David Pastrnak, the Boston Bruins leading scorer this season, is now being mentioned in the same sentence as Mario Lemieux.
Even as Boston Bruins fans, it’s fair to say that Mario Lemieux is among the all-time greats in hockey. To have any sort of comparison drawn is a huge feather in the cap of David Pastrnak.
The specific comparison being made was by NHL.com that pointed out Pastrnak’s 23 goals in the first 24 games of the season is the highest goal count since Mario Lemieux managed 26 for the Pittsburgh Penguins back in the 1992-93 season.
Possibly far more remarkable is that the early 1990s were still an era of inflated goal scoring. Right now, we have goaltending that is as good as it’s ever been, thus goals don’t come as easy. To even get close to a nearly 30 year figure is beyond impressive.
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While it’s still early days and it’s still questionable as to whether David Pastrnak can maintain this sort of scoring pace, if he does, he’s in line for an 80-goal season. The list of 80 goal or more scorers in the NHL is limited to just three names; Brett Hull, Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky (twice). It’s elite company to say the very least.
Even is he regresses a little and only ends up with a goal count in the 70s, we’re still talking just eight names that he’ll be sharing such a spot with, including Boston Bruins legend Phil Esposito, who netted 76 goals to go with his 76 assists in the 1970-71 season.
Lower still and if he only manages 65, he becomes the first player in a decade to grace that mark; Alex Ovechkin proving to be the best goal scorer since the turn of the 21st century with his efforts in the 2007-08 season.
The one common factor here is that all of these names we are mentioning either are in the Hall of Fame already or will be headed there at the end of their playing days.
Obviously there’s over half a season to go, but the fascinating part about David Pastrank’s goal total right about now is that while his shooting percentage is inflated; 23.5% is still not extreme over-inflation. It’s certainly way higher than an NHL career 14.9% but I’d still only expect it to drop back to 20% at worst.
One season will not see David Pastrnak enter the Hall of Fame, the pantheon of greats or whatever you want to call it. However, it will indelibly silence a lot of Boston Bruins fans that have oft been quite critical of the young Czech winger.
He is firmly in the spotlight for the Boston Bruins right now and with two hat-tricks this season so far, it’s safe to say that the rest of the league has firmly been served notice.
Long may David Pastrnak continue to slot that puck home for the Boston Bruins!