2023-24

• 2023-24 marks the final season that Adidas is supplying NHL uniforms. Fanatics, complete with its spotty history of quality control, takes over the duties in the fall of 2024.

• In November, the NHL's general managers passed a rule change, allowing teams to wear colored helmets with their white away jerseys, as long as they were not the same color as their opponents' helmets. The official rule change came as the Hurricanes opened the season wearing red helmets with their white jerseys. The idea behind the rule change is actually to make it easier for teams to fulfill their helmet sponsorship obligations, particularly teams which have different sponsors for home and road games.

• Prior to the 2023-24 season, only three players had ever hit the 100-assist plateau: Bobby Orr, Wayne Gretzky (eight times) and Mario Lemieux. The list nearly doubled in a single season, as Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov hit the century mark in assists.

• Following years of instability, the Arizona Coyotes' franchise was deactivated immediately upon the conclusion of the regular season. After two seasons at the sub-NHL standard Mullett Arena without as much as a plot of land secured for a new arena, the NHL established an expansion team in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the Coyotes' players and personnel moving to the new franchise for the 2024-25 season. The Coyotes name, logo, colors and history were to remain in Arizona instead of transfering to Utah. Under the agreement, the Coyotes franchise would have been reactivated if owner Alex Meruelo could get a new arena built within five years. However, after the State of Arizona cancelled a land auction which Meruelo was going to use for a new arena, Meruelo folded the franchise and relinquished his rights. It remains unclear what will happen with the franchise's statistical history.

• Two long playoff droughts were extended: The Buffalo Sabres missed the playoffs for an NHL record-extending 13th season in a row, and the Detroit Red Wings enjoyed the playoffs from the comforts of their own living rooms for the eighth straight season.

• The Bruins narrowly avoided becoming the first team in major North American professional sports to blow 3-1 series leads in consecutive seasons. In fact, their opening round series against the Maple Leafs took the exact same form as their series against the Panthers a season earlier, right up until the end of regulation of Game 7: win, loss, win, win, overtime loss, loss, and overtime. It wasn't until that overtime until the Bruins broke the pattern with a series-winning goal by David Pastrnak. They advanced to face the Panthers, who eliminated them for the second year in a row.

• Speaking of the Panthers, it seemed that they were going to coast to the Stanley Cup, jumping out to a 3 games to 0 lead over the Oilers in the Final. But the Oilers stormed back, winning three in a row to even the series and extend it to Game 7. The Panthers, however, regrouped and won the decisive game, 2-1, to win the franchise's first-ever Stanley Cup.