1992-93 NHL Top 5 Goal Scorers

The 1992-93 National Hockey League season saw all of the top 5 goal scorers with 60 or more goals. Offense was rampant over the 84 game schedule, largely due to the combined 21 wins by the Ottawa Senators and San Jose Sharks in a total of 168 games.

Two players tied for the goal scoring lead at 76 goals apiece. Alexander Mogilny of the Buffalo Sabres got the nod in the tie break over rookie Teemu Selanne of the Winnipeg Jets, playing seven less games.

Alex Mogilny – Buffalo Sabres

It was a career year for Mogilny with the 76 goals and 127 points in his fourth year in the NHL. He played in the league from 1989-90 to 2005-06 with the Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, New Jersey Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs. Alex had one more 50+ goal season, scoring 55 with the Vancouver Canucks in 1995-96.

 

Alex played 990 regular season games in the NHL and scored 473 goals. Those numbers would have been much higher considering Mogilny never played the full schedule in any of his 16 seasons.

Teemu Selanne – Winnipeg Jets

Teemu Selanne set the mark for first year players with his 76 goals for the Jets in 1992-93, although he was 22 and had played three years of elite level hockey in Finland prior to his arrival in the NHL. Selanne retired from the National Hockey League after the 2013-14 season, playing his final season for the Anaheim Ducks. Along the way, he has had two 50+ goal seasons, both with Anaheim. Selanne has also played for the San Jose Sharks and the Colorado Avalanche.

Mario Lemieux – Pittsburgh Penguins

Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins finished third for goals in 1992-93. However, his numbers were a thing of awe. Lemieux played just 60 of Pittsburgh’s 84 games and scored 69 goals. On that pace, if he’d played the full season he would have scored between 96 and 97 goals. Numbers like that would have topped Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 92 goals.

Luc Robitaille – Los Angeles Kings

Luc Robitaille of the Los Angeles Kings finished fourth with 63 goals. 1992-93 saw career highs for Robitaille in goals and points (125). Luc totalled 668 regular season goals in 1,431 games in a career that spanned from 1986-87 to 2005-06. He had 50 or more goals in three seasons.

Robitaille also played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings during his many years in the National Hockey League. Luc is one of five players to have their numbers retired by the Los Angeles Kings.

Pavel Bure – Vancouver Canucks

Pavel Bure rounded out the top five with 60 goals. The second year player would score exactly the same the following season but while playing seven fewer games. Bure played in the NHL from 1991-92 to 2002-03 with the Canucks, Florida Panthers and New York Rangers. Pavel scored 437 goals in just 702 regular season games.

Despite his relatively short NHL career, Bure was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012. Pavel joined Mario Lemieux, who was inducted in 1997, and Luc Robitaille, who entered the Hall in 2009.

NHL Retirees Who Coached In 1983-84 ACHL

1983-84 was the third of six season that the Atlantic Coast Hockey League existed. The teams each played a 72 game regular season schedule. The Erie Golden Blades defeated the Carolina Thunderbirds to win the championship. The players in the six team league were forgettable but four of the teams were coached by quite recognizable names.

Rick Dudley – Carolina Thunderbirds

Rick Dudley coached the Carolina Thunderbirds for four years from 1982-83. The 1983-84 Thunderbirds finished first overall and had the most goals for and least goals against. In the playoffs, Carolina beat the Mohawk Valley Stars in the first round before their defeat at the hands of the Golden Blades in the finals.

Dudley played pro from 1969-70 to 1981-82. He played 309 regular season games in the National Hockey League with the Buffalo Sabres and Winnipeg Jets. He played in the World Hockey Association from 1975-76 to 1978-79, appearing in 270 games with the Cincinnati Stingers.

Rick was head coach of the Buffalo Sabres from 1989-90 to midway through the 1991-92 season. He was also interim head coach of the Florida Panthers for 40 games in 2003-04. In 1987-88, he was awarded the Commissioner’s Trophy in the IHL as coach of the year, leading the Flint Spirits to the finals.

Rick Ley – Mohawk Valley Stars

Rick Ley coached the Mohawk Valley Stars to a fourth overall finish in his only year of coaching in the ACHL. As mentioned earlier, the Stars fell to the Carolina Thunderbirds in the opening round of the playoffs.

Ley was a third round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1966 and played pro hockey from 1968-69 to 1980-81. In the NHL, Rick played in 310 regular season games with the Maple Leafs and Hartford Whalers. He was a member of the New England Whalers in the WHA for the duration of the league, 1972-73 to 1978-79, playing in 478 regular season games.

Rick coached pro hockey from 1981-82 to 2005-06. In the NHL, he was head coach of the Whalers for the 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons and head coach of the Vancouver Canucks for 1994-95 and most of 1995-96.

Ley’s greatest coaching success came in the IHL with the Muskegon Lumberjacks. He took the team to the finals for three straight years from 1984-85 to 1986-87, winning in 1985-86. In 1984-85, he was awarded the Commissioner’s Trophy as coach of the year.

Don Luce – Pineridge Bucks

Don Luce coached part of the 1983-84 season with the Pineridge Bucks. The Bucks were a unique team that played out of Spruce Pine, North Carolina, a town of just 2,500 but with an arena that sat 4,000.

Luce was a third round pick of the New York Rangers in 1966. He played pro from 1968-69 to 1981-82 with the Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres, Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs, appearing in 894 regular season games. Luce would only stand behind the bench in one other season, 1986-87 as the assistant coach for the Buffalo Sabres.

Dave Hanson – Birmingham Bulls

Dave Hanson, better known as Jack Hanson from the movie Slap Shot, has the distinction of winning 67% of all the pro games he coached. Unfortunately, this result comes from winning two of three as head coach of the Birmingham Bulls in 1983-84 before the team folded.

Hanson played pro hockey from 1974-75 to 1983-84. He appeared in 103 games in the WHA with the Minnesota Fighting Saints, New England Whalers and Birmingham Bulls. He dressed for 33 games in the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings and Minnesota North Stars.

Hanson is probably most famous for the two years he spent in the North American Hockey League with the Johnstown Jets. The Jets and the NAHL were the inspiration for the movie Slapshot starring Paul Newman.

4 St. Louis Blues Jack Adams Award Winners

The St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League have yet to take home their first Stanley Cup. The team joined the league in the expansion boom of 1967-68. The team has produced some great regular season teams and three coaches that won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s coach of the year.

Red Berenson 1980-81

Red Berenson was no stranger to St. Louis when he became head coach of the team in 1979-80. The Blues were one of four teams that Berenson played for during his nearly 1,000 game NHL career, which also saw him play for the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings. Red coached the Blues for just three years and won the Jack Adams Award in 1980-81. He has been the head coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines since the 1984-85 season.

That season, the Blues finished with 107 points, 27 more than the previous year. The team finished first in the Smythe Division and powered past the Pittsburgh Penguins in the opening round of the Stanley Cup playoffs before falling to the New York Rangers. The team was led by Bernie Federko, Wayne Babych, Brian Sutter and Mike Liut.

Brian Sutter 1990-91

Brian Sutter moved behind the bench when his playing career ended and became the next St. Louis coach to win the Jack Adams Award in 1990-91. With the help of Brett Hull, Adam Oates and Scott Stevens, the Blues finished with 105 points, a 22 points improvement over the previous year, good for second place in the Norris Division and second overall. St. Louis beat the Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the playoffs but lost to the Minnesota North Stars in the second.

Sutter played his entire career in a Blues jersey, from 1976-77 to 1987-88. He coached in the National Hockey League from 1988-89 to 2003-04. After St. Louis, he coached the Boston Bruins, Calgary Flames and Chicago Blackhawks.

Joel Quenneville 1999-00

Joel Quenneville is the last St. Louis Blues head coach to win the Jack Adams Award. Quenneville won the award in 1999-00 as the Blues posted 114 points to finish first overall in the NHL. It was a 27 point improvement on the previous year. The Stanley Cup playoffs were unkind with St. Louis losing in the first round to the San Jose Sharks. Playing starring roles on the 1999-00 Blues were Pavol Demitra, Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis.

Joel played over 800 games in the NHL from 1978-79 to 1990-91 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Colorado Rockies, New Jersey Devils, Hartford Whalers and Washington Capitals. He has been a head coach in the National Hockey League since 1996-97. He began with the Blues and after a stint with the Colorado Avalanche, settled in with the Chicago Blackhawks. He was behind the bench for Chicago’s Stanley Cup victories in 2009-10 and 2012-13.

 

Ken Hitchcock 2011-12

 

Hitchcock took over as head coach of the Blues during the 2011-12 season, replacing Davis Payne 13 games into the campaign. It was his first head coaching job since getting let go by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2009-10. Ken led St. Louis to a first place tie in the Eastern Conference with the New York Rangers and just to points behind the Vancouver Canucks for first overall in the National Hockey League. The Blues were swept in the second round by eventual Stanley Cup champions, the Los Angeles Kings.

 

Never a player, Hitchcock got his start in coaching with the Kamloops Blazers in the WHL. The Blazers never had a losing season during Ken's six years behind the bench. He started out in the NHL in 1990-91 as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Flyers, under head coach Paul Holmgren. Since 1995-96, Hitchcock has been a head coach in the NHL with the Dallas Stars, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets and the Blues. He won a Stanley Cup championship with the Stars in 1998-99.