The 1986–87 NHL season was the 70th season of the National Hockey League. The Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup by beating the Philadelphia Flyers four games to three in the Cup finals.

The Chicago-based club officially changed their name from the two-worded "Black Hawks" to the one-worded "Blackhawks" based on the spelling found in their original franchise documents.^[1]

The 1986 NHL Entry Draft was held on June 21, at the Montreal Forum in Montreal, Quebec. Joe Murphy was selected first overall by the Detroit Red Wings.

The Oilers won their second straight Presidents' Trophy as the top team and Wayne Gretzky won his eighth straight Hart Memorial Trophy and his seventh straight Art Ross Trophy.^[2]

On November 26, 1986, Toronto's Borje Salming was accidentally cut in the face by a skate, requiring more than 200 stitches. It was the third injury to his face and Salming returned to play wearing a visor.^[3]

A bombshell was exploded when it was announced that Pat Quinn had been expelled from the NHL pending an investigation of conflict of interest. It was reported that while serving as coach of the Los Angeles Kings, Quinn signed a contract to become president and general manager of the Vancouver Canucks. In due course, NHL president John Ziegler barred Quinn from coaching in the NHL until 1990–91

On January 22, 1987, a massive blizzard resulted in only 334 spectators attending the game between the New Jersey Devils and the Calgary Flames at the Brendan Byrne Arena, leading to the Devils dubbing the spectators the "334 Club".^[4][5]

There was trouble brewing for Bryan Trottier when he authored an article in the publication The Hockey News criticizing officials for failing to call penalties. This was brought to the attention of NHL president John Ziegler who fined Trottier $1,000.

On April 4, 1987, the Islanders' captain Denis Potvin became the first NHL defenceman to reach 1000 points. A shot by the Islanders' Mikko Mäkelä deflected in off Potvin's arm in a 6–6 shootout between the Islanders and Sabres.^[6]

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF= Goals For, GA = Goals Against, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

The top four teams in each division qualified for the playoffs. This was the first year that all rounds were competed in a best-of-seven series (scores in the bracket indicate the number of games won in each best-of-seven series) after the division semifinals were expanded from a best-of-five format to reduce the number of upsets. In the division semifinals, the fourth seeded team in each division played against the division winner from their division. The other series matched the second and third place teams from the divisions. The two winning teams from each division's semifinals then met in the division finals. The two division winners of each conference then played in the conference finals. The two conference winners then advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Source: NHL^[8]

Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes, PPG = Powerplay Goals, SHG = Shorthanded Goals, GWG = Game Winning Goals

Source: NHL.^[9]

Minimum 2000 min. GP = Games played; Min = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T = Ties; SO = Shutouts; GAA = Goals against average; Sv% = Save percentage^[10]

• New Jersey Devils: Doug Carpenter
• New York Islanders: Terry Simpson
• New York Rangers: Tom Webster
• Philadelphia Flyers: Mike Keenan
• Pittsburgh Penguins: Bob Berry
• Washington Capitals: Bryan Murray

• Boston Bruins: Terry O'Reilly
• Buffalo Sabres: Scotty Bowman and Craig Ramsay
• Hartford Whalers: Jack Evans
• Montreal Canadiens: Jean Perron
• Quebec Nordiques: Michel Bergeron

• Chicago Blackhawks: Bob Pulford
• Detroit Red Wings: Jacques Demers
• Minnesota North Stars: Lorne Henning and Glen Sonmor
• St. Louis Blues: Jacques Martin
• Toronto Maple Leafs: John Brophy

• Calgary Flames: Bob Johnson
• Edmonton Oilers: Glen Sather
• Los Angeles Kings: Pat Quinn and Mike Murphy
• Vancouver Canucks: Tom Watt
• Winnipeg Jets: Dan Maloney

The following is a list of players of note who played their first NHL game in 1986–87 (listed with their first team, asterisk(*) marks debut in playoffs):

• Gary Roberts, Calgary Flames
• Joe Nieuwendyk, Calgary Flames
• Dave Manson, Chicago Blackhawks
• Joe Murphy, Detroit Red Wings
• Steve Chiasson, Detroit Red Wings
• Kelly Buchberger*, Edmonton Oilers
• Jimmy Carson, Los Angeles Kings
• Luc Robitaille, Los Angeles Kings
• Steve Duchesne, Los Angeles Kings
• Craig Berube, Philadelphia Flyers
• Ron Hextall, Philadelphia Flyers
• Vincent Damphousse, Toronto Maple Leafs
• Fredrik Olausson, Winnipeg Jets

The following is a list of players of note that played their last game in the NHL in 1986–87 (listed with their last team):

• Thomas Gradin, Boston Bruins
• Mike Milbury, Boston Bruins
• Lee Fogolin, Buffalo Sabres
• Don Lever, Buffalo Sabres
• Gilbert Perreault, Buffalo Sabres
• Phil Russell, Buffalo Sabres
• Doug Risebrough, Calgary Flames
• Murray Bannerman, Chicago Blackhawks
• Darryl Sutter, Chicago Blackhawks
• Danny Gare, Edmonton Oilers
• Wayne Babych, Hartford Whalers
• Peter McNab, New Jersey Devils
• Mike Bossy, New York Islanders
• Chico Resch, Philadelphia Flyers (Last player born in the 1940s)

In Canada, the Molson-sponsored Hockey Night in Canada on CBC continued to air Saturday night regular season games, but sponsor Carling-O'Keefe's rights fell into limbo after CTV pulled out of its sub-license prior to the season.^[11] Things became problematic when the 1987 Stanley Cup playoffs opened with Carling O'Keefe still without a network. The problems peaked when the Montreal–Quebec second-round playoff series opened without Molson being allowed to broadcast from Quebec City, leaving Games 3 and 4 off of English-language television altogether. This led to a hastily arranged syndicated package on a chain of channels^[12] that would one day form the basis of the Global Television Network. The deal between Carling O'Keefe and the Canwest/Global consortium (with a few CBC and CTV affiliates sprinkled in for good measure) came just in time for Game 6 of the Montreal-Quebec series on April 30. These Carling O'Keefe/Canwest/Global broadcasts were aired under the name Stanley Cup '87.

This was the second season of the league's three-year U.S. national broadcast rights deal with ESPN. The contract called for the network to air up to 33 regular season games each season as well as the All-Star Game and the playoffs.^[13][14]

• List of Stanley Cup champions
• 1986 NHL Entry Draft
• 1986–87 NHL transactions
• NHL All-Rookie Team
• Rendez-vous '87
• 1986 in sports
• 1987 in sports
• Easter Epic

Notes

Bibliography

• Diamond, Dan, ed. (2008). Total Stanley Cup 2008. NHL.
• Diamond, Dan, ed. (2000). Total Hockey. Kingston, New York: Total Sports. ISBN 1-892129-85-X.
• Dinger, Ralph, ed. (2011). The National Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book 2012. Toronto, ON: Dan Diamond & Associates. ISBN 978-1-894801-22-5.
• Dryden, Steve, ed. (2000). Century of hockey. Toronto, ON: McClelland & Stewart Ltd. ISBN 0-7710-4179-9.
• Fischler, Stan; Fischler, Shirley; Hughes, Morgan; Romain, Joseph; Duplacey, James (2003). The Hockey Chronicle: Year-by-Year History of the National Hockey League. Lincolnwood, Illinois: Publications International Inc. ISBN 0-7853-9624-1.

• Hockey Database
• NHL.com