You don't know what
you've got 'til it's gone. That phrase could apply to many things
these days: movies, restaurants, public parks. But one of the things
I'm missing most right now is hockey. It seems incredulous to me that
after most teams have played 70 of their 82 games, after all those
players put in that hard work, that (probably) nobody is going to be
raising the Stanley Cup above their heads this year. This also means
that I won't be able to do an all-time team for the champions this
year because there won't be any champions. So today I'm going to do
something a little different.
Everybody – and by
everybody I mean everybody who cares about the Coolest Game on
EarthTM – was blown away by Alexander Ovechkin's 700th
goal this year and everybody was talking about how amazing
goal-scorers are. Scoring 50 goals in one season is one of hockey's
most celebrated individual feats. In the NHL it's been done 186 times
by 91 different players. This elite group includes players we're all
familiar with like Maurice Richard, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux just
to name a few. But what about the guys who aren't known so well?
Today I'm going to spotlight some 50-goal scorers you may not have
heard of before.
Mickey Redmond
(Detroit Red Wings, 1972-73, 1973-74)
After winning the
Stanley Cup twice with the Montreal Canadiens in 1968 and 1969 Mickey
Redmond was traded to the Detroit Red Wings midway through the
1970-71 season. Playing on a line with the great Alex Delvecchio, he
scored 41 goals in his first full season with the team. With support
from Delvecchio and later a young Marcel Dionne, Redmond recorded two
consecutive seasons of 50 goals (52 and 51). So how come this
high-scoring all-star isn't mentioned these days? The first reason is
that Redmond suffered a back injury that cut his 1974-75 season short
at 29 games. The year after that he could only manage 37 before
having to retire. The second reason might be that he was on the
Detroit Red Wings during the “Detroit Dead Things” era. Detroit
only made the playoffs twice between 1967 and 1983 and so the rest of
the hockey world didn't care much about what was going on in
Hockeytown. And the third reason was simply that there was more
impressive talent out there dominating the headlines such as Bobby
Orr, Phil Esposito, Frank Mahovlich, and Bobby Clarke. Tough break,
kid.
Danny Grant (Detroit
Red Wings, 1974-75)
Danny Grant also won
the Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1968 before he was traded to
the Minnesota North Stars the next season. He was a capable passer
and scorer for that franchise (3x30 goals) for six seasons before
being unexpectedly traded away to the Red Wings. This quickly proved
to be a bad deal for Minnesota as Grant scored 50 goals in his first
year in Motor City (like Redmond before him Grant also had Marcel
Dionne as a linemate). Unfortunately Grant was plagued by injuries
for the rest of his career. Unable to play more than 42 games a year
he retired from the NHL in 1979.
Jacques Richard
(Quebec Nordiques, 1980-81)
Now this guy is what
you call a one-hit wonder. Jacques Richard was a very promising left
winger who turned a lot of heads in the minor leagues but also led a
very troubled lifestyle. He was big into drinking and gambling and he got into plenty of bar fights. Richard also had a lousy work ethic,
squandering his potential over a mediocre professional career, only
once scoring more than 40 points. That is, until his eighth season in
1980-81 when he exploded for 52 goals and 51 assists! Perhaps it was
his return to his hometown of Quebec City that spurred him into
netting the 7th most goals that year. Whatever the reason,
he went right back to being the same old middling forward again,
retiring in 1983. One third of all his NHL goals were produced in
that one season.
Hakan Loob (Calgary
Flames, 1987-88)
If you're not a Calgary
Flames fan you probably just said “Hakan who?” That's OK, I'd
never heard of him either until I started researching for this
article. Hakan Loob was a right winger who spent six seasons in
Calgary and he was actually pretty good, scoring 30 or more goals
four times and 70 or more points three times. He became the first
Swedish NHLer to score 50 goals in 1987-88, but in 1989 he announced
that he was returning to Sweden to raise his kids there. Fair enough.
At least he had the decency to win his team the Stanley Cup just
before leaving.
My guess as to why
nobody remembers Loob is because it was the 1980's, back when
torrents of goals were being scored left, right, and centre. In
1987-88 alone there were eight players
who lit the lamp 50 times – and Loob wasn't even the only
Flames player among them! And what chance does the legacy of a guy
with a short NHL career and a silly name have against that of Joe
Nieuwendyk's?
Jonathan Cheechoo
(San Jose Sharks, 2005-06)
Sure, I know who
Jonathan Cheechoo is, but the article is called “50 Goal Scorers
You Haven't Heard Of”. This isn't about me, we're talking
about you. And if you didn't follow hockey in the mid-2000's then you
can be forgiven for not knowing who Jonathan Cheechoo is. After a few
years in the minor leagues, Cheechoo was called up to buoy the
struggling Sharks in 2002. He put up modest numbers until he was
eventually paired up with some talented linemates including Mike
Ricci and later the mighty Joe Thornton. The ingredients were in
place for Cheechoo to break out into a league-leading 56-goal
campaign in 2005-06. The following season he netted a respectable 37
goals but his totals regressed each year to 23, then 12, and finally
just 5. After 2010 he spent the rest of his career in the minor
leagues. And just like Jacques Richard, one third of Cheechoo's NHL
goals came from just that one season.
