Every year records are broken in sports and players set personal bests and achieve personal milestones, and this year in the NHL we’ve already seen some incredible things happen just a quarter of the way into the season, and there’s still plenty more where that came from.
Marc Andre-Fleury has accomplished a lot during his career but there’s still some more incredible milestones that he can hit and achievements he can add to his already-impressive resume, and there’s a chance he can hit some of them in the next few games.
Three of the milestones on this list belong to Fleury as the 3-time Stanley Cup champion is just three games away from suiting up in 900 career games (744 of those being starts), is just three wins away from becoming just the third goalie in NHL history from joining the 500-win club, and is two shutouts away from 70 career shutouts, something only 13 goalies have accomplished to date.
This past weekend, Jason Spezza suited up for his 1,200th career game, and in a few weeks his former teammate Joe Thornton is going to celebrate a milestone of his own as he’ll become just the 6th player in NHL history to suit up for 1,700 games or more.
And quite possible around the same time another one of Thornton’s former teammates will be celebrating a massive milestone, as Brent Burns is less than 10 games away from his 1,200th career NHL game.
We're also going to see two more players join the 1,000-games club in just a few more games as both Blake Wheeler and Loui Eriksson, yes, Loui Eriksson, are just two games away from their 1,000th career game heading into Wednesday's games.
Phil the Thrill is chasing down the NHL’s Ironman Streak but he’ll most likely set a different milestone before that one as he’s just six goals away from 400 career goals as of Wednesday night, and even though Arizona has had its scoring troubles this season there’s a good chance Kessel pots six more before the season’s over.
Patrick Kane is a point machine so we’re almost a little shocked he hasn’t hit this feat just yet, but it’s only a matter of time until he does. As of Wednesday night Kane has 696 career assists to his name in 1,046 games, so it’s only a matter of time until he hits 700.
It feels like Steven Stamkos has dealt with more injuries than any other star in the NHL over the past few years but that hasn’t stopped him from producing like one of the league’s best players. In 861 career games Stamkos has 890 points, putting him just 10 back of the 900-point club.
