I've started to wonder over the last couple of weeks whether we've seen the last of Joe Sakic in an NHL uniform. I wouldn't consider him under-rated by any means, but I do think a lot of casual NHL fans may not realize just how good this guy was. When I recently put his career statistics alongside those of other NHL greats the results were surprising even to me.
Joe is 8th all-time in career points, notching more than Jaromir Jagr, Phil Esposito or Stan Mikita. It's doubtful that he'll overtake Mario Lemieux for 7th even if he plays another season, as he sits nearly 100 points behind Super Mario. He has more points than any active player. In fact the closest active player (Mark Recchi) is trailing Sakic by nearly 250 points! He's scored over 600 times and recorded over 1,000 assists. Unless I'm mistaken only 7 players in NHL history have accomplished that. The other 6 are Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Steve Yzerman, Gordie Howe, Marcel Dionne and Mario Lemieux. Pretty good company huh?
With the Avalanche out of the playoff picture I don't think there's any chance he will play again this year. At Joe's age, with a season away from the game and an unfortunate snowblower accident, do you think he's got enough left in the tank to lace up his skates one more time?
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3 comments:
he's one of the greatest players i've seen skate. his consistency is amazing and the guy is one helluva hard worker. in my mind, if he wants to play... let him play. if only to add leadership to the team. i agree with you... he probably doesn't have anymore 100 point seasons in him, but the guy is a legend.
btw... one of my favorite cards of all time is this insert card from 95/96 fleer metal. it has sakic with this commemorative coin in it. i pulled a redemption card for it a long time ago and sent it in. back then, they were a pretty tough pull (i think 1 in 360 packs). anyways, it's pretty cool and unique.
One of my favorite non-Bruins. I heard he wants to come back for one more season, since the Avs had a subpar season. But a sure fire Hall of Famer, quite durable and steady over the years despite not being the biggest guy.
I really realized just how long he's been around when I was watching Vintage Games on NHL network the other day.
The game was a Bruins/Nordiques game from 1990 and Sakic was on a line with Guy LaFleur!
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