Jarome Iginla Nets 500

Congratulations to Jarome Iginla for scoring his 500th NHL goal of his amazing career. Iginla is the 42nd player to reach the milestone and just the 19th to do it with one team.

The other players who scored 500 goals with the same team are Jean Beliveau, Gilbert Perrault, Bryan Trottier, Stan Mikita, Maurice Richard, Johnny Bucyk, Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, Joe Sakic, Bobby Hull, Luc Robitaille, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Marcel Dionne, Brett Hull, Mike Modano, Gordie Howe, and Wayne Gretzky.

Of that list Iginla joins Modano, Beliveau, Perreault, Mikita, Richard, Bossy, Sakic, Bobby Hull, Lemieux, and Yzerman as having scored all his career goals with just the one organization.

Also of interest:

• The 500th goal was also the 34th career goal against the Minnesota Wild. He has also scored 34 against Edmonton and Colorado, the most goals he has scored against any one team.
• 80 of his goals have been game winners, including the Saturday night goal against Minnesota.
• 115 of his career goals came on a Saturday.
• He has taken just shy of 3800 career shots, for a career shooting percentage of about 13%.

Health willing, Jarome probably has 3 productive seasons left in him, and he could continue to play beyond that. He could challenge 600 goals and 1200 points, very impressive numbers in any era, but especially considering some of his strongest seasons came in the dead puck era.

He is a three time First Team All Star on right wing. He is a two time Maurice Richard Trophy winner as top goal scorer in the league. He also won an Art Ross Trophy, Pearson Award and was once a runner up for the Hart Trophy. He is the undisputed face of his franchise.

Iginla does not have a Stanley Cup ring, and some believe that is a pre-requisite for Hall of Fame inclusion. I disagree, especially in this era of 30 teams. Besides, Iginla played top line roles in three Olympics with Team Canada, winning two gold medals. Some of his most memorable moments came at the game's highest level.

Even without a Cup ring, it could be argued Iginla had more playoff success than a few of the Hall of Fame players listed above, namely Mike Gartner, Marcel Dionne, and Gilbert Perreault. Iginla led Calgary to game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup finals, leading all players in goals. Oh yeah, and he was a significant part of two Memorial Cup championships, 1 World Junior Championship, 1 World Cup and 1 World Championship.

Congratulations to Jarome Iginla - hockey's classiest superstar.