Penguins captain Sidney Crosby ties NHL record with 19th point-per-game season
Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby clinched his 19th consecutive point-per-game season on Monday with a three-point outing against the New York Rangers.
Crosby tallied twice and added an assist as the Penguins defeated the Rangers by a 5-2 final score at Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan.
The 36-year-old center now has 82 points (37 goals, 45 assists) in 74 games this season, meaning that he’s guaranteed to finish the year at or above a point-per-game scoring pace.
Since arriving in the NHL in time for the 2005-06 season, Crosby has never finished a single campaign without scoring at least one point for every game he’s played. In hitting that mark yet again on Monday night, Crosby tied none other than Wayne Gretzky for the most point-per-game seasons by one player in the NHL.
Players with 19-consecutive point-per-game seasons in NHL history:
•Wayne Gretzky
•Sidney Crosby
That's it. That's the list. pic.twitter.com/Tm6VDW0KTt
Like Crosby, Gretzky scored at a point-per-game pace or better in each of his first 19 NHL seasons. He finally finished below that threshold in his 20th and final year in the NHL, collecting nine goals and 62 points in 70 games with the New York Rangers in 1998-99.
Crosby is under contract with the Penguins through the end of next season and isn’t expected to call it a career anytime soon, meaning he could potentially break Gretzky’s record by a significant amount before he finally hangs up his skates.
Through his 19 NHL seasons, Crosby has never come all that close to finishing below a point-per-game pace. His least productive season to date was 2015-16, when he amassed 85 points in 80 games (1.06 P/GP) … before winning the Stanley Cup later that year.
The Penguins originally selected Crosby with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 NHL Draft. The Cole Harbour, NS product has won the Stanley Cup three times in his career (2009, 2016, 2017) and has twice won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s most valuable player.
Through 1,264 career games over his 19 seasons with the Penguins, Crosby has collected 587 goals and 1,584 points. He’s added 71 goals and 201 points in 180 playoff contests.
The Penguins moved within five points of the second wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with their win over the Rangers on Monday night.