When Wayne Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in the summer of 1988, Kings center Bernie Nicholls knew life was going to be different.
. . .
It resulted in the greatest single season of Nicholls’ 18-year NHL career — 70 goals, 80 assists, 150 points.
Nicholls is one of only eight players in NHL history to score 70 goals in a single season. It was a brilliant, notable, and unexpected achievement, but not without precedent.
In 12 years between 1981-82 and 1992-93, at least one player scored 70 goals in 10 of those years. It began with Gretzky’s record-setting 92-goal season in ’81-82 and ended when Teemu Selanne and Alex Mogilny each scored 76 goals a dozen years later.
But since then?
In 30-plus seasons and counting, not a single NHL goal scorer has crossed the 70-goal threshold. Alex Ovechkin, who has a chance to reel in Gretzky for the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring lead, topped out at 65 in 2007, his third NHL season.
With the NHL All-Star Game on the horizon this weekend, the question is: Can the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews become the ninth?