1995–96 NHL season

The **1995–96 NHL season** was the 79th regular season of the National Hockey League. Twenty-six teams each played 82 games. The Stanley Cup winners were the Colorado Avalanche. They swept the Florida Panthers in four games. This was the first year the team was named Avalanche.

## League Business
1995–96 was the first season in Denver for the Avalanche, who had relocated from Quebec City where they were previously known as the Quebec Nordiques. 

It was also the last season of existence for the Winnipeg Jets, as they announced that they would be moving from Manitoba to Arizona and become the Phoenix Coyotes at the season's end.

1995–96 would mark the last season the Buffalo Sabres would play in the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, the Flyers at the Spectrum, and Canadiens at the Montreal Forum.

## Regular season
The Detroit Red Wings had a great season, finishing with the second-highest regular-season point total in NHL history (131 points), yet they fell to the Avalanche in the Western Conference final, the sixth game of which marked the beginning of the heated Detroit-Colorado rivalry.

### Final standings
***Note:** W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points*

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### Scoring leaders
***Note:** GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points*

## Stanley Cup playoffs
### Playoff bracket
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### Conference quarterfinals
#### Eastern Conference
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#### Western Conference
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### Conference semifinals
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### Conference finals
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### Finals
### Scoring leaders
***Note:** GP = Games Played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points*

## NHL Awards
### All-Star teams
## First games
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1995–96 (listed with their first team, stars(*) mark start in playoffs):

*Kyle McLaren, Boston Bruins
*Jay McKee, Buffalo Sabres
*Martin Biron, Buffalo Sabres
*Jarome Iginla*, Calgary Flames
*Stephane Yelle, Colorado Avalanche
*Jere Lehtinen, Dallas Stars
*Miroslav Satan, Edmonton Oilers
*Ed Jovanovski, Florida Panthers
*Jeff O'Neill, Hartford Whalers
*Sami Kapanen, Hartford Whalers
*Darcy Tucker, Montreal Canadiens
*Jose Theodore, Montreal Canadiens
*Saku Koivu, Montreal Canadiens
*Patrik Elias, New Jersey Devils
*Petr Sykora, New Jersey Devils
*Steve Sullivan, New Jersey Devils
*Bryan McCabe, New York Islanders
*Todd Bertuzzi, New York Islanders
*Daniel Alfredsson, Ottawa Senators
*Daymond Langkow, Tampa Bay Lightning
*Andrew Brunette, Washington Capitals
*Brendan Witt, Washington Capitals

## Last games
The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1995–96 (listed with their last team):
*Cam Neely, Boston Bruins
*Alexei Kasatonov, Boston Bruins
*Troy Murray, Colorado Avalanche
*Paul Cavallini, Dallas Stars
*Jimmy Carson, Hartford Whalers
*Glenn Anderson, St. Louis Blues
*Greg Gilbert, St. Louis Blues
*Jim Sandlak, Vancouver Canucks

## 1996 Trading Deadline
* Trading Deadline: MARCH 20, 1996 
*March 20, 1996: C Jesse Belanger traded from Florida to Vancouver for Vancouver's 3rd round pick in 1996 Entry Draft and future considerations.
*March 20, 1996: LW Ken Baumgartner traded from Toronto to Anaheim for Winnipeg's 4th round pick in 1996 Entry Draft (previously acquired).
*March 20, 1996: D J-J Daigneault traded from St. Louis to Pittsburgh for Pittsburgh's 6th round pick in 1996 Entry Draft.
*March 20, 1996: LW Kevin Miller traded from San Jose to Pittsburgh for Pittsburgh's 5th round choice in 1996 Entry Draft and future considerations.
*March 20, 1996: LW Pat Conacher and Calgary's 6th round pick in 1997 Entry Draft traded from Calgary to NY Islanders for C Bob Sweeney.
*March 20, 1996: RW Kirk Maltby traded from Edmonton to Detroit for D Dan McGillis.
*March 20, 1996: D Jaroslav Modry and Ottawa's 8th round pick in 1996 Entry Draft traded from Ottawa to Los Angeles for RW Kevin Brown.
*March 20, 1996: LW Patrick Poulin, D Igor Ulanov and Chicago's 2nd round pick in 1996 Entry Draft traded from Chicago to Tampa Bay for D Enrico Ciccone and Tampa Bay's 2nd round pick in 1996 Entry Draft.
*March 20, 1996: LW Yuri Khmylev and Buffalo's 8th round pick in 1996 Entry Draft traded from Buffalo to St. Louis for D Jean-Luc Grand Pierre, Ottawa's 2nd round pick in 1996 Entry Draft (previously acquired) and St. Louis' 3rd round pick in 1997 Entry Draft.
*March 20, 1996: C Dave Hannan traded from Buffalo to Colorado for Colorado's 6th round pick in 1996 Entry Draft.
*March 20, 1996: RW Alek Stojanov traded from Vancouver to Pittsburgh for RW Markus Naslund. 
*March 20, 1996: RW Ravil Gusmanov traded from Winnipeg to Chicago for Chicago's 4th round pick in 1996 Entry Draft.
*March 20, 1996: RW Joe Kocur traded from NY Rangers to Vancouver for G Kay Whitmore.

## References
## Other websites
*Hockey Database
*http://nhl.com/