think the NHL is making a big mistake. I think the NHL should be more concerned with butt-ending, spearing, and three-hour hockey games than getting rid of 4-on-4 situations." It wasn't until 1992, with the Oiler dynasty (five cups in seven years) having ended, that the NHL reverted to the original 4-on-4 rules.

Regular season
The Edmonton Oilers once again regained control of top spot in the NHL and were awarded with the Presidents' Trophy—the first time the trophy had been awarded for the best record—while last year's best team, the Philadelphia Flyers slipped to second. The Flyers continued their dominance of the Wales Conference despite the death of their Vezina-winning goaltender, Pelle Lindbergh, in a car accident on November 11. Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky won his seventh straight Hart Memorial Trophy and his sixth straight Art Ross Trophy. This season saw Gretzky score 52 goals, and set records of 163 assists and 215 points. This was the fourth time in five years that Gretzky reached the 200 point plateau; no other player has reached 200 point mark, although Mario Lemieux would garner 199 points in 76 games in 1988–89. Edmonton's defenceman Paul Coffey broke Bobby Orr's record of 46 goals for most goals in a season by a defenceman by scoring 48 times.

Final standings
Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalty Minutes

Playoffs


The 1986 playoffs saw three first place teams eliminated in the opening round and the fourth, Edmonton, bowed out in the second.

The Montreal Canadiens decided to go with a rookie goaltender by the name of Patrick Roy. This decision proved to be a good one just like when the Canadiens rode rookie goalie Ken Dryden to a Stanley Cup championship in 1971. In the Final, the Canadiens beat the Calgary Flames, who were also riding a rookie netminder, Mike Vernon. Patrick Roy won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP and had a sparkling 1.92 goals against average along with 15 wins.

The 1986 Stanley Cup playoffs are the last time to date that all active Canadian teams have qualified in the same season. It is also the second time that all seven active teams at the time qualified, the first occurring three years earlier. Also, the Hartford Whalers won their only playoff series during their tenure in Hartford against the Quebec Nordiques.

Stanley Cup Finals
After a 2-year trial of the 2–3–2 home ice format, the finals reverted to the 2–2–1–1–1 format.

Scoring leaders
Source: NHL

Leading goaltenders
Source: NHL

Patrick Division

 * New Jersey Devils: Doug Carpenter
 * New York Islanders: Al Arbour
 * New York Rangers: Ted Sator
 * Philadelphia Flyers: Mike Keenan
 * Pittsburgh Penguins: Bob Berry
 * Washington Capitals: Bryan Murray

Adams Division

 * Boston Bruins: Butch Goring
 * Buffalo Sabres: Jim Schoenfeld and Scotty Bowman
 * Hartford Whalers: Jack Evans
 * Montreal Canadiens: Jean Perron
 * Quebec Nordiques: Michel Bergeron

Norris Division

 * Chicago Black Hawks: Bob Pulford
 * Detroit Red Wings: Harry Neale and Brad Park
 * Minnesota North Stars: Lorne Henning
 * 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: Tom Watt
 * Winnipeg Jets: Barry Long and John Ferguson Sr.

Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1985–86 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
 * Bill Ranford, Boston Bruins
 * Daren Puppa, Buffalo Sabres
 * Brian Bradley, Calgary Flames
 * Gary Suter, Calgary Flames
 * Brett Hull*, Calgary Flames
 * Adam Oates, Detroit Red Wings
 * Petr Klima, Detroit Red Wings
 * Bob Probert, Detroit Red Wings
 * Shayne Corson, Montreal Canadiens
 * Kirk McLean, New Jersey Devils
 * Craig Wolanin, New Jersey Devils
 * Scott Mellanby, Philadelphia Flyers
 * Craig Simpson, Pittsburgh Penguins
 * Jeff Brown, Quebec Nordiques
 * Cliff Ronning*, St. Louis Blues
 * Wendel Clark, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * Dave Lowry, Vancouver Canucks
 * Jim Sandlak, Vancouver Canucks

Last games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1985–86 (listed with their last team):
 * Tom Lysiak, Chicago Black Hawks
 * Mike Rogers, Edmonton Oilers
 * Mario Tremblay, Montreal Canadiens
 * Bob Nystrom, New York Islanders
 * Pelle Lindbergh, Philadelphia Flyers
 * Denis Herron, Pittsburgh Penguins
 * Don Edwards, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * Marian Stastny, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * Jiri Bubla, Vancouver Canucks
 * Dan Bouchard, Winnipeg Jets

Broadcasting
This was the second and final season season that the Canadian national broadcast rights were split between the Molson-sponsored Hockey Night in Canada on CBC, and the Carling O'Keefe-sponsored telecasts on CTV. HNIC aired on Saturday nights, while CTV primarily televised Friday night games. CTV was also suppose to televise the All-Star Game, but due to a prior programming commitment, the game aired instead on the cable network TSN for the first time. CBC and CTV also split the Stanley Cup playoffs. After the season, CTV decided to pull the plug on the venture, citing its limited access to Canadian-based teams, which translated into poor ratings. Carling O'Keefe retained the rights for the next two seasons, and syndicated its playoff telecasts to a chain of local stations that would one day become the Global Television Network.

This was the first season of the league's three-year U.S. national broadcast rights deal with ESPN. The contract called for the network to air up to 33 regular season games each season as well as the All-Star Game and the playoffs.