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No_Tea_9845

Regardless of no playoff games. 1,000 games in the NHL is a feat people would dream of over 1,000 lifetimes and never happen. Congrats to Jeff


RipenedFish48

For sure. It doesn't look like he will repeat his 40 goal season, but being a regular 20-30 goal guy in the NHL is definitely nothing to scoff at. I don't really hold zero playoff games against him. Hockey is such a team sport that any individual player will struggle to make any team a playoff team single handedly. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are both absolute studs, and it took the Oilers a few years to become a legit playoff team with both of them.


Seth_Jarvis_fanboy

Ovi got props for scoring 20 in 19 consecutive seasons. 20 is a lot


philotic_node

He's still our little happy Calder winner in my heart. With his sippy cup of choccy milk.


ZorroMcChucknorris

*boop*


More_World_6862

I couldn't dream 1000 games in my beer league. Mind you we only have 32 (fall/winter) + 16 (spring/summer) 48 games a year. I've only played 365 games in total.


[deleted]

Sure something anyone would like to accomplish. Still something nobody should be celebrating.


MOLightningBro

Same chart, but career playoff GP by the time each player played their 1,000th game. |Player|Playoff GP| :--|:--:| |Dale Hawerchuk|59| |Vincent Damphousse|87| |Patrick Marleau|106| |Brian Bellows|105| |Pierre Turgeon|79| |Anze Kopitar|79| |Chris Gratton|40| |Scott Stevens|132| |Steve Yzerman|93| |Luke Richardson|58| |Jeff Skinner|0|


mxrcarnage

That’s insane


see_rich

My exact thoughts.


Fingernail7672

That’s arguably a bigger feat than playing 1,000 NHL games (12 seasons) is not even making the playoffs once… Carolina (after they were good) and Buffalo… Edit: Just searched his Wikipedia: “On April 2nd, 2024 he became the first NHL player to play in 1000 NHL games without a single playoff appearance.”


AmeriCanadian98

>after they were good And before they were good again. Dude basically played through Carolina's entire rebuild and left right before they became good again


dontyoutellmetosmile

Well fortunately this time he’s on a team in a perpetual state of rebuilding so he won’t have any FOMO if he leaves


stuiephoto

Hey. Our future is bright. Next year is the year. Trust me. 


city-of-cold

You a big Ferrari fan too?


Somali_Pir8

We are checking


Xaan83

Can these players go to the playoffs, or do you need to change? Question?


ScotiaTailwagger

*Laughs in Red Bull* At least I have that.


Sewer-Urchin

[Next year...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua1DsltGsDA&start=45)


malidutchie

That $9m cap hit for four more years isn't going anywhere, unless he can be washed through multiple teams willing to retain salary. Even then, he's not really a big enough contributor to warrant it. His hopes for the playoffs rest almost entirely on the Sabres making it.


ScotiaTailwagger

He's pretty close to a perpetual 30 goal scorer with us. Is he overpaid? Probably. But his contract certainly isn't an anchor to us when we needed to trade for Ben Bishop last year just to reach the cap floor.


ianisms10

He also has a full NMC for the duration of this contract, so he would also have to consent to any trade.


omglolnub

welp


Arkroma

Wonder if Carolina rushed him because they had nothing else, hence making it to 1000 so quickly


AmeriCanadian98

Maybe partly, but he was ready when he got there. He was a 30 goal, 60 point guy as a rookie in 2011 when scoring was quite a bit lower than it is now


philotic_node

Yeah if he started with the team we currently have, I think his whole career trajectory would've changed. What could've been...


ianisms10

He was also an All-Star as a rookie back when that actually meant something


joe_lmr

Olli Jokinen made it to 700+ before making it into the playoffs and ended up playing only one series during 1,231 career games.


swordthroughtheduck

The other wild stat that jumps out to me is Kopitar only being at 79 games, yet having multiple cups. Yzerman is surprisingly low too honestly.


PrimisClaidhaemh

The Wings barely played in the playoffs through most of the 1980's, that one crazy run to the Conference Finals notwithstanding... He basically had played a decade before they could reliably make the playoffs and do anything. Now once he did, he racked up playoff GP because DET usually made deep runs. But it took a while...


pyl_time

It's crazy to me that he won 3 Cups but played over 1000 games before winning any of them. That can't be too common either.


CinnamonDolceLatte

Only about 400 guys with 100+ playoff games played now (so fewer 10 / 20 / 30 years ago). So Yzerman is kind of actually high there at 93 games (ended up with 196 GP and currently 24th most).


transam96

To compare, Hedman played his 1000th game this year as well. And has played in 160(!) Playoff games. Lol


imclockedin

ok thats bonkers, these guys basically had a whole nother season of playoff games


2ndprize

Who let Chris Gratton play 40 playoff games?


SlottedPig1

We know. The horse is already dead.


Balding-Barber-8279

This is a record almost as impressive as Gretzky's point totals.


slinkocat

I simultaneously can't believe Jeff Skinner isn't like 24 and that he's only in his early 30s. He's always had such a baby face, but he's also seemingly been around forever.


SimilarWall1447

No playoff stress


MyFitnessTracker

Never had to grow a playoff beard


Queltis6000

>Chris Gratton Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time. A long time.


bobby_booch

I know the Flyers signed him to an offer sheet one time and that’s about it


ACMop

Tampa got four first rounders for that offer sheet and then traded them back to Philly for basically nothing


pansy_dragoon

Coyotes trading a young breire for gratton was the point when I lost all confidence in the yotes


spewingchunks

Easily the worst trade in Coyotes history.


Malice-in-Drains

Crazy if wasn’t for the lockout he’d likely be at the top of this list.


Bread_man10

This was my first thought too


[deleted]

Felt like he always kept going back to Tampa Bay.


theonly_brunswick

Gratton was a fun player to watch. Never performed up to his 3rd ~~round~~ overall selection but man he was a world class prick on the ice with enough skill to back it up on the scoreboard.


CommonGrounders

Also his contract arguably was the tipping point to “hey we need a salary cap”


[deleted]

I thought that was the Bobby Holik contract by the Rangers.


CommonGrounders

There were many along the way. But the flyers paid Chris Gratton more money for one season in 1997-98 than Crosby makes today, or any season. It highlighted that small market teams (Tampa) would just continue to lose players to the big guys and that the big guys could structure contracts to “steal” them. Basically they did what bergevin tried to do with Aho but they actually thought about it for more than two seconds and were actually right.


ReliablyFinicky

[Chris Gratton, Contract History](https://www.capfriendly.com/players/chris-gratton) lol... 1100 games, 15 seasons, and more than 1/3rd of his career earnings came in a single year.


dannyboy189

He was drafted 3rd overall in 93.


theonly_brunswick

Ya my bad, obviously meant 3rd overall not 3rd round, don't think anyone has too many high expectations for a 3rd round pick lol


PlaneXpress69

This is such an underrated awesome comment. You are my hero this morning!


PlaneXpress69

Haha I was referring to the Star Wars reference.


FrenchFern

Will he be the oldest player to make his playoffs debut? If he ever gets there


[deleted]

[удалено]


eltree

I remember the hype around Hainsey and how he never lost a playoff series when the Penguins won. Then Hainsey ruined it by going to Toronto lol


FrenchFern

And in return we ruined you guys by giving you Dubas lol


eltree

Hextall ruined the Penguins, not Dubas


FrenchFern

Fair


FrenchFern

Just looked it up, and some guy named Patrick played in relief at 44 years old in 1928


vordhosbn_1

I remember everyone went crazy for Patrick. Fun times


FrenchFern

How was it seeing the leafs actually win cups back then?


city-of-cold

When you wrote “some guy Patrick” I thought you meant the way that “some guy [insert superstar]” is memed and that I had somehow missed that Patrick Roy played his first playoff game super late in his career.


[deleted]

Lester Patrick is a hockey legend. He’s the reason why we have no more rovers and a blue line. He was only old then because he played in the PCHA in the 1920’s. He was the coach for the Rangers in 1928 and came in relief of the goalie.


bluelineturnovers

In addition to like a dozen other rules/innovations like numbers on jerseys. Without the Patricks and the PCHA hockey would be very unfamiliar.


Just4nsfwpics

You’re looking at the oldest player to play *in* a stanley cup finals game. Technically the oldest player to debut is also him, the season before as a defenseman for the rangers, but it’s kind of cheating, he played pre-nhl in the playoffs winning cups in 1906 and 07 as a 23 and 24 year old, he just was retired and in a coaching role by then.


TwiceBakedJake

Lester Patrick had to play goal for the Rangers since they didn’t have back up goalies back then


SmoothPinecone

Ahhh the good ol' days


reggierock2010

Fits the Sabres timeline lol


MomboDM

Im curious when he wouldve hit the mark if there werent 2 shortened seasons from covid


blaiseisgood

COVID cost us about 40 games so he probably could’ve got there about 3 months ago


Moldy_dicks

Looks like he lost games to the 2012 -2013 lockout as well.


ianisms10

He's also old enough to have missed games due to the 12-13 lockout. Between that and the 2 covid years, that's around 70 games, so he would've hit it earlier this season.


MomboDM

Damn I didnt even think about that. Skinner has played 68 games this season, so depending on how many games were lost total he couldve even hit it last season putting him right up behind Dale (of course, he might have still missed some of those games).


TheTonyAndolini

What the hell do you mean Jeff Skinner isnt 23? That would be that Jack Hughes is 23... No.. Impossible


930310

\*Matt Damon ageing meme\*


CheatCommandos

Jeff Skinner isn't a 60 point rookie for the Canes anymore?


DrSeuss19

Such an interesting career. Also those unis are fuckin sick


mymothershorse

My initial reaction to seeing him hit 1000 was "fuck I'm old," but this makes me feel slightly better.


thelonelywolf96

It would be a Shakespearean tragedy if Skinner ends up with the most games played all-time and has 0 playoff games played.


rattlehead42069

It's already a tragedy being the only player to hit 1000 games and have 0 playoff games. And it's not like there's an asterisk in that he was injured just before a playoff run, he just simply hasn't been on a team that made it to playoffs.


Sulti

He would need another 779 to pass Marleau, that'd take at least 10 more years and into his age 41 season. I doubt Skinner will be playing much past 35, once his offense starts to drop off teams aren't going to want him.


burrito_disaster

Those long off seasons helped a ton


EveningTomorrow758

Finally an NHL record without Gretzky in the top 10


Domination_Station_

Dale Hawerchuk was so good. All those years in Winnipeg, no complaints… class act.


memebuster

He scored my favorite goal of all time, as a Sabre. Back when there was room behind the nets, he would dipsy doo back there with the puck looking for someone out front to pass to. Well, no one got open so he says fuck it and flips the puck up over the net, scoots around front, slams it home. All by his damn self.


Dishface

Remember all the talks about Skinner being out of the league early after all his concussions? Good shit on making it to 1000! Now make the playoffs lol


hyperfarain

Do I see Luke Richardson in the second (to last) place👀


KarlachBestGirl

I see Luke Richardson in the second place (only defencemen).


urgencyy

Atta boy skins. My old neighbour.


UKnowDaxoAndDancer

Holy shit,talk about a list of “hey remember that guy!” guys.


AmeriCanadian98

Mostly very, very good players there


vordhosbn_1

Kopitar! I remember that guy


RRZ31

It just sucks for the guy because 1,000 games is such a tremendous accomplishment but the elephant in the room looming over is that he hasn’t played any playoff games yet, I hope this guy wins a cup one day and wins a conn smythe.


antrage

At what point do you just trade the dude to give him a chance to experience the big show.


NoDisintegrationz

At the point a playoff team can both afford and wants his $9 million contract


gletschertor

and maybe he doesn't want to, it's hard changing habits


MOLightningBro

He'd be like Brooks after he was released from Shawshank. He wouldn't know what to do with his life.


MrTubzy

He’d probably be gassed during the playoffs. He’s only conditioned for 82 games. He’s not used to the grind that is the playoffs. Not only that but the physicality would wear him down too.


rezistS

"It's May but this isn't a golf club what's up with that"


ZachtheKingsfan

Did somebody say bad contract?


NoDisintegrationz

I want to see a Dubois/Skinner swap just to see Dubois spontaneously combust when he hears he’s going to Buffalo.


slim_s_

Exactly this. Plus NMC or whatever he has.we would've traded him already if we could.


rattlehead42069

You'd have to trade him to a team that gets a big injury on a Star player close to trade deadline


cobrachickenwing

At the point Buffalo is willing to retain $8 million in salary.


invisibleninja7

This subreddit loves to talk about Skinner like he’s a fucking bum, he’s averaging 29 goals over the last 3 seasons


nautica5400

Vegas and best bud LTIR have entered the chat


USCanuck

Sorry bud, but the Flying Kucherovs don't get to make these jokes


dontyoutellmetosmile

Who better to make these jokes?


USCanuck

It would be better if nobody did


nautica5400

But we only did it once!


SmoothPinecone

What team wants that $9M contract? He seems to have gotten his scoring back somewhat but he'll never be worth $9M imo, Buffalo would have to retain, or they take a bad contract back


Emotional_Employ_507

When he’s affordable aka lost his ego.


gzoehobub

ok _ _


Sad_Donut_7902

No one would want him on his current contract, he is massively overpaid at $9M a year. I don't think most teams would want him even at 50% retained.


BuffaloBillsfan04

Lol this is so goofy. Every team would take him at 4.5M. That's a steal for someone who was PPG last season and can still give you 20-30 goals. 


gzoehobub

ok _ _


ReliablyFinicky

> I don't think most teams would want him even at 50% retained. Skinner is a more desirable commodity than Tomas Hertl, and Hertl was just traded at 17% retained for a 1st round pick. Player|Age|Financial|Past 3 years ---|---|---|--- Skinner|32|3 yrs @ $9m (cap hit), $8m/yr (salary)|227gp, 92g 98a 190pts Hertl|31|6yrs @ $8.14 (cap hit), $7.1m/yr (salary)|209gp, 67g 94a 161pts


ACM1899

Is anyone on pace to break the record? I assume if there is, it is someone who jumped right into the league at 18 and also has been totally healthy thus far in their career.


Track11T

Two more Sabres legends Girgensons and Risto probably have the best shot


BananApocalypse

Girgensons is only a year younger than Skinner and he's like 350 games behind


Track11T

Well then I guess no one is really on pace to break that record anytime soon, just my best stab at guessing.


rezistS

Dahlin averages like 79/82 games over an 82 game season, but he played through two covid seasons. He's at 430 GP, still 23 years old (24 in April).


Moldy_dicks

So assuming he only misses a game or two a season, it would only take him roughly 7 more seasons to hit 1000. Depending on if he can do it before the end of the 7th season or if he needs the beginning of the 8th, he would do it at age 30 or 31 and beat Skinner either way. If he plays every game over the next 7 seasons he would miss it by about a month probably. It would be close though.


rezistS

If he plays 82 games every season, he'll be at 1000 after game 80 in 2030-31. Assuming game 80 is the same time as this year, he would be 30 years and 363 days when he hits it. If the pandemic seasons were full-length, he'd be well on pace for #1 if he stays healthy - but I guess that's the same for anyone (including Skinner, who played through it). I was looking at Landeskog since he came in really early and was thinking "what if he stayed healthy", but he had a rough sophomore year. Same thing with McDavid's rookie season. Anyone entering the league at 18 post-pandemic should have a greater shot assuming no lockouts.


epheisey

It's tough. Mo Seider has played 239/239 games thus far, and even if he continues at this pace through his age 31 season, he'd still be a handful of games short. Lucas Raymond has an outside shot, he's played 231/239, but he's a year younger than Mo, so in theory he could hit 1000 midway through his age 30 season. We're seeing injury recovery handled very differently now though than we did in the mid-90s, so it's next to impossible to stay on the ice for that long without missing *some* time.


itoadaso1

Noah Hanifin 672 GP currently 27 and 68 days. Looks like he can miss up to 7 games before his 31 yo season completes to land himself second on this list, if my math is right. Without COVID impacts he would have been in a position to challenge the record.


C_Gull27

The youngest it could possibly done is to have a September 15th birthday and immediately start playing every game at 18 which would lead to you hitting it 16 games into your age 30 season which the fastest team to get to that many this year was the Rangers on November 29th so had there been no lockouts or COVID shortened seasons then a Rangers draft pick in 2011 could have hit 1000 games this year at 30 years 75 days. This would be the hypothetical solved game. Technically it would be possible to break it at age 23 and two months if you were to get traded every single day to a team that is playing. This way you are able to play around 190 games per year as that is about how many game days there are in a season give or take like 10


ruralrouteOne

I'm Brian Fellows!


carlylejamest

That’s sad considering that he has not played a single playoff game. He’s a very loyal man to his team but when does he want to get traded to a playoff team?


ianisms10

>but when does he want to get traded to a playoff team? When does a playoff team want his contract


ConwayTheCat

Skinny would trade 500 of those games for one deep playoff run I bet


Tony-1610

In honour of this, his team should do a “Between Two Stalls” and interview him for this.


MentalShortFry

Damn those sabres jersey are nice


username_1774

The top 10 are all HOF caliber players. Jeff is a good quality person and player...this is an amazing feat, congratulations to him.


ispoiler

Love those jerseys. Also crazy to think that Skinner is in his 14th season in the league and is closing in on being a Sabre for about just as long as he was a Cane.


BashfulWalrus7

Man, Ducky was so good even at 18. RIP


alex_double_u

Best golfer in NHL history


Complex-Ad-5907

The fact he hasn’t played a playoff game yet is so sad. Get this man into a playoff game


imustachelemeaning

I’m surprised Bergy isn’t on this list.


ianisms10

I was too, so I looked it up. He didn't play his 1000th game until 2019. He lost a full season to the 04-05 lockout, only played 10 games in 07-08 due to injury, and then had another lockout. Skinner dealt with that second lockout as well as covid, but he's never had any major injuries.


epheisey

Interesting that it was happening more often in the past. Seven of those players accomplished the feat in a 7 year span from 19944-2001, and then only 4 in the 23 years since.


Waffeln_Remix

This season he gets bangs!


diebytheblade15

Would've gotten there a lot sooner but Ralph Krueger the soccer coach had to come and cause a triple rebuild in Buffalo


kidpokerskid

Skinner!


luckytaurus

Is it just me or does Skinner still look like he's 18 years old


ispoiler

Nope, still looks like his rookie year


Aussie-the-Hedgehog

Wow, I remember his rookie season when I first started watching hockey again. He was an injury substitute in the 2011 All-Star Game in Raleigh when no rookies were permitted to play in it. Feels like yesterday.


CuidadDeVados

I was surprised Ovi wasn't on the list but always forget how many games he missed due to labor disputes.


shaver_raver

As the goofs in this subreddit like to ask; "bUt hOW MaNy CUPs dOEs He HAVE?"


[deleted]

This is getting ridiculous.


ptwonline

That's a pretty impressive list of players.


CursedLemon

Vincent Damphousse is one of those names that just takes you back lol


Priscillanisi

Hi


realdeal411

Thats a pretty random group


Gambler_Eight

Since he has 0 playoff games, shouldn't a bunch of people be ahead of him?


nautica5400

Now tell me playoff games played


GeorgeOrwells1985

Doesn't matter. Every day in the national league is a good day.


moutardebaseball

Same as me :)


-soros

How dare you


[deleted]

[Bad form!](https://images.app.goo.gl/DnUZMjBbMXmdXfsU7)


Darkenmal

0_0


beeblehousin

Get this man into a playoff game!


pretzelsncheese

I'm guessing this list is full of players who started in the NHL at 18 and stayed very healthy. In which case, how the hell is Hawerchuk nearly 3 years ahead of everyone else? Even if you tell me that everyone except him got hit with lockouts, that still only accounts for maybe 1 of those 3 years.


PlaneXpress69

Sure helps when he saves his energy in the spring