Imagine If Steven Stamkos Didn't Miss Damn Near 2 Full Seasons Due To Injuries And Lockouts
Steven Stamkos scored a hat trick in last night’s win over the New York Rangers. In the process, he scored his 700th career NHL point. The first one to do so in his draft class.
Now granted, the 2008 Draft Class will always be remembered as one of the best defensive draft classes with guys like Drew Doughty, Erik Karlsson, Zach Bogosian, John Carlson and Roman Josi all going in 2008. Offensively that class is slacking a little bit. Karlsson has the 2nd most points in that draft class with 538. Jordan Eberle has the 2nd most points out of the forwards in that draft with 454. But that’s neither here nor there. Because the fact of the matter is that Steven Stamkos notched his 700th career point and that’s no joke. However….that number could be way way higher if it weren’t for the fact that Stamkos has been completely fucked by the injury bug in his career.
156. That’s the number of games that Steven Stamkos has missed in his career. Granted, there’s not much he could have done in 2012-13 with the season getting shortened to just 48 games. But because of the lockout, there go 34 games right there. Then the next season after that, Stamkos ended up missing 45 games due to a broken tibia. Now keep in mind, the 3 previous seasons before the lockout-shortened season and then his broken leg shortened season, Stamkos had put up 51 goals, 45 goals and 60 goals respectively. 156 tucks in 3 straight seasons, the man was an absolute force. He also had 95, 91 and 97 points in those 3 seasons as well. But then he has back-to-back years where he missed a total of 79 games. Not ideal!
After coming back from his broken leg, Stamkos played a full 82 games in 2014-15 and ended up with a respectable 43 goals that season. Great for the majority of players, but still not 100% for Stamkos. Then he was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome (same injury as Markelle Fultz, mind you) toward the end of the 2015-16 season which would explain why he was only able to fill the back of the net 36 times that year. And then we get to 2016-17 where Steven Stamkos tore his lateral meniscus just 17 games into the season and never ended up returning that year. An entire season of hockey down the drain and Stamkos was only able to put up 9 goals and 20 points. A damn shame.
And that’ll bring us to last night. Playing in his 696th career NHL game, Steven Stamkos put up points number 699, 700 and 701 with his hatty.
701 points in 696 games. If Stamkos was able to play a full 82 in all 10 seasons of his career, we’d be looking at him chasing 900 points at some point before the end of this season. But instead, Stamkos had a lockout ruin one of his seasons, a broken tibia ruin another, a lateral meniscus tear ruin a 3rd, and thoracic outlet syndrome hinder a 4th season. But even after all that shit, Stamkos is still a point per game player? What a fucking beast.
One of the most lethal one timers the game has ever seen. A 2x Rocket Richard winner. Has brought his team to the Stanley Cup Final in 2015. I know that being able to remain healthy is something that separates the great from the rest of the pack and that Stamkos hasn’t been able to do that. But the fact that he’s had that many things go wrong in his career and still produces at the level he does? I’m not saying that Steven Stamkos is underrated at all but I do think people need to start recognizing that out of guys the similar age, only Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin and Patrick Kane have higher P/GP and they’re all future first ballot Hall of Famers.
