As Patrick Kane sits one goal away from 300 in his career, a lot of Blackhawks scoring lists have been popping up. Many fans and analysts feel that Kane will go down as the greatest Blackhawks player ever, but he might not even end up holding any major team scoring records.
It’s not a prerequisite that a GOAT must have these records but proves how unfair it is to compare different eras when discussing statistics. With that, it is fun to look at the ridiculous scoring numbers put up from the late 60s through the 80s.
If you haven’t seen any of the lists, eleven years into his career Kane is 305 goals behind the team’s all-time leader Bobby Hull (604). A number that only took The Golden Jet 15 seasons to reach with the Blackhawks. That’s an average of 40 goals per season for Hull compared to Kane’s average of just over 29.
Kane’s body of work is quite impressive but don’t forget about the 303 WHA goals Hull scored. Between the NHL and WHA he netted 913 goals in 23 professional hockey seasons. While Kane will never come close to that kind of total, it just proves how much different the game was back then.
He may not catch Hull in goals but he can probably catch up to Stan Mikita in assists and points…correct?
Not so fast. Kane does have a slightly better chance at catching Mikita. Stosh amassed 926 assists in 22 seasons and Kane is more than halfway there through 10+ seasons. As one of the best facilitators in the NHL, he is fast approaching the 500 assists milestone with 487 in his career. If he ever had a consistent center to play with he would most likely have a lot more.
Mikita’s team points record of 1,467 is no sure thing either and is still the 14th best total in NHL history. To put that in perspective, only one active player has more than that (Jagr 1,921) and the next closest active player Patrick Marleau (1,101) is more than 350 points away.
At first glance you would say, “Sure. He can break those records” but Hull and Mikita were putting up bigger numbers in the prime of their careers and didn’t taper off much near the end.
Patrick Kane would have to continue at this pace for approximately eleven more seasons just to catch The Golden Jet and Stosh’s Blackhawks records. There are so many variables that could impact his career trajectory. Age, injury and if Kane will even be with the organization that long are a few.
When your grandfather tells you how much better Hull was than Kane you can turn the tables on him and say, “Times were different, grandpa.”
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