1997–98 NHL season

The 1997–98 NHL season was the 81st regular season of the National Hockey League. The Hartford Whalers relocated to North Carolina, becoming the Carolina Hurricanes. The Stanley Cup champions were the Detroit Red Wings, who swept the Washington Capitals in four games.

League business
On June 25, 1997, the National Hockey League approved of four expansion franchises for Nashville, Atlanta, Columbus, and Saint Paul expanding the league to 30 teams by 2000. These franchises became the Nashville Predators in 1998, the Atlanta Thrashers in 1999, and the Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild in 2000.

This was the first season for the Carolina Hurricanes, who were previously known as the Hartford Whalers. The Hurricanes played their home games at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, a temporary home while awaiting the construction of their permanent home arena in Raleigh. They would remain in the Northeast Division until realignment the following season. It would be another 14 years before another NHL team would relocate.

This was the first season for Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, who until the 2012–13 season was the longest-tenured NHL coach.

The controversial "FoxTrax" puck system was last used this season as well. In August 1998, the NHL signed a five-year, $600 million rights agreement with ABC Sports/ESPN. FOX elected not to use the system in the subsequent "lame duck" season.

This was the last season the Toronto Maple Leafs were a member of the Western Conference.

This was the last season of the four-division quasi-geographic alignment inherited from the traditional Adams/Patrick/Norris/Smythe set. The league would change the following season to a six-division, more purely geographic alignment.

For the first time since 1968–69 season, the Chicago Blackhawks missed the playoffs.

Due to the retirement of Craig MacTavish after the 1996–97 season, this was the first season in the League's history in which there were no helmetless players.

Regular season
The all-time record for most shutouts in a season, set at 127 just a year earlier, was broken again as 160 shutouts were recorded, 13 of which were earned by Dominik Hasek, who set a League record with 11 teams shut-out. He zeroed the New York Rangers three times, and Los Angeles, Anaheim, Tampa Bay, Boston, Calgary, Washington, Montreal, Ottawa, Pittsburgh and Edmonton once each. Only two teams, the St. Louis Blues and the Detroit Red Wings, averaged more than three goals scored per game. In addition, only one player, Jaromir Jagr, reached the 100-point plateau during the regular season.

Highlights
Jari Kurri reached 600 goals in his career, finishing with 601.

The Vancouver Canucks and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim opened the season with a two-game series in Tokyo, Japan, the first time the NHL played regular games outside of North America.

Final standings

 * Eastern Conference


 * Western Conference

Awards
The NHL Awards took place in Toronto, Ontario

Scoring leaders
Note: GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points

Leading goaltenders
Regular season

Eastern Conference

 * Boston Bruins: Pat Burns
 * Buffalo Sabres: Lindy Ruff
 * Carolina Hurricanes: Paul Maurice
 * Florida Panthers: Bryan Murray
 * Montreal Canadiens: Alain Vigneault
 * New Jersey Devils: Jacques Lemaire
 * New York Islanders: Rick Bowness
 * New York Rangers: Colin Campbell
 * Ottawa Senators: Jacques Martin
 * Philadelphia Flyers: Wayne Cashman and Roger Neilson
 * Pittsburgh Penguins: Kevin Constantine
 * Tampa Bay Lightning: Terry Crisp
 * Washington Capitals: Ron Wilson

Western Conference

 * Mighty Ducks of Anaheim: Pierre Page
 * Calgary Flames: Brian Sutter
 * Chicago Blackhawks: Craig Hartsburg
 * Colorado Avalanche: Marc Crawford
 * Dallas Stars: Ken Hitchcock
 * Detroit Red Wings: Scotty Bowman
 * Edmonton Oilers: Ron Low
 * Los Angeles Kings: Larry Robinson
 * Phoenix Coyotes: Jim Schoenfeld
 * San Jose Sharks: Darryl Sutter
 * St. Louis Blues: Joel Quenneville
 * Toronto Maple Leafs: Mike Murphy
 * Vancouver Canucks: Mike Keenan

Debuts
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1997–98 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
 * Matt Cullen, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
 * Joe Thornton, Boston Bruins
 * Sergei Samsonov, Boston Bruins
 * Derek Morris, Calgary Flames
 * Olli Jokinen, Los Angeles Kings
 * Sheldon Souray, New Jersey Devils
 * Zdeno Chara, New York Islanders
 * Marc Savard, New York Rangers
 * Chris Phillips, Ottawa Senators
 * Marian Hossa, Ottawa Senators
 * Daniel Briere, Phoenix Coyotes
 * Patrick Marleau, San Jose Sharks
 * Mattias Ohlund, Vancouver Canucks

Last games
The following is a list of players of note who played their last game in the NHL in 1997–98 (listed with their last team):


 * Brent Sutter, Chicago Blackhawks
 * Jari Kurri, Colorado Avalanche
 * Slava Fetisov, Detroit Red Wings
 * Kevin Lowe, Edmonton Oilers
 * Andy Moog, Montreal Canadiens
 * Pat LaFontaine, New York Rangers
 * Joel Otto, Philadelphia Flyers
 * Mike Gartner, Phoenix Coyotes
 * Al Iafrate, San Jose Sharks
 * Kelly Hrudey, San Jose Sharks
 * Jeff Brown, Washington Capitals
 * Brian Bradley, Tampa Bay Lightning
 * Norm Maciver, Phoenix Coyotes

Canada
This was the tenth and final season that the league's Canadian national broadcast rights were split between TSN and Hockey Night in Canada on CBC. During the regular season, Saturday night games aired on CBC, while TSN primarily had Monday and Thursday night games. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs was primarily on CBC, with TSN airing first round all-U.S. series.

The league then signed a new deal with the fledgling CTV Sportsnet, replacing TSN as the national cable television partner.

United States
This was the fourth season of the league's five-year U.S. national broadcast rights deals with Fox and ESPN. Both ESPN and ESPN2 aired weeknight games throughout the regular season. Fox had the All-Star Game, and the network's weekly regional telecasts then expanded from six to 11 weekend afternoons between January and April. During the first two rounds of the playoffs, ESPN and ESPN2 aired selected games, while Fox had Sunday regional telecasts. Each U.S. team's regional broadcaster produced local coverage of first and second round games (except for those games on Fox). Fox's Sunday telecasts continued into the Conference Finals, while ESPN had the rest of the third round games. The Stanley Cup Finals were also split between Fox and ESPN.