- Brent Burns needs 58 straight games to break Phil Kessel’s iron man record of 1,064
- Alex Ovechkin sits 71 goals from 1,000 and 26 points from passing Mario Lemieux
- Read below for every NHL milestone in play this season
An 84-game schedule gives this year’s chases a little more runway, and Pro Hockey Rumors ran through the ones worth tracking on Monday. One of them is close enough to circle on a calendar.
Brent Burns opens the year at 1,007 consecutive games. He needs 58 more to pass Phil Kessel’s record of 1,064, a number that projects to fall in late January if he stays in the lineup. Burns re-signed in Colorado for a 23rd season with that specific record in mind.
The 41-year-old blueliner hasn’t missed a game since 2013. Colorado honored him for his 1,000th straight appearance back in April, and Kessel himself recorded a video message for the ceremony. Take a look:
Alex Ovechkin comes into his 22nd season with 929 goals. He’ll clear 950 early and sits 71 away from 1,000, which is roughly two more years at his recent rate. He’s also 26 points from passing Mario Lemieux for ninth on the all-time scoring list and will hit game No. 1,600 along the way.
Ovechkin’s scoring pace is still the bar everyone else gets measured against. Through 689 games he had 427 goals, and Auston Matthews has 428 through the same number:
Sidney Crosby has 1,107 assists, two behind Joe Thornton for seventh all-time. Paul Coffey, Jaromir Jagr and Ray Bourque all sit within a healthy season of him, which would drop Crosby into fourth. We broke down the rest of his climb earlier this month.
Evgeni Malkin needs 26 assists for 900 in what has been widely reported as his last NHL season. Pittsburgh brought him back in May on a one-year deal:
Connor McDavid enters at 1,220 points in 794 games and should cross 1,300 around midseason. Nobody in league history has reached those totals in that few games.
Plenty of others are within striking distance of a round number:
- Sergei Bobrovsky: 456 wins, three from passing Henrik Lundqvist for sixth
- Patrick Kane: 1,400 points, with Malkin, Dale Hawerchuk and Doug Gilmour all in range
- John Tavares: 1,185 points and 525 goals, chasing 1,200 and 550
- Connor Hellebuyck: 345 wins, five from 350 in only 625 games
- William Nylander: 399 assists, one from 400
- Jack Eichel: 698 points, two from 700
- Jamie Benn: 992 points, eight from 1,000 and all of them in Dallas
- Ryan O’Reilly: 898 points, two from 900
- Nico Hischier: 199 goals, one from 200
- Matt Duchene and Claude Giroux: 387 and 379 goals, both hunting 400
Nylander, Eichel, O’Reilly and Hischier could all knock theirs out on opening night. Burns is the one that takes until January.
