1983–84 NHL season

Arthur M. Wirtz, long-time chairman and part-owner of the Chicago Black Hawks, died at the age of 82 on July 21, 1983.^[1] His son, Bill, took over ownership of the team.

St. Louis Blues owner Ralston Purina announced that it would sell the team to a group led by World Hockey Association (WHA) and Edmonton Oilers founder Bill Hunter, with the intent on relocating the Blues to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.^[2] However, the NHL Board of Governors rejected the deal by a 15–3 vote on May 18,^[3] feeling that Saskatoon was not big enough to support an NHL team, and also wary of Hunter's involvement based on his roles in the WHA.^[4][5] Ralston then filed an anti-trust lawsuit in U.S. District Court, claiming that the NHL broke federal antitrust laws and breached the duty of good faith and fair dealing by voting to reject the sale and transfer of the Blues to Hunter's group. They also requested that the court allow them to give up the team and bar the NHL from interfering with the sale of the team. On June 3, Ralston announced that it had no interest in running the team anymore. Because they were not required to participate in the 1983 NHL Entry Draft, they did not send a representative, which led the Blues to forfeit their picks. The day after the draft, the NHL filed a counter-suit against Ralston, accusing Ralston of "damaging the league by willfully, wantonly and maliciously collapsing its St. Louis Blues hockey operation." The NHL also said that Ralston broke a league rule that an owner had to give two years' notice before dissolving a franchise.^[6] Ralston called the counter-suit "ridiculous" and gave the NHL an ultimatum: if the NHL would not accept Hunter's offer by June 14, Ralston would dissolve the team and sell its players and assets to other teams.^[7] The Board of Governors rejected the offer and "terminated" the team on June 13, one day before Ralston's supposed deadline. It then took control of the franchise and began searching for a new owner. On July 27, Harry Ornest purchased the Blues for US$3 million.^[8]

The 1983 NHL Entry Draft was held on June 8, at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec. The St. Louis Blues did not participate in this draft due to the aforementioned dispute between the league and team owner Ralston Purina. Brian Lawton became the first American to be chosen first overall, by the Minnesota North Stars. Three Americans were chosen in the top five: Lawton, Pat Lafontaine (third) and Tom Barrasso (fifth). Sylvain Turgeon was chosen second and Steve Yzerman was chosen fourth overall.

Not since World War II travel restrictions caused the NHL to drop regular season overtime games in 1942–43 had the NHL used overtime to decide regular season games. Starting this season, the NHL introduced a five-minute extra period of overtime following the third period in the event of a tied game. A team losing in overtime would get no points. This rule remained in effect until the 1999–2000 season, where a team losing in overtime was awarded 1 point. If the game remained tied after the five-minute extra period, it remained a tie with each team getting 1 point, until the NHL shootout arrived in the 2005–06 season. Overtime in the Stanley Cup playoffs remained unchanged.^[9]

• The Calgary Flames moved from the Stampede Corral to Olympic Saddledome.
• The St. Louis Blues's home arena, the Checkerdome, reverted back to its original St. Louis Arena name, reflecting Harry Ornest taking over ownership of the team and the arena from Ralston Purina.

The Edmonton Oilers ran away with the best record in the league, and for the third straight year set a new record for most goals in a season, 446. The Oilers' new captain, Wayne Gretzky, was once again breaking records and rewriting his name into the record book. This season saw Gretzky score at least one point in the first 51 games of the season. During those 51 games, Gretzky had 61 goals and 92 assists for 153 points, which is equivalent to exactly three points per game. He also won his fifth straight Hart Trophy and his fourth straight Art Ross Trophy. The season's second leading scorer was Gretzky's teammate Paul Coffey, who, with 126 points, became the third defenceman to score 100 points in a season.

The Calgary Flames played their inaugural season at the Olympic Saddledome.

Prior to the season, the St. Louis Blues were purchased by Harry Ornest, keeping the team from folding after a proposed move to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan was rejected by the NHL Board of Governors. The Blues remain in Missouri as of 2024. In addition, the team's home venue, the Checkerdome, reverted to its original name, the Arena, after six seasons.

Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalties in minutes

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The top four teams in each division qualified for the playoffs. In the division semifinals, the fourth seeded team in each division played against the division winner from their division. The other series matched the second and third place teams from the divisions. The two winning teams from each division's semifinals then met in the division finals. The two division winners of each conference then played in the conference finals. The two conference winners then advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals.

In the division semifinals, teams competed in a best-of-five series. In the other three rounds, teams competed in a best-of-seven series (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each series).

Source: NHL.^[14]

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points

Source: NHL.^[15]

Note: GP = Games played; Min – Minutes played; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts; SV% = Save percentage

^[16]

• New Jersey Devils: Bill MacMillan and Tom McVie
• New York Islanders: Al Arbour
• New York Rangers: Herb Brooks
• Philadelphia Flyers: Bob McCammon and Mike Keenan
• Pittsburgh Penguins: Lou Angotti
• Washington Capitals: Bryan Murray

• Boston Bruins: Gerry Cheevers
• Buffalo Sabres: Scotty Bowman
• Hartford Whalers: Larry Pleau
• Montreal Canadiens: Bob Berry and Jacques Lemaire
• Quebec Nordiques: Michel Bergeron

• Chicago Black Hawks: Orval Tessier
• Detroit Red Wings: Nick Polano
• Minnesota North Stars: Glen Sonmor
• St. Louis Blues: Jacques Demers
• Toronto Maple Leafs: Mike Nykoluk

• Calgary Flames: Bob Johnson
• Edmonton Oilers: Glen Sather
• Los Angeles Kings: Don Perry, Rogatien Vachon and Roger Neilson
• Vancouver Canucks: Roger Neilson and Harry Neale
• Winnipeg Jets: Tom Watt and Barry Long

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1983–84 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Tom Barrasso, Buffalo Sabres
• Chris Chelios, Montreal Canadiens
• Geoff Courtnall, Boston Bruins
• Russ Courtnall, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Brian Curran, Boston Bruins
• Ken Daneyko, New Jersey Devils
• Bruce Driver, New Jersey Devils
• Patrick Flatley, New York Islanders
• Doug Gilmour, St. Louis Blues
• Dirk Graham, Minnesota North Stars
• Kelly Hrudey, New York Islanders
• Pat LaFontaine, New York Islanders
• Brian Lawton, Minnesota North Stars
• Claude Lemieux, Montreal Canadiens
• Doug Lidster, Vancouver Canucks
• Hakan Loob, Calgary Flames
• John MacLean, New Jersey Devils
• Marty McSorley, Pittsburgh Penguins
• Cam Neely, Vancouver Canucks
• James Patrick, New York Rangers
• Bob Rouse, Minnesota North Stars
• Peter Sundstrom, New York Rangers
• Sylvain Turgeon, Hartford Whalers
• Carey Wilson, Calgary Flames
• Steve Yzerman, Detroit Red Wings

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1983–84 (listed with their last team):

• Guy Lapointe, Boston Bruins
• Tony Esposito, Chicago Black Hawks
• Rick MacLeish, Detroit Red Wings
• Billy Harris, Los Angeles Kings
• Blaine Stoughton, New York Rangers
• Bill Barber, Philadelphia Flyers
• Bobby Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers
• Guy Chouinard, St. Louis Blues
• Michel Larocque, St. Louis Blues
• Dale McCourt, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Mike Palmateer, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Darcy Rota, Vancouver Canucks

Hockey Night in Canada on CBC Television televised Saturday night regular season games and Stanley Cup playoff games. This was the last season that the Molson-sponsored HNIC had sole Canadian national broadcast rights. During the next season, rival brewery Carling O'Keefe began airing games on CTV.

This was the second season of the league's U.S. national broadcast rights deal with USA, covering a slate of regular season games and selected playoff games.

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• 1983 NHL Entry Draft
• 1983–84 NHL transactions
• 36th National Hockey League All-Star Game
• NHL All-Star Game
• NHL All-Rookie Team
• Lester Patrick Trophy
• Ice hockey at the 1984 Winter Olympics
• 1983 in sports
• 1984 in sports

• Diamond, Dan, ed. (2008). Total Stanley Cup 2008. NHL.
• Dinger, Ralph, ed. (2011). The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2012. Toronto, ON: Dan Diamond & Associates. ISBN 978-1-894801-22-5.
• Dryden, Steve, ed. (2000). Century of hockey. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart Ltd. ISBN 0-7710-4179-9.
• Fischler, Stan; Fischler, Shirley; Hughes, Morgan; Romain, Joseph; Duplacey, James (2003). The Hockey Chronicle: Year-by-Year History of the National Hockey League. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International Inc. ISBN 0-7853-9624-1.
• McFarlane, Brian (1989). One hundred years of hockey. Toronto: Deneau Publishers. ISBN 0-88879-216-6.

Notes

  Media related to 1983-1984 National Hockey League season at Wikimedia Commons

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com
• hockey-reference