Gregor: Draisaitl in all-time great company with another 50-goal, 100-point season

We have celebrated 50 goals and 100 points for years in the NHL. Any player who reached either milestone is in good company, but Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl joined a particularly exclusive club last night.

Before we get to Draisaitl’s accomplishment, let’s take a quick look at the 50-goal club and the 100-point club.

50-Goal Club

Maurice ‘Rocket’ Richard was the first NHL player to score 50. He got 50 goals in 50 games in 1944-45. The NHL only played 50 games that season, and Richard’s brilliance created the new standard for goal scorers. Many years later, scoring 50 goals is still a major achievement.

It took 16 seasons before someone else joined Richard in the elusive 50-goal club. Bernie Geoffrion scored 50 in 1960-61, and then Bobby Hull scored 50 in 1961-62, 54 in 1965-66, 52 in 1966-67 and 58 in 1968-69. During the 1970s, the league exploded with 50-goal scorers.

The 1970s saw 18 new players, and Hull, score 50 goals, and the 50-goal club grew significantly during the 1980s and 1990s as well. Phil Esposito scored 76 goals in 1970-71, while Brett Hull (86) and Mario Lemieux (85) topped 80 goals, but only Wayne Gretzky has scored more. He buried 92 goals in 1981-82. I don’t see anyone breaking that record.

The 1970s, ’80s and ’90s produced many 50-goal scorers but, since the turn of the century, hitting that number has become much more difficult.

On March 29, Toronto’s Auston Matthews became the 16^th player to score 50 goals in a season since 2000. Chris Kreider has a realistic chance to make it 17, while Kyle Connor, Connor McDavid and Kirill Kaprizov have outside chances to do it. Even if all four do it (which is unlikely), that would still only be 20 players in 22 years. Alex Ovechkin needs eight goals to reach 50 for a record-tying ninth time in his career.

Scoring 50 goals in a season will always be celebrated and appreciated. Last week Matthews became the 93^rd player in NHL history to do it.

50-GOAL SCORERS, MULTIPLE SEASONS

2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Glenn Anderson	Jaromir Jagr	Michel Goulet	Pavel Bure	Marcel Dionne	None	Alex Ovechkin	Mike Bossy
Dave Andreychuk	John Leclair	Tim Kerr	Phil Esposito	Guy Lafleur			Wayne Gretzky
Peter Bondra	Cam Neely	Jari Kurri	Bobby Hull	Mario Lemieux
Dino Ciccarelli	Luc Robitaille		Brett Hull
Leon Draisaitl	Teemu Selanne		Steve Yzerman
Dany Heatley	Rick Vaive
Danny Gare
Jarome Iginla
Ilya Kovalchuk
Pat Lafontaine
Pierre Larouche
Reggie Leach
Rick Martin
Denis Maruk
Alex Mogilny
Joe Nieuwendyk
Mickey Redmond
Stephane Richer
Jeremy Roenick
Joe Sakic
Brendan Shanahan
Charlie Simmer
Steven Stamkos
Kevin Stevens
Blaine Stoughton
Keith Tkachuk

100-Point Club

While Richard set the 50-goal standard in 1945, the NHL had to wait 25 more years before someone scored 100 points. Phil Esposito was the first 100-point man in NHL history, and he finished the 1968-69 season with a whopping 126. The previous high was 97 points by Bobby Hull (1965-66) and Stan Makita (1966-67). Hull (107 points) and Gordie Howe (103) also scored 100 points in the 1968-69 season, and that spurred a new standard of point production in the NHL.

In 1970-71 Esposito amassed an incredible 152 points, while his Boston Bruins teammate, Bobby Orr, set the NHL record for points by a defenseman with 139. Orr’s record still stands today. Paul Coffey tallied 138 in 1985-86, and Orr and Coffey each have five of the top 10 single-season point totals for blueliners.

Nashville Predators D-man Roman Josi needs 19 points in his final 14 games to become the sixth at his position to score 100 points in a season. That seems far-fetched, but he scored 26 points in his previous 14 games, so he might do it. If he reaches 90 points he’d join Orr, Coffey, Al MacInnis (103), Brian Leetch (102), Denis Potvin (101), Phil Housley (97), Ray Bourque (96) and Gary Suter (91) as the only D-men to score 90 points in one campaign.

Esposito’s 76 goals and 152 points remained the NHL high until Gretzky shattered them with 92 goals and 212 points in 1981-82. Gretzky scored 215 points four years later to set another record that won’t be broken.

The 100-point club has a few more members than the 50-goal club. Currently 111 players have hit the century mark in a season. Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau (97) and Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau (92) should join the club this season. Matthews (88) and Kaprizov (85) could also reach 100.

Fifty-three years after Esposito broke the 100-point barrier, offensive stars have been trying to match it.

100-POINT SCORERS, MULTIPLE SEASONS

Pavel Bure

Glenn Anderson

Bernie Federko

Paul Coffey

Sidney Crosby

Mike Bossy

Marcel Dionne

None

Mario Lemieux

None

Wayne Gretzky

Jimmy Carson

Bobby Clarke

Michel Goulet

Jaromir Jagr

Phil Esposito

Peter Stastny

Dino Ciccarelli

Leon Draisaitl

Brett Hull

Connor McDavid

Dale Hawerchuk

Sergei Federov

Ron Francis

Adam Oates

Denis Savard

Jari Kurri

Theo Fleury

Doug Gilmour

Alex Ovechkin

Guy Lafleur

Peter Forsberg

Evgeni Malkin

Luc Robitaille

Mark Messier

Dany Heatley

Bernie Nicholls

Teemu Selanne

Bobby Orr

Ken Hodge

Mark Recchi

Joe Sakic

Patrick Kane

Jeremy Roenick

Bryan Trottier

Paul Kariya

Mike Rogers

Steve Yzerman

Nikita Kucherov

Joe Thornton

Pat Lafontaine

Peter Mahovlich

Rick Middleton

Alex Mogilny

Kent Nilsson

Barry Pederson

Gilbert Perreault

Jean Ratelle

Charlie Simmer

Darryl Sittler

Kevin Stevens

Dave Taylor

Pierre Turgeon

The Most Exclusive Club…

It is amazing for any player to score 50 goals or 100 points, but the rarest of players manage to score 50 goals and 100 points in the same season. Draisaitl achieved both Sunday night in Anaheim. And it was the second time in his career he’s done it. In 2018-19 he scored 50 goals and 105 points, and in 2020 he was on pace to do it again before COVID-19 cancelled the final month of the regular season. Draisaitl had 43 goals and 110 points in 71 games before the league shut down.

The 50-goal/100 point-club is the most exclusive. It has only 55 members, and Draisaitl is one of 24 who did it twice in their careers.

50 GOALS & 100 POINTS, MULTIPLE SEASONS

2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Pavel Bure	Michel Goulet	Brett Hull	Phil Esposito	Marcel Dionne	Mike Bossy	None	Wayne Gretzky
Dino Ciccarelli	Jaromir Jagr	Jari Kurri	Steve Yzerman	Guy Lafleur
Leon Draisaitl	Luc Robitaille	Alex Ovechkin		Mario Lemieux
Dany Heatley
Pat Lafontaine
Alex Mogilny
Jeremy Roenick
Joe Sakic
Teemu Selanne
Charlie Simmer
Kevin Stevens

Draisaitl and Ovechkin are the only active players to have achieved this feat twice. If Draisaitl does it one more time, he punches his ticket to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Twelve of the 13 players who did it three times are already in the Hall and Ovechkin is a lock to get in.

Draisaitl won the 2019-20 Hart trophy, the Art Ross and the Ted Lindsay Award, but he often gets overshadowed by McDavid. Despite him winning all three trophies, I’d argue many underappreciate how good Draisaitl is. If he isn’t the best backhand passer in the NHL, he is easily top-three. Over the past four seasons, he has 174 goals, and only Matthews’ 176 are more, yet when people mention the best goal-scorers in the game they rarely mention Draisaitl. He’s neck-and-neck with Matthews in the Rocket Richard race right now. Draisaitl has 12 goals and 22 points in his current 12-game point streak. Matthews has 14 goals and 20 points in his current 12-game point streak. (He was suspended for two games, so it isn’t technically consecutive Leafs games, but it is his last 12 games).

Draisaitl doesn’t have the same snapshot as Matthews, but Draisaitl scores more one-timers and often from sharp angles. He has excellent hands, and he needs one power-play goal to break Gretzky and Ryan Smyth’s Oilers franchise single-season record for most power-play goals. Draisaitl has tied them with 20.

What makes Draisaitl’s two 50-goal/100-point seasons more impressive is that he and Ovechkin are the only two to have done it twice in the past 26 years. It is a rare feat. McDavid has a chance to do it for the first time if he can maintain his current hot streak. He has 11 goals and 26 points in his 13-game point streak. Could he score 10 goals in his final 12 games for his first 50/100 seaon?

Here is a comparison of 50-goal seasons, 100-point campaigns and 50 goal/100 points seasons, how many players are in each group and have many total times the mark has been reached.

Seasons	# of Players	Total Times Done
100 Points	111	285
50 Goals	93	198
50G/100PTS	55	118

The latter is the most difficult of the three, no question, and what is even more unique is that Draisaitl is the first German player in all three categories. The ‘Deutschland Dangler’ should be mentioned when people are discussing the top players and top goal scorers in today’s game, and maybe even all-time.