As part of the league's new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed after the 1994–95 NHL lockout, each team began playing 82 games per season.
Teams would no longer be guaranteed the first overall pick if they finished with the worst record during the previous regular season, and therefore have less incentive to "tank".
Improvements in dye-sublimation printing on modern uniform fabrics, having been featured in recent seasons on uniforms in the National Basketball Association and the Canadian Football League, had caught the interest of the NHL, which decided to allow alternate jerseys that could take advantage of this technology to produce new and unusual designs not possible under traditional jersey-making techniques.
The five teams that did participate were the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Vancouver Canucks.
In addition to the Avalanche, two other teams underwent rebrands prior to the season, albeit only changing their logos and colors.
The New York Islanders used the dye-sublimation technique to create new jerseys with wavy stripes as well as a logo bearing a fisherman mascot, which ended up being heavily derided and phased out over the next few seasons.
Following the season, Starter would expand its presence in the NHL to nine other teams, while Nike would re-enter the league through the use of its subsidiary, Bauer Hockey.
However, the Wings fell to the future Stanley Cup champion Avalanche in the 1996 Western Conference Finals, the sixth game of which marked the beginning of the heated Detroit-Colorado rivalry, which would last for years to come.
The New Jersey Devils became the first team since the 1969–70 Montreal Canadiens to miss the playoffs after winning the Stanley Cup during the previous season.
Czech superstar Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins broke the record for assists and points by a right winger in a single season [1].
[4] Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs would later go on to break Ovechkin's modern record by scoring his 66th goal on April 9, 2024, achieving the rare distinction of being the first NHL player in 28 years to score more than 65 goals in a single season since Lemieux last accomplished the feat nearly three decades earlier.
[5] Matthew's would later equal Lemieux's feat by scoring a grand total of 69 goals as the 2023-24 NHL season drew to a close.