50 Goal Scorers You Haven't Heard Of

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 Earth^TM – was blown away by Alexander Ovechkin's 700^th 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 7^th 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.