1989–90 NHL season

The 1989–90 NHL season was the 73rd season of the National Hockey League. The Stanley Cup winners were the Edmonton Oilers, who won the best of seven series 4–1 against the Boston Bruins. The championship was the Oilers' fifth Stanley Cup in seven seasons.

Regular season
This season marked the first time that all three New York City area NHL teams, including the New Jersey Devils, made the playoffs in the same season, a feat which has since been repeated thrice more: in the, the , and the seasons.

Until 2017, this was last time the Detroit Red Wings missed the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sam St. Laurent of the Red Wings became the last goalie to wear a full fiberglass mask during an NHL game.

Final standings
Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Stanley Cup Finals
The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Boston Bruins in the Final series, four games to one. For the Oilers, it was their fifth Cup win in seven years, and their only one without Wayne Gretzky (in fact, they defeated Gretzky's Kings in the second round). In game one, Petr Klima scored at 15:13 of the third overtime period to give the Oilers a 3–2 win. , this game remains the longest in Stanley Cup Finals history (Longest NHL overtime games), edging both Brett Hull's cup-winner in 1999 and Igor Larionov's game-winner in 2002 by less than 30 seconds. In game five at the Boston Garden on May 24, the Oilers won 4–1. Craig Simpson scored the game-winning goal.

Scoring leaders
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes, PPG = Powerplay Goals, SHG = Shorthanded Goals, GWG = Game Winning Goals Sources: NHL, Quanthockey.com.

Leading goaltenders
GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage Source: Quanthockey.com.

Patrick Division

 * New Jersey Devils: Jim Schoenfeld and John Cunniff
 * New York Islanders: Al Arbour
 * New York Rangers: Roger Neilson
 * Philadelphia Flyers: Paul Holmgren
 * Pittsburgh Penguins: Gene Ubriaco and Craig Patrick
 * Washington Capitals: Bryan Murray and Terry Murray

Adams Division

 * Boston Bruins: Mike Milbury
 * Buffalo Sabres: Rick Dudley
 * Hartford Whalers: Rick Ley
 * Montreal Canadiens: Pat Burns
 * Quebec Nordiques: Michel Bergeron

Norris Division

 * Chicago Blackhawks: Mike Keenan
 * Detroit Red Wings: Jacques Demers
 * Minnesota North Stars: Pierre Page
 * St. Louis Blues: Brian Sutter
 * Toronto Maple Leafs: Doug Carpenter

Smythe Division

 * Calgary Flames: Terry Crisp
 * Edmonton Oilers: John Muckler
 * Los Angeles Kings: Tom Webster
 * Vancouver Canucks: Bob McCammon
 * Winnipeg Jets: Bob Murdoch

Milestones
This season would be the last the Toronto Maple Leafs would play under the 29 year ownership of Harold Ballard as a result of his death in April 1990 and the subsequent sale of the franchise.

Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1989–90 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
 * Wes Walz, Boston Bruins
 * Alexander Mogilny, Buffalo Sabres
 * Rob Ray, Buffalo Sabres
 * Donald Audette*, Buffalo Sabres
 * Sergei Makarov, Calgary Flames
 * Rob Blake, Los Angeles Kings
 * Helmut Balderis, Minnesota North Stars
 * Mike Modano, Minnesota North Stars
 * Andrew Cassels, Montreal Canadiens
 * Lyle Odelein, Montreal Canadiens
 * Vyacheslav Fetisov, New Jersey Devils
 * Alexei Kasatonov, New Jersey Devils
 * Murray Baron, Philadelphia Flyers
 * Curtis Joseph, St. Louis Blues
 * Tie Domi, Toronto Maple Leafs
 * Vladimir Krutov, Vancouver Canucks
 * Igor Larionov, Vancouver Canucks
 * Olaf Kolzig, Washington Capitals

Last games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1989–90 (listed with their last team):
 * Reed Larson, Buffalo Sabres
 * Al Secord, Chicago Blackhawks
 * Bob Murray, Chicago Blackhawks
 * Duane Sutter, Chicago Blackhawks
 * Bernie Federko, Detroit Red Wings
 * Borje Salming, Detroit Red Wings
 * Reijo Ruotsalainen, Edmonton Oilers
 * Barry Beck, Los Angeles Kings
 * Helmut Balderis, Minnesota North Stars
 * Curt Fraser, Minnesota North Stars
 * Mark Johnson, New Jersey Devils
 * Ron Greschner, New York Rangers
 * Doug Smith, Pittsburgh Penguins
 * Vladimir Krutov, Vancouver Canucks
 * Paul Reinhart, Vancouver Canucks
 * Doug Wickenheiser, Washington Capitals

Broadcasting
This was the second season of the league's Canadian national broadcast rights deals with TSN and Hockey Night in Canada on CBC. Saturday night regular season games continued to air on CBC, while TSN televised selected weeknight games. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs was primarily on CBC, with TSN airing first round all-U.S. series.

This was also the second season of the league's U.S. national broadcast rights deal SportsChannel America, with up to three regular season games a week and coverage of the playoffs. Meanwhile, NBC agreed to televise the All-Star Game, reportedly wanting to test the appeal of hockey.