1996 NHL Offseason News and Notes
Here are last years skating leaders
Here are the goalie leaders
Here are the playoff leaders
Here is a look at the
Islanders scoring leaders as requested
Wayne Gretzky wins 5 awards in addition to the Stanley Cup.
Ray Bourque hit 100 points again, and takes home another Pilote Trophy.
Boston’s Neal Broten retires with a career total of 1480 points, 14th in NHL history, and the highest American scorer ever.
Broten played 16 years, going over 100 points 7 times. He is the
Bruins all time leader in goals, assists, and points.
Boston will retire his number 14. 36 year old defenseman
Doug Crossman has retired from the
Dallas Stars. Crossman spent his whole career in that organization, scoring 20 goals twice, hitting 60 points three times, and part of two Stanley Cup championships.
Dallas will retire his number 6 jersey.
Kelly Kisio retires from
St. Louis. Kisio scored 84 points as a rookie in 1983, and had 11 straight years with double digit goals and assists. A fan favourite in
St. Louis, he won the 1983 Conn Smythe Trophy. The
Blues will retire his number 7. Finally,
New York Ranger Brad McCrimmon retires, and will have his number retired.
McCrimmon played 17 seasons in
NY. He had some wonderful years including a run of 9 straight 70+ game ratings. He won the 1983 Pilote trophy!
The
Winnipeg Jets have been purchased by and Arizona group, and will be relocating to
Phoenix. The team will be named the
Coyotes. The
Jets just made the Stanley Cup finals. This is the 2nd straight year a successful Canadian franchise has moved. Here is the new look for the
Coyotes as well as the other changes around the league.
Scott Niedermayer is just destined not to be a
Leaf!
Toronto trades their young number 1 defenseman to
Washington for talented, just not first line talented center
Stu Barnes. I don’t like this deal, as
Niedermayer has been improving over his 3 years as a
Leaf. He’s got a bright future ahead of him. At 22,
Washington picks up a potential pillar on D.
Barnes is a good player, but the price was high. He’s hit 50 points 3 times in his career, and should provide secondary scoring in
Toronto.
Washington bound!
The top overall pick in the draft,
Pavel Datsyuk, is heads and tails better then anyone else available. Infact, looking at who was selected, it screams average to me. Maybe even bad if you keep looking down. It’s not a good draft pool, but don’t tell that to the
Ducks, who walk away with a potential super star!! Unfortunately for them, he’s just still a teenager.
Still no one really good available in free agency yet. The top players available this year are either long shot prospects, or 4th line guys. Here are the results.
The
LA Kings did this….Pretty glad I'm not buying FHM 5!! Thats unacceptable.
Dennis Maruk and
Gilbert Perreault have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Gilbert Perreault was the
Vancouver Canucks. He did everything humanely possible during his 2 decades as a
Canuck. He’s one of the most underrated players in this world!
Dennis Maruk holds the single season scoring record. He had a small window in his career that might be unmatched. The rest of his resume is pretty good though….
