Crosby carves out place in history
Sidney Crosby isn’t 30, and yet he has reached the hallowed mark of 1,000 NHL points. The playmaking Pittsburgh Penguins center arrived at the four-digit point plateau last week during an overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets. He had a goal and two assists that night to give him 1,002 points and since has added another point.
Crosby is the eighth active player with 1,000 points, joining ageless wonder Jaromir Jagr (Florida Panthers), Jarome Iginla (Colorado Avalanche), Joe Thornton (San Jose Sharks), Henrik Sedin (Vancouver Canucks), Patrick Marleau (Sharks), Marian Hossa (Chicago Blackhawks) and Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals). At 29, Crosby is the youngest on the list, and the 11th-fastest player in history to hit the milestone.
Wayne Gretzky’s unbreakable record of 2,857 points is out of the question for the Penguins captain, but what could he realistically reach?
After getting a goal Sunday against the Detroit Red Wings, Crosby has 1,003 points in 759 games over 111⁄ seasons.
Crosby, though, has a history of head injuries — he missed big chunks of the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, plus the first six games this season — and who knows how many more he could suffer? He has never suited up for all 82 games in a season. He has played in 80 or more games on four occasions and in 70 or more in three other seasons.
The 2005 No. 1 overall pick appeared in 55 or fewer games during his other seasons.
At a rounded average of 64 games per season heading into the 2016-17 campaign and an average of 85 points during that stretch, we can begin to figure out how many points Crosby has a reasonable chance of reaching, barring catastrophic injury.
If he plays 10 more seasons — including the rest of this one — at those averages, Crosby would end up at 1,793 points. As a playmaker, even as he slows down in his late 30s, he should be able to rack up helpers. Just look at Thornton, who continues to be an assist machine at 37.
A total of 1,793 points would place Crosby at No. 6 on the list, just in front of legends Mario Lemieux (1,723), Steve Yzerman (1,755) and Marcel Dionne (1,771) and right behind Ron Francis (1,798).
Crosby also would be within striking distance of Jagr’s No. 2 spot, assuming Father Time catches up to the 45-year-old Panthers star at some point soon.
If we use Crosby’s point-per-game average of 1.32 factoring in this season and extrapolate those numbers over the 24 remaining games this year and an unrealistic 82 games per campaign over 10 more years, that would add 1,114 points to his current total, giving him 2,117 career points. That’s still short of Gretzky’s mark.
Let’s say Crosby plays 10 more seasons at a more realistic average of 55 games per season (bringing him down from his career average of 64 because of age) at an average of one point per game. That would net him 550 more points, in addition to whatever point total season he ends this season with — we’ll peg that at 1,033, based on his season rate of scoring of 1.25 points per game.
That would bring Crosby’s career total in the year 2027 to 1,583. Using today’s leaderboard, he would fall at No. 11, between Phil Esposito and Ray Bourque.
Love him or hate him, the twotime Olympic gold medalist is destined to go down in the annals of hockey history. But, as always, The Great One’s record will be untouched.