Welcome to the deep dive. If you were looking
at our Apple podcast feed today, you probably
noticed the title of this deep dive. Yeah, the
unpacking the 1989 -90 NHL season. Gretzky's
record, the Oilers dynasty and hockey's evolution.
Exactly. And the description promises that whether
you are, you know, a diehard fan looking for
vintage NHL player statistics. Right. Or maybe
you're just curious about the end of the full
fiberglass goalie mask era. Yeah. Or even if
you just want to know how broadcasting deals
with NBC and Sports Channel America shape the
game's popularity. We have you completely covered
today. We really do. So our source material today
is this remarkably comprehensive encyclopedia.
entry detailing the 1989 -90 National Hockey
League season and our mission here. To figure
out what it all means. Right. We are taking this
massive stack of standings, you know, statistics,
award lists, and we are going to extract the
living, breathing narrative of a sports league
undergoing a massive, massive transition. And
I think it's important to point out to you listening
right now that even if you aren't a massive hockey
fan, or even if you already know hockey history
inside and out, this specific season is just
an absolute goldmine. Oh, totally. It's the exact
fulcrum point between the old guard and the modern
era. You are watching a multi -million dollar
industry actively shed its old equipment. Shatter
unbreakable records. Yeah, and tentatively test.
These brand new media markets. It's really a
masterclass in watching a sport pivot. The friction
of that transition is visible in almost every
single stat line from that year. OK, let's unpack
this, because to truly understand the scale of
this transition, we kind of have to start with
the biggest milestone of them all. The big one.
Right. Let's set the dial to October 15th, 1989.
On this specific day, Wayne Gretzky records his
1 ,851st career point. Wow. And with that single
puck finding the back of the net, he officially
passes the legendary Gordie Howe for the most
points in the history of the NHL. What's fascinating
here is the sheer narrative weight of that moment.
I mean, Gordie Howe was an institution, right?
Yeah. Untouchable. Exactly. For decades, his
point record was viewed as this untouchable summit
in professional hockey. So when Gretzky passes
him, it isn't just... a really good player having
a standout year. It is the definitive, undeniable
crowning of a new statistical king. And he didn't
just break the record in October and then coast
for the rest of the year either. Not at all.
He went on to win the Art Ross Trophy that season
as the league's top scorer. He put up an unbelievable
142 points. Just staggering. That is 40 goals
and 102 assists. and he managed to do all of
that in just 73 games. The math on that is just,
I mean, it's staggering. He is averaging nearly
two points every single time he laces up his
skates. Yeah. Just imagine stepping onto the
ice knowing you are statistically guaranteed
to generate two goals for your team that night.
That's a huge psychological advantage. But while
Gretzky was launching the league's record books
into the stratosphere and kind of redefining
modern offense, there were other very literal
end -of -an -era moments happening down on the
ice. Oh, the equipment changes. Yeah. The source
notes this fantastic, almost cinematic piece
of trivia regarding Sam St. Laurent of the Detroit
Red Wings. Right. During this season, he became
the very last goalie to ever wear a full fiberglass
goalie mask during an NHL game. And that image.
really captures the essence of this 1989 -90
season perfectly. On one end of the ice, you
have these high -flying, impossibly skilled offensive
superstars completely rewriting the geometry
of the game. Yeah. And then down at the other
end, scaring them down, you have the final echoes
of analog hockey. That form -fitting, full fiberglass
mask. Right, the kind that looks like a vintage
movie prop. It's such a potent symbol of the
old guard. It really is. As player strength increased
and stick technology advanced, you know, slapshots
were becoming dangerously fast. So the fiberglass
just wasn't cutting it anymore. Exactly. It was
finally phased out to make way for the modern
hybrid cage helmets, helmets that actually prioritize
physiological safety over that old school bare
bones aesthetic. It's the literal shedding of
old armor. And that shedding extended far beyond
just the goalie equipment. We saw massive institutional
shifts in the front offices as well. Oh, definitely.
The Toronto Maple Leafs played their final season
under the ownership of Harold Ballard. Now, Ballard
had owned the team for 29 years, but he passed
away in April of 1990. And when a single individual
controls a historic franchise for three decades.
That's a long time. Yeah, their philosophy just
becomes baked into the walls of the arena. His
passing marked a total changing of the guard
at the very top of one of the sport's most storied
original franchises. The ripple effects of new
ownership would fundamentally alter the trajectory
of the Maple Leafs. And speaking of altering
franchise trajectories, we have to look at what
was happening in Detroit. This is wild. The source
notes that in this 1989 -90 season, the Detroit
Red Wings missed the playoffs, which, you know,
on the surface sounds like a standard disappointment.
But the source contextualizes this with a mind
bending fact. This specific failure in 1990 initiated
a streak of success that is almost hard to comprehend
in modern sports. It really is. After missing
the playoffs this season, the Red Wings would
not miss the postseason again until the year
2017. Just think about the generational span
of that streak. It's crazy. A fan born during
this 1989 -90 season would be 27 years old before
they ever experienced a spring without Detroit
Red Wings playoff hockey. 27 years. Yeah. That
level of sustained institutional competence is
incredibly rare. It highlights how sometimes
missing the mark forces a front office to lock
in a new developmental system that ultimately
builds a multi -generational dynasty. That sets
up the landscape of the league perfectly, actually.
Let's look at the actual structure of the NHL
that year. It was a tighter ship than the league
we know today. Right, fewer teams. Yeah, there
were only 21 teams and they played an 80 -game
regular season. And during that 80 -game grind,
the Boston Bruins emerged as the absolute juggernaut.
Oh, they were dominant. They won the President's
Trophy, which is awarded to the team with the
best regular season record. They posted 101 points
with 46 wins, 25 losses, and 9 ties. And their
internal metrics backed up that point total,
too. I mean, they scored 289 goals and only allowed
232. That's a huge differential. Yeah, they had
a stifling defense paired with a highly effective
offense. By every statistical measure available
in the regular season, Boston was the team heavily
favored to take it all the way. Right. You look
at Boston's regular season, 101 points, just
steamrolling the league. By all logic, they should
have hoisted the Cup. So why did they completely
hit a wall in the Stanley Cup finals against
the Edmonton Oilers? Because Edmonton didn't
just edge them out. They decisively dismantled
Boston, winning the best of seven series, four
games to one. Because regular season metrics
don't account for championship money. The Boston
Bruins were undoubtedly a phenomenal hockey team,
but they ran into an Edmonton Oilers roster that
fundamentally knew how to win championships.
Even with Wayne Gretzky now playing in Los Angeles,
the culture in Edmonton remained completely intact.
That victory cemented a true dynasty. Capturing
that championship meant the Oilers had won their
fifth Stanley Cup in just seven seasons. Five
championships in seven years is video game material.
It really is. And you mentioned Gretzky being
in L .A., which meant other players on that Edmonton
roster had to carry the monumental weight of
expectations. Marc Messier really stepped up
into that leadership vacuum in a historic way.
Huge year for him. During the regular season,
Messier won both the Hart Memorial Trophy as
a league MVP and the Lester B. Pearson Award,
which is the outstanding player award voted on
by his own peers. He put up 129 points. Messier
proved that the Oilers' success wasn't solely
dependent on one singular transcendent player.
You know, the system itself was elite. Yeah.
And their goaltender, Bill Ranford, further proved
that point by winning the Conn Smythe Trophy
as the most valuable player of the playoffs.
Edmonton possessed a complete championship caliber.
ecosystem from the crease to the captain. But
while Edmonton was dominating the finals, the
geography of the earlier playoff rounds featured
a pretty fascinating anomaly. Here's where it
gets really interesting for anyone who follows
regional sports markets. The New York thing.
Yeah, let's look at the geographic layout of
the playoffs that spring. All three New York
City area teams qualified for the postseason.
The New York Rangers, the New York Islanders,
and the New Jersey Devils. It is remarkably difficult
for three teams in such close geographic proximity,
constantly cannibalizing points off each other
in divisional play, to all secure playoff berths
in the exact same season. The source explicitly
notes just how rare this is. This tri -state
area hat trick has only been repeated three times
since. In the 1993 -94 season, the 2006 -07 season,
and the 2022 -23 season. Wow. You can only imagine
the local sports radio atmosphere in the spring
of 1990. Oh, it must have been a while. The rivalries
must have been absolutely electric, completely
saturating the regional media. And that kind
of localized intensity. is fantastic for the
business of the league. But that level of regional
rivalry only truly captivates an audience if
the on -ice product is spectacular. Right. And
when you look at the individual stat sheets from
that year, spectacular almost feels like an understatement.
The offense across the league was operating at
a historic fever pitch. We already mentioned
Gretzky's 142 points and Messier's 129 points.
But right behind them, Steve Wiseman of the Detroit
Red Wings put up 127 points, including a staggering
62 goals. Massive numbers. And then there is
the Mario Lemieux statistic. Lemieux, playing
for the Pittsburgh Penguins, scored 123 points
in just 59 games played. We really need to pause
on that Lemieux stat because the math is almost
unbelievable. It is. Scoring 123 points in 59
games means he was generating well over two points
per game. Yeah. He was entirely uncontainable
by opposing defenses. It highlights how heavily
the rules, the equipment, and the coaching strategies
of the era were tilted in favor of the goal scorers.
And even among all these stratospheric point
totals, the source singles out the phenomenon
that was Brett Hull of the St. Louis Blues. Hull
scored an incredible 72 goals that season. 72.
Just wrap your head around 72 pucks in the back
of the net from one player. But the kicker is
that on top of being this relentless offensive
powerhouse, he also won the Lady Bing Memorial
Trophy. Which is an award that recognizes sportsmanship
and gentlemanly conduct. Combined with a high
standard of playing ability. Right. It is an
incredibly difficult balance to strike. Hull
is aggressively dismantling opposing defenses
and scoring at will, yet he is doing it while
playing a perfectly disciplined, polite game
that keeps him out of the penalty box. You look
at these numbers, 142 points, 123 points in 59
games, 72 goals. You ever wonder how anyone survived
playing defense, let alone playing in the net?
Goalies were basically target practice. We connect
this to the bigger picture. Yeah. It makes the
goaltending counter -narrative of this season
truly extraordinary. In a league that is absolutely
exploding with generational offensive talent,
you have Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens
quietly building a fortress. Roy won the Vizina
Trophy as the league's best goaltender, and he
did it by posting a 2 .53 goals against average
and a .912 save percentage. And just to put that
2 .53 goals against average in perspective for
you, in an era where teams were routinely lighting
up the scoreboard for four or five or six goals
a night, Roy was essentially limiting opponents
to just two and a half goals. Incredible. And
a .912 save percentage meant he was stopping
over 91 % of the rubber thrown at him, while
other goalies across the league were getting
completely shelled. It was a true testament to
his revolutionary butterfly style of play. He
wasn't just relying on reflexes. He was applying...
a mathematical geometry to the crease, taking
away the lower half of the net and forcing these
elite scorers to beat him perfectly up high.
And he wasn't the only goaltender weathering
the storm either. Kirk McLean of the Vancouver
Canucks played a league -leading 63 games. That's
a huge workload. And John Casey of the Minnesota
North Stars secured 31 wins. The physical exhaustion
of facing that caliber of offense night after
night for 60 plus games a season is immense.
Oh yeah. The goal scorers absolutely get the
glory, but a team's survival in 1989 completely
depended on their goaltender's ability to maintain
focus through an unprecedented nightly offensive
barrage. It was a league defined by these extreme
opposing forces. But as much as these established
stars define the present reality of the 1989
-90 season, the league was simultaneously experiencing
a massive influx of new talent that would secure
its future. Which brings us to the NHL entry
draft on June 17th, 1989. This was held at the
Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. The Quebec
Nordiques held the number one overall pick and
they selected Matt Sundin. First European -born
player to go number one. Exactly, which signaled
a massive shift in scouting all on its own. But
the source notes it wasn't just the draft that
infused the league with talent. The list of player
debuts from that season is just staggering. It
really reads like a future Hockey Hall of Fame
induction roster. You have Mike Medano, Rob Blake,
Curtis Joseph, Ty Domi, and Alexander Mogulny
all stepping onto NHL ice for the first time.
And Alexander Mogulny isn't just a debut. It
is a monumental geopolitical event. Very true.
He was the first Soviet player to officially
defect to North America to play in the NHL. It
completely opened the floodgates for international
talent. Exactly. You start seeing the walls come
down. The influx of international veterans making
their NHL debuts that season included legendary
Soviet names like Vyacheslav Fedosov, Igor Larionov,
and Sergei Makarov. Right. These were players
who had already enjoyed long, deeply established
careers in the Soviet Union. And Sergei Makarov's
debut actually forced the NHL to confront its
own rulebook. Because Makarov ended up winning
the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's best
first -year player. He was playing for the Calgary
Flames and beat out incredibly talented traditional
rookies like Mike Madano and Jeremy Roenick.
The controversy, of course, was that Makarov
was 31 years old at the time. He was a fully
developed, world -class professional playing
against 19 -year -old kids. His victory actually
prompted the league to later change the rules
regarding the age limit for rookie of the year
eligibility. But for this specific season, the
31 -year -old Soviet veteran took home the hardware.
Proving that the talent pool was rapidly globalizing,
you have this incredible melting pot of a league.
You have established North American legends breaking
all -time records, a dynasty in Edmonton refusing
to fade, a scoring boom that defies all defensive
logic, and a historic influx of Soviet defectors
and international stars. It is an incredibly
compelling product. Which raises an important
question. With all of this transcendent star
power and all of these incredible dramatic narratives
unfolding on the ice, How is the NHL actually
packaging this for the public? Yeah. The product
is phenomenal, but how are they broadcasting
it? That is where the source reveals a pretty
stark contrast in the league's media footprint.
In Canada, the broadcasting infrastructure was
incredibly robust. It was the second season of
the league's national broadcast rights deals
with TSN and the culturally foundational Hockey
Night in Canada on the CBC. It's an institution.
Yeah. They had primetime Saturday night games
locked down on CBC while TSN handled the weeknight
broadcasts. So the Canadian market is completely
saturated. The fans have reliable national access
to the stars. But in the United States, the media
landscape paints a picture of a league desperately
struggling for mainstream traction. In the U
.S., the national broadcast rights were held
by Sports Channel America. They were airing up
to three regular season games a week, plus some
playoff coverage. But the real insight into the
NHL's media struggles comes from their interaction
with NBC. This is very telling. The source notes
that NBC agreed to televise an NHL game, but
only the All -Star game, and the explicitly reported
reason. NBC wanted to test the appeal of hockey.
Test the appeal. That phrase tells you everything
you need to know about the NHL standing in the
American sports hierarchy at that time. Yeah.
You have Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mark Messier
and Brett Hull performing at the absolute peak
of their athletic prime. The on ice product has
never been faster or more skilled. Right. Yet
a major American television network is treating
the sport like an unproven pilot episode. It
is a profound disconnect between the quality
of the sport and the marketing of the sport.
While the NBA was riding the massive national
television wave of the Magic Johnson and Larry
Bird era, the NHL was still operating largely
as a regional gate driven business. Very much
so. That NBC test was a glaring indicator that
the league needed to figure out how to sell its
superstars to an American audience that didn't
live in a snowy climate. It perfectly encapsulates
the entire theme of the season. The 1989 -90
NHL wasn't just transitioning its equipment and
its rosters. It was facing down the painful,
necessary transition from a niche regional attraction
to a global televised entertainment product.
Okay, let's take a breath and look back at the
incredible journey we've just extracted from
these records. We've witnessed Wayne Gretzky
officially dethrone Gordie Howe as the greatest
point scorer in history. We saw the Oilers dynasty
survive. Yeah, the Edmonton Oilers proving their
championship culture could thrive without their
biggest star. We've watched the final dangerous
fiberglass mask leave the ice for good, making
way for modern safety. And we've seen a league
grapple with its own explosive talent, bringing
in Soviet legends while simultaneously begging
American networks for airtime. It was a big year.
What does this all mean? It means that professional
sports leagues are living, breathing organisms.
They are forced to constantly shed their old
skin. Sometimes that means shedding a 29 -year
ownership regime. Sometimes it means abandoning
antiquated analog equipment. And sometimes it
means recognizing that your current broadcast
reach simply isn't good enough for the talent
on your roster. The 1989 -90 season wasn't just
another year in the record books. It was the
essential high -friction bridge between the old
-school era of hockey and the modern global game
we recognize today. I want to leave you with
one final thought to mull over regarding the
mechanics of building that future. We talked
earlier about the Quebec Nordiques drafting Matt
Sundin with the number one overall pick. Yeah,
amazing player. Sundin goes on to have a legendary
Hall of Fame career. But consider the mathematical
reality of how Quebec got that draft pick. Okay.
The Nordiques finished the season with the absolute
worst record in the league by a massive margin.
They managed only 12 wins. Ouch. That is 12 wins,
61 losses, and 7 ties over an 80 -game season.
More shockingly, they allowed a staggering 407
goals against. Wow. That averages out to giving
up over five goals every single night they took
the ice. It was a catastrophic year of hockey.
It brings up a really heavy ethical question
for sports fans. Just how deeply does a franchise
have to hit rock bottom? And how much sheer on
-ice humiliation must the paying fans endure
before a single top draft pick can be justified?
Exactly. Is the distant promise of a Matt Sundin
always worth the acute nightly pain of the present?
Can a front office justify a 12 -win season to
a fan who paid for season tickets? It is something
to seriously think about the next time you see
a team languishing at the very bottom of the
standings, telling their fans to trust the process
and wait for the draft. That is a phenomenal
question to leave hanging in the air. Thank you
so much for joining us on this deep dive into
a truly defining era of sports history. We will
see you next time.