# 1981–82 Colorado Rockies season

The 1981–82 Colorado Rockies season was the sixth and final season for the Rockies in Colorado. The franchise would relocate to New Jersey for the 1982–83 season and be renamed the New Jersey Devils. In 1995 the Devils would win the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history. The same year, NHL hockey would return to Colorado with the Quebec Nordiques relocating there to become the Avalanche, for the 1995–96 season. They went on to become Stanley Cup champions in their first season in Denver.

## Offseason
### NHL Draft

| Round | # | Player | Nationality | College/junior/club team |
| 1 | 5 | Joe Cirella | Canada | Oshawa Generals (OMJHL) |
| 2 | 26 | Rich Chernomaz | Canada | Victoria Cougars (WHL) |
| 3 | 48 | Uli Hiemer | West Germany | EV Fussen (West Germany) |
| 4 | 66 | Gus Greco | Canada | Windsor Spitfires (OMJHL) |
| 5 | 87 | Doug Speck | Canada | Peterborough Petes (OMJHL) |
| 6 | 108 | Bruce Driver | Canada | University of Wisconsin (WCHA) |
| 7 | 129 | Jeff Larmer | Canada | Kitchener Rangers (OMJHL) |
| 8 | 150 | Tony Arima | Finland | Jokerit (Finland) |
| 9 | 171 | Tim Army | United States | East Providence High School (USHS-RI) |
| 10 | 192 | John Johannson | United States | University of Wisconsin (WCHA) |

## Regular season
### Final standings

Smythe Division :
| | GP | W | L | T | GF | GA | PTS |
| Edmonton Oilers | 80 | 48 | 17 | 15 | 417 | 295 | 111 |
| Vancouver Canucks | 80 | 30 | 33 | 17 | 290 | 286 | 77 |
| Calgary Flames | 80 | 29 | 34 | 17 | 334 | 345 | 75 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 80 | 24 | 41 | 15 | 314 | 369 | 63 |
| Colorado Rockies | 80 | 18 | 49 | 13 | 241 | 362 | 49 |
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against Note: Teams that qualified for the playoffs are highlighted in bold.

### Record vs. opponents

Smythe Division record vs. opponents :
Vs. Campbell Conference
Vs. Smythe Division
1981–82 NHL records
Team
CGY
COL
EDM
LAK
VAN
Total
Calgary
—6−22−5−14−3−13−3−215−13−4
Colorado
2−6—2−5−12−4−22−4−28−19−5
Edmonton
5−2−15−2−1—5−1−25−2−120−7−5
Los Angeles
3−4−14−2−21−5−2—3−2−311−13−8
Vancouver
3−3−24−2−22−5−12−3−3—11−13−8
Vs. Norris Division
1981–82 NHL records
Team
CHI
DET
MIN
STL
TOR
WIN
Total
Calgary
0−2−11−1−10−1−21−21−0−21−24−8−6
Colorado
2−10−30−1−21−20−1−21−24−10−4
Edmonton
1−1−12−0−12−0−13−02−12−112−3−3
Los Angeles
0−32−10−2−12−11−20−35−12−1
Vancouver
2−11−1−11−1−11−22−0−12−19−6−3
Vs. Wales Conference
Vs. Adams Division
1981–82 NHL records
Team
BOS
BUF
HFD
MTL
QUE
Total
Calgary
1−1−12−0−12−11−23−09−4−2
Colorado
0−30−32−0−10−2−11−23−10−2
Edmonton
0−1−22−12−0−10−1−21−25−5−5
Los Angeles
0−31−20−2−11−21−0−23−9−3
Vancouver
1−21−1−12−0−11−21−1−16−6−3
Vs. Patrick Division
1981–82 NHL records
Team
NYI
NYR
PHI
PIT
WSH
Total
Calgary
0−1−20−2−10−31−0−20−31−9−5
Colorado
0−2−10−2−11−20−32−13−10−2
Edmonton
1−1−13−02−13−02−0−111−2−2
Los Angeles
2−11−20−2−11−1−11−1−15−7−3
Vancouver
1−20−32−0–10–2−11−1−14–8–3 :

## Schedule and results

1981–82 game log :
Legend:
  Win (2 points)
  Loss (0 points)
  Tie (1 point) :

## Player statistics
### Regular season
#### Scoring

| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | +/- | PPG | SHG | GWG |
| Brent Ashton | LW | 80 | 24 | 36 | 60 | 26 | -31 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Steve Tambellini | C | 79 | 29 | 30 | 59 | 14 | -33 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| Don Lever | LW | 59 | 22 | 28 | 50 | 20 | -10 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Bob MacMillan | RW | 57 | 18 | 32 | 50 | 27 | -9 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Rob Ramage | D | 80 | 13 | 29 | 42 | 201 | -47 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Merlin Malinowski | C | 69 | 13 | 28 | 41 | 32 | -22 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Aaron Broten | LW/C | 58 | 15 | 24 | 39 | 6 | -11 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| Dwight Foster | RW | 70 | 12 | 19 | 31 | 41 | -53 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Bob Miller | C | 56 | 11 | 20 | 31 | 27 | -24 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Dave Cameron | C | 66 | 11 | 12 | 23 | 103 | -14 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Paul Gagne | LW | 59 | 10 | 12 | 22 | 17 | -27 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Tapio Levo | D | 34 | 9 | 13 | 22 | 14 | -13 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Bob Lorimer | D | 79 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 68 | -19 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Cirella | D | 65 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 52 | -36 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Lanny McDonald | RW | 16 | 6 | 9 | 15 | 20 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Joel Quenneville | D | 64 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 55 | -29 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Veli-Pekka Ketola | C | 44 | 9 | 5 | 14 | 4 | -17 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Kevin Maxwell | C | 34 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 44 | -16 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Graeme Nicolson | D | 41 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 51 | -16 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mike Kitchen | D | 63 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 60 | -18 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| John Wensink | LW | 57 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 152 | -13 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Micheletti | D | 21 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 4 | -4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jukka Porvari | RW | 31 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 0 | -22 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stan Weir | C | 10 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 10 | -7 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Yvon Vautour | RW | 14 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 18 | -6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Bill Baker | D | 14 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 17 | -13 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Paul Miller | C | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jeff Larmer | LW | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Phil Myre | G | 24 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Glenn Resch | G | 61 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ed Cooper | LW | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rich Chernomaz | RW | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jim Dobson | RW | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Peter Gustavsson | LW | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jack Hughes | D | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | -7 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Steve Janaszak | G | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Christer Kellgren | RW | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rick LaFerriere | G | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Randy Pierce | RW | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |

#### Goaltending

| Player | MIN | GP | W | L | T | GA | GAA | SO |
| Glenn Resch | 3424 | 61 | 16 | 31 | 11 | 230 | 4.03 | 0 |
| Phil Myre | 1256 | 24 | 2 | 17 | 2 | 112 | 5.35 | 0 |
| Steve Janaszak | 100 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 7.80 | 0 |
| Rick LaFerriere | 20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3.00 | 0 |
| Team: | 4800 | 80 | 18 | 49 | 13 | 356 | 4.45 | 0 |
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; +/- = Plus/minus; PIM = Penalty minutes; PPG=Power-play goals; SHG=Short-handed goals; GWG=Game-winning goals  MIN=Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; GA = Goals against; GAA = Goals against average; SO = Shutouts;