| 1998–99 NHL season | |
| League: | National Hockey League |
| Sport: | Ice hockey |
| Duration: | October 9, 1998 – June 19, 1999 |
| Draft: | Draft |
| Draft Link: | 1998 NHL Entry Draft |
| Top Pick Link: | List of first overall NHL draft picks |
| Picked By: | Tampa Bay Lightning |
| Season: | Regular season |
| Season Champ Name: | Presidents' Trophy |
| Season Champs: | Dallas Stars |
| Mvp: | Jaromir Jagr (Penguins) |
| Mvp Link: | Hart Memorial Trophy |
| Top Scorer: | Jaromir Jagr (Penguins) |
| Top Scorer Link: | Art Ross Trophy |
| Playoffs: | Playoffs |
| Playoffs Link: | 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs |
| Finals: | Stanley Cup |
| Finals Link: | 1999 Stanley Cup Finals |
| Finals Champ: | Dallas Stars |
| Finals Runner-Up: | Buffalo Sabres |
| Playoffs Mvp: | Joe Nieuwendyk (Stars) |
| Playoffs Mvp Link: | Conn Smythe Trophy |
| Nextseason Year: | 1999–2000 |
| Prevseason Year: | 1997–98 |
| No Of Games: | 82 |
| No Of Teams: | 27 |
| Tv: | CBC, CTV Sportsnet, SRC (Canada) ESPN, Fox (United States) |
The 1998–99 NHL season was the 82nd regular season of the National Hockey League. The league expanded to 27 teams with the addition of the Nashville Predators. The NHL also realigned to a strictly geographic six-division structure, with three per conference. The 1998–99 season marked the retirement of Wayne Gretzky, the NHL's all-time leading scorer, who played his final three NHL seasons with the New York Rangers. The Dallas Stars finished first in regular season play, and won the Stanley Cup championship over the Buffalo Sabres on a controversial triple-overtime goal by Brett Hull.
The Nashville Predators joined the NHL, increasing the league to 27 teams. The 1998 NHL expansion draft was held on June 26 to fill the Predators' roster.
With the debut of the Predators, and the planned expansion of three more teams within the next two seasons (Atlanta, Columbus, and Minnesota), the NHL realigned to a strictly geographic six-division structure (three per conference). This erased the last vestiges of the traditional Adams/Patrick/Norris/Smythe four-division structure abandoned in 1993–94. Other than the reassignment of Colorado to the Western Conference in 1995 due to its move from Quebec, the divisions' membership had remained static for five years although several franchises had relocated. As part of this realignment, the Toronto Maple Leafs moved from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference. This put three of the Original Six teams in the Northeast Division (Boston, Montreal, and Toronto), and the three original cities of the NHL in the Northeast (Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto). The playoff format was subsequently modified so the three division winners in each conference were seeded one through three by order of point finish, then the top five remaining teams in the conference were seeded four through eight.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
The 1998 NHL Entry Draft was held on June 27 at the Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo, New York. Vincent Lecavalier was selected first overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Three preseason games were held in Austria. The Tampa Bay Lightning played against Austrian team VEU Feldkirch at Vorarlberghalle in Klagenfurt on September 15. One day later at the same arena, the Buffalo Sabres faced of against KAC Klagenfurt. The Sabres and the Lightning then met at Olympiahalle in Innsbruck on September 18.
The Calgary Flames and the San Jose Sharks played a two-game series on October 9 and 10, 1999 at Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.
The All-Star Game was held on January 24, 1999, at Ice Palace in Tampa, home to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
See main article: 1999 Stanley Cup playoffs.
In each round, teams competed in a best-of-seven series following a 2–2–1–1–1 format (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-seven series). The team with home ice advantage played at home for games one and two (and games five and seven, if necessary), and the other team played at home for games three and four (and game six, if necessary). The top eight teams in each conference made the playoffs, with the three division winners seeded 1–3 based on regular season record, and the five remaining teams seeded 4–8.
The NHL used "re-seeding" instead of a fixed bracket playoff system. During the first three rounds, the highest remaining seed in each conference was matched against the lowest remaining seed, the second-highest remaining seed played the second-lowest remaining seed, and so forth. The higher-seeded team was awarded home ice advantage. The two conference winners then advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals, where home ice advantage was awarded to the team that had the better regular season record.
The Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy for the most goals by a player in a season made its debut this year.
| First team | Position | Second team | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dominik Hasek, Buffalo Sabres | align=center | G | Byron Dafoe, Boston Bruins |
| Al MacInnis, St. Louis Blues | align=center | D | Ray Bourque, Boston Bruins |
| Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings | align=center | D | Eric Desjardins, Philadelphia Flyers |
| Peter Forsberg, Colorado Avalanche | align=center | C | Alexei Yashin, Ottawa Senators |
| Jaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh Penguins | align=center | RW | Teemu Selanne, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim |
| Paul Kariya, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim | align=center | LW | John LeClair, Philadelphia Flyers |
Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points
| Player | Team | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 81 | 44 | 83 | 127 | 66 | ||
| Mighty Ducks of Anaheim | 75 | 47 | 60 | 107 | 30 | ||
| Mighty Ducks of Anaheim | 82 | 39 | 62 | 101 | 40 | ||
| Colorado Avalanche | 78 | 30 | 67 | 97 | 108 | ||
| Colorado Avalanche | 73 | 41 | 55 | 96 | 29 | ||
| Ottawa Senators | 82 | 44 | 50 | 94 | 54 | ||
| Philadelphia Flyers | 71 | 40 | 53 | 93 | 120 | ||
| Calgary Flames /Colorado Avalanche | 75 | 40 | 53 | 93 | 86 | ||
| Philadelphia Flyers | 76 | 43 | 47 | 90 | 30 | ||
| St. Louis Blues | 82 | 37 | 52 | 89 | 16 |
Regular season
| Player | Team | GP | MIN | GA | SO | GAA | SV% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ottawa | 43 | 2508 | 75 | 3 | 1.79 | .925 | ||
| Buffalo | 64 | 3817 | 119 | 9 | 1.87 | .937 | ||
| Dallas | 61 | 3536 | 117 | 5 | 1.99 | .915 | ||
| Boston | 68 | 4001 | 133 | 10 | 1.99 | .926 | ||
| Dallas | 26 | 1382 | 48 | 1 | 2.08 | .915 | ||
| Phoenix | 63 | 3657 | 130 | 8 | 2.13 | .920 | ||
| Philadelphia | 62 | 3712 | 135 | 6 | 2.18 | .902 | ||
| San Jose | 37 | 2162 | 80 | 4 | 2.22 | .921 | ||
| Carolina | 62 | 3643 | 135 | 6 | 2.22 | .923 | ||
| San Jose | 49 | 2831 | 107 | 4 | 2.27 | .911 |
The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1998–99 (listed with their first team, an asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):
The following is a list of players of note who played their last game in the NHL in 1998–99 (listed with their last team):
This was the first season of the league's Canadian national broadcast rights deals with CBC and CTV Sportsnet. CBC continued to air Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada regular season games. The fledgling CTV Sportsnet replaced TSN as the league's cable broadcaster. Tuesday Night Hockey became CTV Sportsnet's signature weekly regular season telecasts. Coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs continued to primarily be on CBC, while CTV Sportsnet aired first round all-U.S. series.
This was the fifth and final season of the league's U.S. national broadcast rights deals with Fox and ESPN. Both ESPN and ESPN2 aired weeknight games throughout the regular season, and Fox had the All-Star Game and weekly regional telecasts on 11 weekend afternoons between February and April. During the first two rounds of the playoffs, ESPN and ESPN2 aired selected games, while Fox had Sunday regional telecasts. Each U.S. team's regional broadcaster produced local coverage of first and second round games (except for those games on Fox). Fox's Sunday telecasts continued into the Conference Finals, while ESPN had the rest of the third round games. The Stanley Cup Finals were also split between Fox and ESPN.
The league then signed a new five-year deal with ESPN that also called for sister network ABC to become the new broadcast network partner.