NHL Expansion in the Late 1990s and Early 2000s

Hockey in Two New Cities and a Return to Two Former NHL Homes

Oct 1, 2009

The late 1990s saw four teams join the National Hockey League, two of which brought hockey back to previous NHL cities.

After a brief pause on the expansion front, the NHL once again welcomed new teams to its fraternity at the end of the 20th century. The league took its act down south, welcoming the Atlanta Thrashers and Nashville Predators to the fold.

In 1998, “Music City” attempted to become a hockey city with the arrival of the Predators. Goaltender Mikhail Shtalenkov was the team’s first selection in the expansion draft but his tenure as a Predator would be short-lived; he was traded to the Oilers ahead of the season in exchange for Eric Fichaud, Drake Berehowsky and Greg de Vries. A few days later at the NHL Entry Draft, Nashville chose David Legwand second overall.

The Predators’ first season ended with a last-place division finish and 12th of the 13 teams in the West. Winger Sergei Krivokrasov took care of the goals with a team-high 25 while center Cliff Ronning stood tall with 53 points. Over on the back end, Jamie Heward produced the most points from the blue line (18), while Tomas Vokoun allowed an average of 2.95 goals against; Mike Dunham recorded 16 of the team’s 28 wins.

Thrashers Bring Hockey Back to Atlanta

Deprived of a hockey team ever since the Flames moved to Calgary in 1980, the Thrashers brought the sport back to Atlanta ahead of the 1999-2000 season. The city’s newest franchise endured a rough start.

The Thrashers claimed defenseman Jamie Pushor in the expansion draft, and then shipped him to Dallas shortly thereafter. When the 1999 NHL Entry Draft came around, the club called upon Patrik Stefan with the first overall selection. On the ice, Stefan recorded 25 points in 72 contests while the team overall notched 39 points in 82 games. It was far from the way the franchise had hoped to kick off its return to the Georgia capital.

Columbus and Minnesota Join the NHL in 2000-01

The last of the NHL’s second larger wave of expansion came at the start of the new millennium. The new Minnesota Wild helped fill the void left by the relocated North Stars (to Dallas) and central Ohio got its first NHL franchise when the Blue Jackets came to Columbus.

Both teams followed the trend of previous new clubs by choosing goaltenders first in the expansion draft; the Blue Jackets plucked Rick Tabaracci from the Avalanche before the Wild nabbed Jamie McLennan from the St. Louis Blues. The NHL Entry Draft saw the freshman franchises go different routes as sniper Marian Gaborik became the Wild’s first-ever draft pick, followed by defenseman Rostislav Klesla in Columbus.

Though the two teams struggled to find success on the ice in their inaugural seasons, the Blue Jackets actually enjoyed a winning record on home ice; Columbus hockey fans watched their new hockey team rack up 19 of its 28 victories at Nationwide Arena. The Jackets finished 13th in the Western Conference while the Wild’s 25-39-13 record sat 14th.

Points were not only hard to come by on the ice for Minnesota but for the players on the scoresheet, as well. Gaborik, Wes Walz, and Darby Hendrickson’s 18 goals each led the team at the end of the year, as did winger Scott Pellerin’s 39 points.

In Columbus, offensive numbers were up slightly. Geoff Sanderson topped 30 goals and 56 points, while Jamie Heward was once again the highest-scoring blue-liner in Year 1 of an expansion franchise, with 27 points.

In 2009, the Blue Jackets became the final franchise from the NHL’s second expansion era to reach the Stanley Cup playoffs.

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