1998–99 New York Rangers season

The 1998–99 New York Rangers season was the 73rd season for the franchise. The aspect of the season was that it was Wayne Gretzky’s final season.
==Offseason==
===NHL Draft===
Round	#	Player 	Nationality	College/junior/club team
1 	7	Manny Malhotra (C)	 	Guelph Storm (OHL)
==Regular season==
===Final standings===
===The Great One Retires===
Wayne Gretzky's last NHL game in Canada was on April 16, 1999, in a 2–2 tie with the Ottawa Senators, and his final game was a 2–1 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins which had Jaromir Jagr, the future Ranger captain, scoring the game winning goal on April 18, 1999 in the Madison Square Garden. The national anthems in that game were adjusted to accommodate Gretzky's departure. In place of "O Canada, we stand on guard for thee", Bryan Adams sang "We're going to miss you Wayne Gretzky". The Star-Spangled Banner, sung by John Amirante, was changed from "the land of the free" to "the land of Wayne Gretzky". He scored his final point in this game, assisting on the lone New York goal scored by Brian Leetch. Gretzky was named as the first, second, and third star of both games. Only Maurice Richard has had such an honour, when during the Stanley Cup Playoffs on March 23, 1944, he scored five dominating goals against the Toronto Maple Leafs. His Montreal Canadiens won 5–1.
At the time of his retirement, Gretzky was the second-to-last WHA player still active in professional hockey, Mark Messier being the last. Messier, himself a former Ranger, along with other representatives of the great Edmonton dynasty of the 1980s, attended the game. Gretzky's final game was considered a "national retirement party" in Canada, and Bryan Adams's rendition of "O Canada" was like a "lullaby." As the final seconds ticked away, the crowd at Madison Square Garden gave him a standing ovation, capping off "an entirely satisfying, weekend-long going-away party" in Canada, as there would be "No Regretzkys."
Gretzky told Scott Morrison that the final game of his career was his greatest day. He recounted: 
===Game log===
# 	R	Date 	Score 	Opponent 	Record
1 	L	Oct 9, 1998 	0–1 	Philadelphia Flyers 	0–1–0
2 	L	Oct 10, 1998	1–7 	@ Montreal Canadiens 	0–2–0
3 	L	Oct 12, 1998	2–4 	St. Louis Blues 	0–3–0
4 	L	Oct 16, 1998	1–2 	New Jersey Devils 	0–4–0
5 	T	Oct 17, 1998	3–3 OT	@ Pittsburgh Penguins 	0–4–1
6 	W	Oct 20, 1998	3–2 	Edmonton Oilers 	1–4–1
7 	W	Oct 22, 1998	3–2 	New York Islanders 	2–4–1
8 	T	Oct 24, 1998	2–2 OT	@ Philadelphia Flyers 	2–4–2
9 	T	Oct 27, 1998	0–0 OT	Buffalo Sabres 	2–4–3
10	W	Oct 30, 1998	1–0 	Carolina Hurricanes 	3–4–3
11	L	Nov 3, 1998 	1–3 	@ New Jersey Devils 	3–5–3
12	L	Nov 4, 1998 	1–4 	Montreal Canadiens 	3–6–3
13	T	Nov 7, 1998 	6–6 OT	@ Toronto Maple Leafs 	3–6–4
14	W	Nov 10, 1998	10–2 	@ Tampa Bay Lightning 	4–6–4
15	L	Nov 11, 1998	1–4 	@ Florida Panthers 	4–7–4
16	T	Nov 13, 1998	3–3 OT	Boston Bruins 	4–7–5
17	L	Nov 18, 1998	1–3 	@ Mighty Ducks of Anaheim	4–8–5
18	W	Nov 19, 1998	5–1 	@ Los Angeles Kings 	5–8–5
19	T	Nov 21, 1998	2–2 OT	@ San Jose Sharks 	5–8–6
20	L	Nov 25, 1998	2–4 	@ Buffalo Sabres 	5–9–6
21	T	Nov 27, 1998	2–2 OT	@ Pittsburgh Penguins 	5–9–7
22	W	Nov 29, 1998	5–1 	Nashville Predators 	6–9–7
23	W	Dec 1, 1998 	5–4 OT	Florida Panthers 	7–9–7
24	W	Dec 2, 1998 	3–2 	@ New York Islanders 	8–9–7
25	W	Dec 5, 1998 	2–1 	@ Ottawa Senators 	9–9–7
26	W	Dec 7, 1998 	6–2 	Toronto Maple Leafs 	10–9–7
27	L	Dec 9, 1998 	1–2 	Colorado Avalanche 	10–10–7
28	L	Dec 11, 1998	0–2 	@ Buffalo Sabres 	10–11–7
29	W	Dec 14, 1998	5–2 	Calgary Flames 	11–11–7
30	L	Dec 16, 1998	3–6 	@ New Jersey Devils 	11–12–7
31	L	Dec 19, 1998	4–7 	@ Toronto Maple Leafs 	11–13–7
32	L	Dec 23, 1998	0–1 	Carolina Hurricanes 	11–14–7
33	W	Dec 26, 1998	6–3 	@ Carolina Hurricanes 	12–14–7
34	L	Dec 30, 1998	1–3 	@ Phoenix Coyotes 	12–15–7
35	W	Dec 31, 1998	6–3 	@ Colorado Avalanche 	13–15–7
36	W	Jan 2, 1999 	1–0 	@ St. Louis Blues 	14–15–7
37	W	Jan 4, 1999 	4–3 	San Jose Sharks 	15–15–7
38	L	Jan 6, 1999 	2–5 	New Jersey Devils 	15–16–7
39	L	Jan 7, 1999 	1–5 	@ Washington Capitals 	15–17–7
40	W	Jan 10, 1999	5–2 	Tampa Bay Lightning 	16–17–7
41	W	Jan 13, 1999	4–3 OT	New York Islanders 	17–17–7
42	L	Jan 15, 1999	1–3 	Chicago Blackhawks 	17–18–7
43	L	Jan 16, 1999	0–3 	@ Montreal Canadiens 	17–19–7
44	L	Jan 19, 1999	1–2 	Ottawa Senators 	17–20–7
45	L	Jan 21, 1999	1–2 	Florida Panthers 	17–21–7
46	W	Jan 26, 1999	4–1 	@ Washington Capitals 	18–21–7
47	L	Jan 28, 1999	2–3 OT	@ Carolina Hurricanes 	18–22–7
48	W	Jan 30, 1999	3–2 	@ Detroit Red Wings 	19–22–7
49	L	Feb 1, 1999 	1–3 	Washington Capitals 	19–23–7
50	W	Feb 4, 1999 	8–4 	Vancouver Canucks 	20–23–7
51	L	Feb 7, 1999 	2–3 	@ Boston Bruins 	20–24–7
52	L	Feb 12, 1999	1–3 	Carolina Hurricanes 	20–25–7
53	L	Feb 14, 1999	2–4 	Detroit Red Wings 	20–26–7
54	W	Feb 15, 1999	7–4 	@ Nashville Predators 	21–26–7
55	L	Feb 17, 1999	3–6 	Montreal Canadiens 	21–27–7
56	W	Feb 19, 1999	6–1 	Pittsburgh Penguins 	22–27–7
57	W	Feb 21, 1999	2–1 OT	@ Edmonton Oilers 	23–27–7
58	L	Feb 22, 1999	2–6 	@ Calgary Flames 	23–28–7
59	W	Feb 26, 1999	3–0 	Phoenix Coyotes 	24–28–7
60	W	Feb 28, 1999	6–5 	Philadelphia Flyers 	25–28–7
61	T	Mar 2, 1999 	2–2 OT	Dallas Stars 	25–28–8
62	W	Mar 4, 1999 	4–2 	@ Washington Capitals 	26–28–8
63	W	Mar 7, 1999 	3–1 	@ Boston Bruins 	27–28–8
64	W	Mar 8, 1999 	3–2 OT	Toronto Maple Leafs 	28–28–8
65	L	Mar 10, 1999	0–3 	Ottawa Senators 	28–29–8
66	L	Mar 12, 1999	4–5 	Boston Bruins 	28–30–8
67	W	Mar 14, 1999	3–2 OT	@ New York Islanders 	29–30–8
68	T	Mar 15, 1999	1–1 OT	Washington Capitals 	29–30–9
69	L	Mar 19, 1999	2–3 OT	Buffalo Sabres 	29–31–9
70	T	Mar 21, 1999	2–2 OT	Pittsburgh Penguins 	29–31–10
71	L	Mar 22, 1999	3–6 	@ Tampa Bay Lightning 	29–32–10
72	W	Mar 24, 1999	2–1 	@ Florida Panthers 	30–32–10
73	L	Mar 27, 1999	1–3 	@ Philadelphia Flyers 	30–33–10
74	W	Mar 29, 1999	3–1 	New York Islanders 	31–33–10
75	L	Apr 2, 1999 	1–4 	Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 	31–34–10
76	L	Apr 4, 1999 	1–4 	@ New Jersey Devils 	31–35–10
77	W	Apr 5, 1999 	5–1 	@ Philadelphia Flyers 	32–35–10
78	L	Apr 8, 1999 	2–6 	@ Chicago Blackhawks 	32–36–10
79	L	Apr 9, 1999 	1–3 	@ Dallas Stars 	32–37–10
80	W	Apr 12, 1999	2–1 	Tampa Bay Lightning 	33–37–10
81	T	Apr 15, 1999	2–2 OT	@ Ottawa Senators 	33–37–11
82	L	Apr 18, 1999	1–2 OT	Pittsburgh Penguins 	33–38–11
==Player stats==
Regular season	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Scoring 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" class="wikitable sortable"	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Player 	Pos 	GP	G 	A 	Pts	PIM	+/-	PPG	SHG	GWG
 	C 	70	9 	53	62 	14 	-23	3 	0 	3
 	RW 	82	28	27	55 	46 	5 	11 	1 	2
 	D 	82	13	42	55 	42 	-7 	4 	0 	1
 	LW 	82	38	15	53 	47 	-12	14 	2 	7
 	C 	56	20	27	47 	50 	-6 	9 	1 	3
 	C 	70	9 	36	45 	38 	-7 	4 	0 	1
 	LW 	81	23	20	43 	64 	-10	8 	0 	3
 	RW 	81	13	30	43 	20 	-2 	1 	2 	3
 	RW 	82	15	20	35 	26 	-7 	3 	0 	1
 	D 	75	10	24	34 	71 	-19	5 	0 	2
 	RW/C	37	11	17	28 	72 	-1 	6 	0 	2
 	C 	73	8 	8 	16 	13 	-2 	1 	0 	2
 	D 	67	4 	8 	12 	93 	6 	0 	0 	0
 	LW 	67	4 	6 	10 	30 	-11	0 	1 	0
 	D 	45	0 	9 	9 	60 	-2 	0 	0 	0
 	RW 	14	3 	4 	7 	12 	-6 	1 	0 	1
 	C 	28	2 	4 	6 	14 	-12	1 	0 	0
 	D 	52	1 	5 	6 	92 	-12	0 	0 	1
 	D 	68	1 	4 	5 	40 	-12	0 	0 	0
 	D 	24	1 	3 	4 	23 	-4 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	31	1 	3 	4 	46 	-2 	0 	0 	0
 	LW 	30	2 	1 	3 	4 	-5 	0 	0 	1
 	C 	14	0 	3 	3 	4 	-3 	0 	0 	0
 	LW 	32	0 	3 	3 	38 	-5 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	23	0 	2 	2 	8 	-5 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	2 	1 	0 	1 	0 	1 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	3 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	22	0 	0 	0 	2 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	6 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	2 	0 	0 	0 	0 	-1 	0 	0 	0
 	LW 	44	0 	0 	0 	80 	-3 	0 	0 	0
 	LW 	4 	0 	0 	0 	4 	-1 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	18	0 	0 	0 	8 	-1 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	68	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	4 	0 	0 	0 	2 	-5 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	5 	0 	0 	0 	6 	-1 	0 	0 	0
 	LW 	4 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	C 	5 	0 	0 	0 	4 	-1 	0 	0 	0
Note: Pos = Position; 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; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage; 
==Awards and honors==
* Wayne Gretzky, Lady Byng Trophy
* Wayne Gretzky, MVP of NHL All-Star Game
==References==
* Rangers on Hockey Database
New York Rangers season, 1998–99
New York Rangers season, 1998–99
Category:New York Rangers seasons