The highlight of the 1996–97

St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the s ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

was, after losing

Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...

the Blues were in turmoil as an ugly public feud between

Brett Hull Brett Andrew Hull (born August 9, 1964) is a Canadian–American former ice hockey player and general manager, and currently an executive vice president of the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). He played for the Calgary Flames, ...

and coach Mike Keenan developed. This was the last season until early 2009, that a huge Blue note would appear at center ice.

Offseason

After losing captain Wayne Gretzky to free-agency, the Blues were in turmoil as an ugly public feud between

and Coach Mike Keenan developed, as the Blues got off to a slow start. On December 19 the Keenan era would come to a sudden end as he is fired as GM and Coach. Eventually he would be replaced by assistant coach Jim Roberts. Roberts' stint as interim head coach lasted nine games, as the team would hire

Colorado Avalanche The Colorado Avalanche (colloquially known as the Avs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The Avalanche play thei ...

assistant coach

Joel Quenneville Joel Norman Quenneville (born September 15, 1958) is a Canadian–American ice hockey coach and former player in the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "Coach Q", he is second in NHL coaching wins at 969 behind Scotty Bowman. Quenneville ac ...

to serve as the team's head coach. The change worked with Quenneville behind the bench as the Blues recovered and made the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

for the 18th straight season with a 36–35–11 record. However, once again the Blues would make a quick exit in the playoffs as they are beaten by the

Detroit Red Wings The Detroit Red Wings (colloquially referred to as the Wings) are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit. The Red Wings compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the East ...

in 6 games.

Regular season

Final standings

Schedule and results

Playoffs

The Blues lost 4 games to 2 to the

in the first round.

Player statistics

Regular season

;Scoring ;Goaltending

Playoffs

;Scoring ;Goaltending

Draft picks

St. Louis's draft picks at the

1996 NHL Entry Draft The 1996 NHL Entry Draft was the 34th NHL Entry Draft. It was held at the Kiel Center in St. Louis, Missouri, on June 22, 1996. The last active player in the NHL from this draft class was Zdeno Chára, who retired after the 2021–22 season. ...

held at the

Kiel Center Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

References

Blues on Hockey Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:1996-97 St. Louis Blues Season S S St. Louis Blues seasons St St

Offseason

Regular season

Final standings

Schedule and results

Playoffs

Player statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

Draft picks

See also

References