In the last couple days, I tackled the NHL’s most “unbreakable” records as well as ones that are “off the beaten path.” To complete that leisurely triangle of numbers posts, I thought I’d look at some more attainable feats that could be accomplished during the 2010-11 season. Here is a look at some achievable milestones in the goals, assists and goalie stat categories.
(Hockey-reference.com was a huge help in putting this post together. Keep in mind these won’t always be full lists.)
1,500 Points
Mark Recchi needs 15.
1,000 Points
Three players are within striking distance: Daniel Alfredsson (8), Alex Kovalev (10) and Paul Kariya (11).
400 Goals
Jason Arnott needs 17, Alfredsson needs 25.
300 Goals
Dany Heatley needs 1, Joe Thornton needs 15.
200 Goals
Five players are within 10 goals of this milestone. In order of least goals needed: Pavel Datsyuk (2), Eric Staal (7), Brenden Morrow (7), Brad Richards (8) and Jason Blake (10).
100 Goals
Patrice Bergeron and Jay Pandolfo are within one. There are a lot of others who are just a few goals away.
600 Assists
Kariya needs 13, Kovalev needs 22.
500 Assists
Three players are within 10: Slava Kozlov (3), Marc Savard (9) and Arnott (10).
Goalies
602 wins, 110 shutouts
Martin Brodeur will attempt to pad his all-time lead in wins and shutouts this season.
The active goalies with the next closest shutout totals are Roberto Luongo (51) and Chris Osgood (50).
1,100 games played
Martin Brodeur needs 24 to increase his all-time games played lead (1,076) over Patrick Roy (1,029).
Nikolai Khabibulin needs 4 GP to hit 700; Tomas Vokoun needs 25 to reach 600; J.S. Giguere needs 8 for 500.
400 wins
Osgood needs 4.
300 wins
Evgeni Nabokov finished his career seven wins short of this milestone.
40 shutouts
Vokoun needs 2
30 shutouts
Jose Theodore needs 1
20 shutouts
Niklas Backstrom needs 1
So, overall, this could be a pretty big year of milestones for Mark Recchi, Chris Osgood, Pavel Datsyuk, Paul Kariya and Alex Kovalev. Numbers like these really put careers in perspective, particularly how peerless Martin Brodeur really has been – at least quantity wise.