Forward Steve Rucchin was named team captain following Paul Kariya's departure to the Colorado Avalanche via free agency.
[1] The departure of franchise player Paul Kariya marked another new era which had many fans angered as well as worried about the teams near future repeating the on-ice success.
Both players delivered as expected but scoring decreased for several reasons: Mike Leclerc played only 10 games, Rob Niedermayer played only 55 games, though enjoying a good season and Andy McDonald stayed healthy but had trouble repeating his performance after missing half of last season due to a concussion; Chistov suffered from "sophomore jinx" collecting only 2 goals and Jason Krog could not repeat another season like the one he had before.
The defense performed well enough but J. S. Giguere failed at times to play the way he did the year before allowing soft goals.
Later that season backup goalie Martin Gerber saw more ice time challenging Giguere for the number one spot and nearly outperforming him.