1994 NHL Offseason News and Notes
Here are the skating leaders for the season.
Here are the goalie leaders.
Here are the playoff leaders.
Ray Bourque does not win the Hart or the Pearson, but does take the Pilote.
Wayne Gretzky wins his 7th Hart trophy and 6th Art Ross award. Rookie of the year,
Chris Pronger, was a great fit on the island. He had 11 points in his 21 games, giving him a season total of 43 points. His game rating was 65. That’s really impressive for a 19 year old.
Washington’s Randy Carlyle has retired. The 38 year old spent 15 years on the
Capital's blueline, playing 1251 games. He’s the franchise’s all time leader in games played, and points by a defenseman.
Washington will retire his number 5. The
Islanders are losing one the premiere offensive defenseman of the 1980’s, as
Doug Wilson has called it quits at the age of 36.
Wilson didn’t get much attention from me, but he put up great numbers. He scored 20 goals 6 times in a 7 year span. He hit 70 points four times, and eclipsed 80 twice! He is one of three
Islanders to play 1000 games, and is fourth in franchise scoring with 797 points.
NY retires his number 2!
The 1994 NHL entry draft has to be considered horrible from a potential point of view. There is almost no one to really get excited about.
Dan Boyle is the first pick, and while he’s got the talent to be a good player, you don’t want to take
Dan Boyle first overall!
I’m shocked players like
Ryan Smyth, Patrik Elias and
Ed Jovanoski have such low potentials. That’s the reason this draft seems so meh…
Lanny McDonald and
Larry Robinson are headed into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Lanny McDonald was one of the greatest goal scorers in NHL history. He scored 616 goals, and if you add in his two WHA seasons, that total goes upto 740 goals in 1158 games! In his final two seasons, he scored 76 goals, so he could have kept going!
Larry Robinson was a rock for the
Blackhawks.
Chicago has historically been bad. They have had some great players, but the team never supports those great players.
Robinson is an example of being the only real good defenseman on the team. A career game rating of 71, and a plus 222 in his career show he could only do so much.
As preseason games begin, the possibility of no season is become close to a reality. The
NHL and the
players association are currently without a collective bargaining agreement. The
NHL wants to add a salary cap, while the players are dead set against it. A labour stoppage is very possible.
The Owners and Players are not getting along!
On October first, the owners officially locked out the players. No NHL games would be played until the two sides can reach an agreement. In place of
NHL hockey, the players organized a 4 on 4 tournament to be played in North America.
Wayne Gretzky recruited a handful of players and toured Europe, while many players joined teams playing in European leagues.
On January 11, 103 days into the lockout, the two sides reached a deal. The owners won several minor concessions, including a rookie salary cap and changes to the arbitration system. But they failed to get any sort of league wide salary cap or luxury tax system at all, and the salary growth that had spurred the stoppage in the first place would go on to continue unchecked for years to come. The season would begin on January 20th, and last until May 3rd. 48 games would be played. In game, there is now a "free agent’s file" button, which means we have entered the free agent phase. I will look at that next offseason…Onto the season!
Season saved!