Jaromir Jagr Becomes 2nd Greatest Scorer In NHL History

44 year old Jaromir Jagr picked up an assist in Thursday night's 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins. In doing so Jagr passed Mark Messier to become the NHL's second all time leading scorer.

Jagr's assist gave him 1888 points in his career. He is nearly 1000 points behind Wayne Gretzky.

Interestingly, there really has not been a whole lot of fanfare about Jagr's great achievement. Think about it. In the past number of months he caught Gordie Howe and Mark Messier on the all time scoring list, and the hoopla was modest at best. One has to wonder if that would be different if it was a Canadian or American player rather than a European player.

Jagr's rank among the all time greats can always be debated, though his rank on the all time scoring list is cemented for a long while. Now no one is catching Wayne Gretzky but Jagr will likely will remain the NHL's second greatest scorer for a significant period of time.

Only four other active players have over 1000 points in their careers: Joe Thornton, Jarome Iginla, Marian Hossa and Patrick Marleau, with Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby all likely joining the club this season.

Thornton may have an outside chance to catch Jagr, though the 37 year old is more than 500 points back. Crosby and Ovechkin could possibly get there one day, if they opt to play that long.

TSN's Frank Seravalli has an excellent feature called 68 Things To Know About Jaromir Jagr.

Most Points, NHL History
1. Wayne Gretzky: 894-1,963—2,857
2. Jaromir Jagr: 755-1,133—1,888
3. Mark Messier: 694-1,193—1,887
4. Gordie Howe: 801-1,049—1,850
5. Ron Francis: 549-1,249—1,798
 
Most Goals, NHL History
1. Wayne Gretzky: 894
2. Gordie Howe: 801
3. Jaromir Jagr: 755
4. Brett Hull: 741
5. Marcel Dionne: 731
 
Most Assists, NHL History
1. Wayne Gretzky: 1,963
2. Ron Francis: 1,249
3. Mark Messier: 1,193
4. Ray Bourque: 1,169
5. Paul Coffey: 1,135
6. Jaromir Jagr: 1,133