The most recent 50-goal scorer for every NHL franchise

Ducks history features a lot of Teemu Selanne in the top goal-scoring seasons, including two of the four 50-goal seasons ever managed by a Duck. Most recently, playing as part of a dynamic duo with Ryan Getzlaf, Perry got to 50 goals. In that 2010-11 season Perry led the NHL in goals, and somewhat surprisingly won the Hart Trophy as league MVP.

Pastrnak is never going to light the lamp like Phil Esposito, as it was a different era. However, “Pasta” has regularly been a 40-goal guy for the Bruins. Interestingly, the one time he got over 50 goals, he didn’t stop there. In the 2023-23 season, he got to 61 goals.

Two players, both future Hall of Famers, got over 50 goals in the 1992-93 season. Why are we shouting out Mogilny instead of Pat LaFontaine? LaFontaine scored 53 goals, which is impressive. Mogilny scored an impressive 76 goals, which is incredible.

In the ‘80s, 50-goal seasons were not rare for Flames. Or rare in the NHL in general. Iginla, though, played in a time when goal scoring wasn’t as easy to do. For example, Iginla once led the NHL in goals with 41. After things opened up a bit after the lockout-lost season, Iginla had a bit more freedom to score. He had 50 goals in the 2007-08 season, paving the way for him to be the franchise’s top goal scorer overall.

It’s a name that only ever comes up when talking about the best seasons in the history of the Hurricanes franchise. We stress “franchise,” because we’re going back to the days of the Hartford Whalers. Stoughton has the only two 50-goal seasons in the history of the franchise. That includes 52 goals in the 1981-82 season. Stoughton played eight seasons in the NHL and totaled 258 goals. That’s why he’s been forgotten, save for times like this.

That’s right, Patrick Kane never got to 50 goals. Roenick did a couple times back in the ‘90s. The 1992-93 season marked his second consecutive season reaching 50 goals with the Blackhawks. Eventually, he’d eke over 500 goals and make the Hall of Fame.

MacKinnon is a great player, a future Hall of Famer, and doomed to be in the shadow of Connor McDavid in his generation (McDavid, by the way, isn’t on this list). The heir apparent to Joe Sakic as the face of the Avalanche, MacKinnon won the Hart in the 2023-24 season in part due to his 51 goals. The other part? An incredible 89 assists.

Here we have the first of the teams without a 50-goal scorer. The Blue Jackets are one of the NHL’s newer clubs, having joined the league in the new millennium. Rick Nash was a good goal scorer. He had two 40-goal seasons. However, he never topped 41, and no current Blue Jacket feels like a 50-goal kind of guy.

Modano kicked off the era of the Dallas Stars with a bang. The 1993-94 campaign was the first for the franchise after the move from Minnesota down to Texas. Modano was already an established point producer, but this season he got to 50 goals. Interestingly, in the rest of his Hall of Fame career he never even got over 40 goals again.

Steve Yzerman used to put up 50 goals left and right, but under Scotty Bowman, he took on more of a defensive role. He still got points, but his 50-goal days were over. In 1993-94, though, Fedorov showed you could be a defensively stout Red Wing and still get goals. He lit the lamp 56 times that season, but also won the Selke as best defensive forward. Yes, unsurprisingly, he also won the Hart.

McDavid is no stranger to getting 50 goals, but he’s an elite playmaker as well. Draisaitl is an elite finisher. He has four 50-goal seasons to his name, which is rarified air these days. That includes leading the NHL with 52 goals in the 2024-25 campaign. It likely won’t be his last 50-goal season, either.

Pavel Bure has two of the three 50-goal seasons in Panthers history. He was one of the most-dynamic goal scorers in history, making the Hall of Fame in an abbreviated career. When Reinhart did it, though, nobody expected it. Once the second-overall pick of the Sabres, Reinhart was a 20-to-25 goal guy there. He was added as a complementary piece by the Panthers. His first two seasons, he was suddenly a 30-goal guy. Then, in the 2023-24 season, he came out of nowhere to score 57 goals.

Robitaille was a great goal scorer, but he also spent several seasons in Los Angeles skating with Wayne Gretzky. That’ll help, to be sure. Robitaille’s best season came in 1992-93, the season that saw the Kings lose in the Stanley Cup Finals. In what was an 84-game season, Robitaille scored 63 goals. That was his last 50-goal season, and also the last for the Kings.

The Wild, who joined the NHL the same time the Blue Jackets did, also don’t have a 50-goal scorer. They will have one soon enough, though. Kirill Kaprizov has lived up to all the hype. He has already reached 47 goals and then dropped to 46 goals. Kaprizov has had some issues staying healthy, but when he plays at least 75 games, he can clearly threaten 50 goals.

Maurice Richard was the first 50-goal scorer in NHL history. Guy Lafleur did it all the time. The last Canadien to do it, though, was…Stephane Richer? He’s no icon of the game, but Richer had 50 goals twice with Montreal, the more recent of those seasons coming in 1989-90. Then, he joined the trap-era Devils, where the fact that he once managed 38 goals practically made him prime Wayne Gretzky.

The Predators joined the NHL a couple of seasons before the Blue Jackets and Wild, but those couple of extra campaigns haven’t helped them roster a 50-goal scorer. That being said, they have a guy who could do it, because he’s been super close. In the 2023-24 season, Filip Forsberg got to 48 goals. Just a couple more, and he can make Nashville history.

That’s right. The Devils don’t have a 50-goal scorer. They aren’t some new franchise, either. The Devils, previously the Colorado Rockies and Kansas City Scouts, have been around for half a century. Brian Gionta had 48 goals in the 2005-06 season. Nobody else has gotten closer.

Mike Bossy rolled out of bed and scored 50 goals, but he’s not the only Islander to do it. Turgeon eked into the Hall of Fame, and his 1992-93 season is probably why. He scored a whopping 58 goals for the Islanders, and he added 74 assists as well.

Kreider was also one of those guys who were usually good for over 20 but under 30 goals for the Rangers. Then, suddenly, he exploded. Scoring 26 power-play goals in the 2021-22 season helped, to be sure. Kreider reached 52 goals, and then scored over 30 goals in each of the next two seasons. Now, though, he’s a veteran presence on the Ducks.

Heatley was a rising star for the Atlanta Thrashers, but after a tragic car accident that resulted in a fatality, he needed a change of scenery. He moved to the Senators and things worked out. In each of his first two seasons with Ottawa he scored 50 goals. The last of those seasons was the 2006-07 campaign. He then settled into being around a 40-goal guy but burnt out pretty quickly.

When you think of the ‘90s Flyers, or even the Legion of Doom line specifically, you think of Eric Lindros first. However, it was LeClair lighting the lamp for that team and for that trio. LeClair had three 50-goal seasons in a row. The last of those came in the 1997-98 campaign.

Malkin has been the Pippen to Sidney Crosby’s Jordan, but that’s not a bad role to be in. He’s got three rings and he’s going to the Hall of Fame. The 2011-12 season, though, was the one when Sidney Crosby was limited to 22 games. Malkin stepped up in a big way. He scored 50 goals, won the Art Ross, and also won the Hart.

In the 1993-94 season, the Blues had two 50-goal scorers. Brendan Shanahan, no slouch on the goal-scoring front, had 52 goals. Hull, one of the top goal scorers in NHL history, had 57. That’s one of the reasons why Hull is listed here. The other is that Hull had five 50-goal seasons with the Blues to Shanahan’s two.

The power of Joe Thornton. Thornton’s Hall of Fame resume needs no bolstering, but if you wanted to bolster it you could say, “Thornton got Jonathan Cheechoo 56 goals.” That’s not all that hyperbolic. Cheechoo, seeing a lot of time with Thornton at even-strength and on the power play, had 56 goals in the 2005-06 season. He retired with 170 goals. It is one of the most surprising seasons in NHL history.

No surprise here. The Kraken haven’t even been around for a decade. Jared McCann did get to 40 goals once, though. That’s also probably his ceiling, and the Kraken have yet to draft a high-level goal scorer of their own. The most goals by a Seattle draft pick in a season is 24 from Matty Beniers.

Steven Stamkos was a better goal scorer. Nikita Kucherov is a better player. Point’s time with the Lightning has seen him overshadowed, but clearly, he can deliver in his own right. He’s one of three Lightning players to get to 50 goals. In the 2022-23 season, he scored 51.

Matthews is going to go down as the best player in Maple Leafs history, so it is very funny he’s an American kid from Arizona. He’s working on rewriting the record books for Toronto when it comes to goal scoring. He has the only two 60-goal seasons in franchise history. That includes a staggering 69 goals in the 2023-24 campaign.

Technically, Mammoth history began with the 2024-25 season. Arizona Coyotes history was left to be picked up by any team that expands into, or relocates to, that state. Technically, they also have the original Winnipeg Jets history, but that has always felt a little silly. Just looking at Coyotes history, Keith Tkachuk scored 52 goals in the 1996-97 season.

We mentioned Bure earlier, and while Reinhart has scored 50 goals for the Panthers more recently, nobody has replaced him as the Canucks’ last 50-goal scorer. Bure had two 60-goal seasons with Vancouver, but most recently he had 51 goals in the 1997-98 campaign.

Vegas has had a lot of success for a recent expansion team. The Golden Knights have a Cup, something even the Predators don’t have. Nobody has gotten to 50 goals yet, though. William Karlsson scored 43 in the 2017-18 season, and that remains the top total for this team.

The NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer is, unsurprisingly, the last Capital to score 50 goals. He’s done it several times in his career. Most recently, Ovechkin had 50 goals in the 2021-22 season. That will likely be his last 50-goal season…but you never know. Well, until he retires, which will probably be pretty soon.

No current Jet has gotten to 50 goals. There are two ways to handle this “ish.” One, we go back to Atlanta Thrashers history. Ilya Kovalchuk had 52 goals twice, most recently in the 2007-08 season. If we go back to original Jets history, we can come full circle with the 1992-93 season, and to Teemu Selanne. That year, Selanne tied Mogilny with 76 goals.