2001–02 NHL season

Did You Know?

• The cash-strapped Pittsburgh Penguins traded Jaromir Jagr and Frantisek Kucera to the Washington Capitals for Kris Beech, Ross Lupaschuk, Michal Sivek, and $4.9 million.
• The 2001 NHL entry draft was held on June 23 and 24, 2001 at the National Car Rental Center in Sunrise, Florida; Ilya Kovalchuk was selected first overall by the Atlanta Thrashers.
• The Dallas Stars moved from Reunion Arena to the American Airlines Center, and the San Jose Sharks' home arena was renamed the Compaq Center.

Uniform changes

The Buffalo Sabres, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, wore jerseys reading "New York" on the front during their October 7 game at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers, as both teams play in the state of New York. The Colorado Avalanche introduced a third jersey with a burgundy base and the word "Colorado" slanted across the front. The Los Angeles Kings wore two patches: an All-Star Game patch on the upper right chest, as the Kings hosted the 2002 All-Star Game, and a patch with the letters "AM" on the upper left chest for director of scouting Garnet "Ace" Bailey and scout Mark Bavis, killed aboard United Airlines Flight 175 in the September 11 attacks.

The New York Rangers wore ribbons on their uniforms in memory of the victims of the September 11 attacks; in their October 7 game against the Sabres, both teams wore "New York" on their jerseys, a return for the Rangers to the blue jerseys they wore from 1978 to 1987. The Philadelphia Flyers retired their orange jersey, wearing black on the road full time, but wore orange once on Halloween night, shutting out the Pittsburgh Penguins 3–0; they also wore three special patches at the bottom of the back of the jersey—"FDNY," the American flag, and "NYPD"—which were auctioned after the game to benefit the NHL's Twin Towers fund. The San Jose Sharks introduced a new black alternate jersey with minimal striping and downplaying the use of teal.

Regular season

The All-Star Game was played on February 2, 2002, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the last NHL All-Star Game to use the North America vs. World format. The league took a break from February 14 to February 25 for the men's ice hockey tournament at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. During a March 16 game at Nationwide Arena, 13-year-old fan Brittanie Cecil was struck in the head by a deflected puck and died two days later, leading the NHL to mandate protective nets above the glass behind both goals the following season. For the second time in three seasons, no player reached 100 points, and for the first time since 1980 the Art Ross Trophy was not won by Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, or Jaromir Jagr; Jarome Iginla won with 96 points.

Playoffs

The playoffs began with the top eight teams from each conference, where division winners claimed the first three seeds based on their regular season records, and the remaining five teams took seeds four through eight. Every series was a best-of-seven played in a 2–2–1–1–1 format, with the higher seed hosting games one, two, five, and seven. Instead of a fixed bracket, the NHL re-seeded after each of the first three rounds, matching the highest remaining seed against the lowest, the second-highest against the second-lowest, and so on. The higher seed in each matchup earned home ice. The two conference champions then met in the Stanley Cup Finals, where home ice went to the team with the better regular season record.

Broadcasting

This marked the last season of the NHL's Canadian TV agreements with CBC and Sportsnet. CBC handled Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada games during the regular season, while Sportsnet broadcast Tuesday Night Hockey and other weekday matchups. For the playoffs, CBC carried most of the coverage, with Sportsnet showing only first-round series featuring two U.S. teams. After this season, the league signed a new multi-year contract with TSN, a competitor to Sportsnet.

In the United States, this was the third year of a five-year national deal with ESPN and ABC. ESPN and ESPN2 aired regular season games on weeknights, while ABC broadcast the All-Star Game and five weeks of regional Saturday afternoon games in January and March. During the first two playoff rounds, ESPN and ESPN2 showed selected games, and ABC had regional Saturday telecasts. ABC's weekend broadcasts continued through the Conference Finals, with ESPN airing the rest of the third round.

ESPN then televised the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals, with ABC taking over for the remainder of the series.