Putting the puck into the net repeatedly over the course of an 82 game NHL season isn’t all that easy a thing to do.
Odds are, the notion that achieving the ultimate goal in the most competitive league in the world isn’t exactly some sort of profound revelation. But we live in an era where we have guys like Alexander Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos and Sidney Crosby racking up all sorts of gaudy totals, so it can be it’s easy to lose perspective on what being an “elite goal scorer” actually entails in the grand scheme of things.
When Jarome Iginla hit the 30-goal plateau for seemingly the bazillionth time two weeks ago, I wondered how to take that piece of news. “What does that actually mean, though? Is that an impressive feat?”
Have a look for yourself. (Note: The 48-game 2012-13 schedule standard was prorated to 18 goals.)
Obviously there are a few things that should quickly come to mind when scanning this chart.
First off, applying such a cutoff is a pretty arbitrary thing to do; there are always a bunch of players that finish with something like 28 or 29 of them in any given season. Does that mean that those guys should be just glossed over because of it? Definitely not. But as a society, we really seem to like round numbers, and that makes a project like this infinitely easier.
There’s also the fact that the 2013-14 season isn't on the list, because there’s still a couple days worth of games to be played. There are only 18 guys with 30+ goals at this point, but at least 10-15 guys are knocking on the door and could conceivably get there by Sunday. Unless something crazy happens, though, we’ll once again end up with another year of fewer than 30 guys reaching the mark.
Here’s some additional perspective: as of Thursday morning, there are 693 different players that have scored a goal this season. Exactly 250 players have managed to reach double figures. Very few of those guys can actually lay claim to having hit the heights we’re speaking of here.
Now, with that being said, there are generally at least a couple names that stick out like a sore thumb; guys that play vastly over their heads, reaping the rewards of a massive, uncharacteristic spike in shooting percentage, before falling back down to earth the next season. In 2011-12 we had David Clarkson and Milan Michalek. The year before we had Drew Stafford, Michael Grabner, and Nikolai Kulemin. And before that there was Jussi Jokinen and Mikael Samuelsson. But that shouldn’t denigrate the 30-goal accomplishment, particularly in today’s version of the league.
There will always be outliers. Accounting for that, here’s a list of the most consistently elite goal scorers in this league since the 2004-05 lockout:
I’ve heard of these guys — they’re the best of the best. There aren’t many surprises here. While it was Iginla that prompted the investigation investigate, his isn't the name on this list that caught my eye the most. No, that honor goes to Patrick Marleau, enjoying another fantastic campaign. Going even further into his numbers, there’s only one season (‘07-’08) in which he didn’t score at a 28 goal/82 game pace.
Yet despite excellence that puts him right up there with the best of his peers, he’ll continue to be irrationally picked on for things that are both unfair, and out of his own personal control.
But I digress. The next time you hear someone casually throw out that someone could be a 30-goal scorer, remind them that it’s nothing to take for granted.
Dimitri Filipovic is the managing editor of Canucks Army, a Sporting News partner. Follow him on Twitter: @DimFilipovic.