Blackhawks Forwards Nearing Career Milestones

Yesterday we looked at a few significant statistical achievements coming up for Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook this season.

But they aren’t alone in their pursuits of individual benchmarks during the 2017-18 regular season. A few forwards are also on the cusp of making personal and team history.

Let’s look at some forwards who are chasing milestones of their own.

Patrick Sharp

Games Played: when Sharp appears in his 21st game of the season he will have played in 700 in a Chicago Blackhawks sweater, joining only 21 other players in team history. He will pass Troy Murray (688) into 22nd in team history with his tenth game played.

Goals: Sharp begins the 2017-18 season with 239 career regular season goals with the Hawks. He needs five goals to pass Pit Martin and 11 to become the 12th player in team history to reach 250 goals. Kenny Wharram (252) and Bill Mosienko (258) are also within reach if Sharp can score 20 this year.

Assists: Sharp has produced 272 regular season assists in his time in Chicago, which ranks 27th in team history. If he reaches 21 assists this season, he would climb all the way to 17th on the Hawks’ all-time list, passing Bill Hay and Tony Amonte (273), Tom Lysiak (275), Wharram (281), Mosienko (282), Alexei Zhamnov (284), Pat Stapleton (286), Eric Nesterenko (288), Troy Murray (291) and Chico Maki (292).

Points: as noted in yesterday’s piece, Sharp is tied with Keith for 16th in team history with 511 career regular season points. He’s 20 points behind Amonte for 11th place in team history; Roenick ranks tenth with 596.

Jonathan Toews

Assists: Toews begins the new season with a round 350 assists in his career, which ranks 12th in team history. He needs 35 to pass Martin into tenth in team history. Chris Chelios (395) ranks ninth.

Points: Toews has 622 career regular season points, which is ninth in team history. He should pass Martin (627) and Dennis Hull (640) this season to move up into seventh. As noted previously, Kane begins the season in sixth in team history (752).

Patrick Kane

Points: Kane begins the 2017-18 season with 752 career regular season points, which currently ranks sixth in franchise history. But Kaner will pass Doug Wilson to move into fifth place with his 28th point of the new year. The all-time Blackhawks top four is still Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull, Dennis Savard and Steve Larmer. Larmer would be next for Kane at 923 points.

Goals: Kane comes into the 2017-18 season with 285 career regular season goals, which also ranks sixth in team history. When he scores his 15th goal of the season, he will join only Hull, Mikita, Savard and Larmer as players who have scored 300 goals in the Indian head; Kane will pass Dennis Hull for fifth in franchise history when he reaches 299.

Assists: Kane begins the 2017-18 season with 467 career regular season assists, which ranks… sixth in franchise history. With 33 more assists, he will join only five players who have reached 500 in their careers with Chicago: Mikita, Savard, Wilson, Hull and Larmer. Kane needs 50 assists to tie Larmer (517) for fifth in team history.

Game-Winning Goals: Kane has 49 career regular game-winning goals as we start the new season. His first of the new year will make him only the second to reach the 50 mark, joining Jonathan Toews (56).

Power-Play Goals: Kane has 86 career regular season power-play goals, tied with Mikita for fourth in team history. Which means he’ll be alone in fourth with his first power-play marker this season. Kane needs 15 to catch Denis Savard (101) in third; Jeremy Roenick (108) and Larmer (153) are the top two in organization history.

Game Played: Kane needs to appear in 60 regular season games to reach 800 in his career, making him the 15th player to do so wearing the Indian head.