It's always fun to geek out on some all-time stats, and seeing Alex Ovechkin make history by breaking Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal record was something to behold while giving high emotions to the hockey purists to see the record actually fall.
The roster turnover for the Nashville Predators has been insane over the last few seasons, especially when General Manager Barry Trotz got control of the front office. The long-time veterans that remain begins with Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg and Juuse Saros. After that, it's a lot of newcomers or veterans that have been signed over the past two seasons.
The active point leaders for the Nashville Predators franchise really illustrates how much the roster has been flipped since David Poile handed the keys over to Trotz, and really it started happening before that. But when it comes to goal scorers, Steven Stamkos is the one that is among top-20 in NHL history and sports the Predators sweater.
Steven Stamkos among the best goal scorers in NHL history, but what about Filip Forsberg before his career ends one day?
Stamkos is third among active NHL players in career goals with 580. He scored his 25th goal of his first season with Nashville in a 2-1 loss to the Canadiens on Sunday.
In terms of all-time NHL goal scorers, Stamkos sits 22nd with his next player to pass being Jarri Kurri, a player that last played an NHL season in 1997-98. Stamkos needs 22 goals to pass Kurri, which is very attainable next season. It will also mean Stamkos pass 600 goals, which would be cool to see him achieve that in a Predators sweater.
Doing some quick math and being realistic, if Stamkos plays out his full contract with the Predators and conservatively averages 20 goals over the next three seasons, that would put him at 640 goals and tied with Dave Andreychuk for 15th on the all-time list.
If we want to go crazy and think Stamkos finds the fountain of youth next season and throws us a 30-plus goal season, he could catch Brendan Shanahan for 14th. Something fun to watch next season.
Shifting to Filip Forsberg, obviously way further back on the all-time goals list. When I say further back, I mean like outside the top-200. But hey, he's also a lot younger and has always played for a franchise not known for being one of the higher scoring teams in the NHL. He is the all-time Predators goal scorer, though.
Forsberg has a lot of productive years left in him. He sits at 316 career goals, good for 213th all time. He's going to pass a lot of retired players in the coming years and will cruise into the top-200 next season.
This is going to require a lot of math and a little bit of guessing, but if Forsberg plays out his five remaining season under contract with Nashville and can average 30 goals per season, which I think is conservative estimate, that puts him into top-100 territory. This doesn't take into account the plethora of other active goal scorers on or ahead of Forsberg in goal scoring ability, but top-100 is a fair prediction that Forsberg ends at when he retires.
Forsberg achieving the 500-goal milestone is probably his ceiling, which would be amazing and a franchise record that stands for a long, long time for the Nashville Predators.
Next up on the all-time goals list that currently plays for the Predators is Ryan O'Rielly. A lot older than Forsberg and also not the pure goal scorer, but he is about to hit the respectable 300-goal mark. He might achieve that milestone before this season is up. He sits at 299 career goals, which is 236th all-time.
Not sure just how many more productive goal scoring years O'Reilly has left in him. His goal scoring is mostly limited to his power play presence. If he has two more seasons of 20-plus goals, might be a reach honestly, then he can pass a lot of retired players and get close to top-200 status. Nothing to scoff at, and O'Rielly's full body of work outside of goal scoring is more than enough.
When it comes to just defensemen on NHL's all-time goals list, Roman Josi is pretty far up there. He is 27th all-time with 190 goals. He has missed the last month due to injury and is goal scoring is likely about to take a downturn in the coming years due to father time taking over.
Again it's another conservative estimate, but if Josi can average 10 goals per season over the next three which will put him at age 37, then that's 30 more goals and 220 for his career. That puts him top-20 all-time among NHL defensemen. And he probably has a year or two more in him after that, so I'll give a predictions of 40 more goals and top-15 status all-time.
After that when it comes to goal scoring, the Predators don't have many established pure goal scorers. Jonathan Marchessault has 249 career goals, which puts him far outside the top-300. He's getting into the back nine of his NHL career at age 34, but he's also going to pass a lot of retired players with just one more seasons of 20-plus goals.
After that, the Predators don't have any proven goal scorers yet that can even warrant eventual top-300 status. Maybe Luke Evangelista develops into that player one day. He has 32 career goals at age 23. If he sticks around and develops into a perennial 20 to 30-goal scorer, big if, then one day he can climb up the Predators all-time list to top-10.
To get into the top-10 goal scorers for the Predators franchise list, you need just 108 goals which will push you past Jason Arnott. So yeah, pure goal scorers have been few and far between for the Nashville Predators franchise.
All historical stats courtesy of Quant Hockey.