New York Rangers: What to expect from Artemi Panarin
By Steve Paulus
Some comparisons
Here are some recent NHL greats and their seasons when they were 28, the same age as Panarin. We’ll look at players who were great goal scorers, but also had tremendous assists totals.
The best way to compare is by goals, assists and points per game. Obviously, these players all competed in different years when the game was different, but these are all Hall of Fame players and legitimate superstars.
Name GPG APG PPG
Artemi Panarin 0.46 0.91 1.38
Wayne Gretzky 0.69 1.46 2.15 (88-89)
Jaromir Jagr 0.64 0.85 1.49 (00-01)
Teemu Selanne 0.63 0.80 1.43 (98-99)
Peter Forsberg 0.39 1.03 1.41 (02-03)
Martin St. Louis 0.46 0.68 1.15 (03-04)
Marian Hossa 0.52 0.70 1.22 (06-07)
Paul Kariya 0.30 0.68 0.99 (02-03)
Wayne Gretzky is clearly in a class by himself as the greatest player of all time, but even for the Great One, he never had a higher points per game average than the season when he was 28 years old. Gretzky never topped 50 goals in a season after 1988-89 though he did have 92 assists and 130 points when he was 33.
He still maintained a point per game pace for the rest of his career, only falling short of the number in his final year as a Ranger at age 38 and he led the league in assists when he was 36 and 37 years old. There’s a reason we call him the Great One.
Jaromir Jagr had led the league in points per game for the three prior years to 2000-01 and he only topped the 1.49 PPG figure one more time in his career, when he averaged 1.50 PPG with the Rangers in 2005-06 when he was 33 years old.
Teemu Selanne’s 0.63 goals per game led the NHL in 1998-99, but after that season he never came close to the 1.43 PPG average in that season. His next best season was in 2006-07 for Anaheim when he averaged 1.15 PPG at age 36.
Peter Forsberg is a player whose career was hampered by debilitating injuries. After sitting out the 2001-02 season to get healthy he came back at age 29 to score at a 1.41 PPG pace. Unfortunately, he never played more than 60 games in a season after that, though his per game stats continued to stay at a high level.
Martin St. Louis is one player who improved after his outstanding season as a 28 year old. He exceeded his mark of 1.14 PPG four more times, the last coming when he was 37 years old when he averaged 1.25 PPG in the lockout shortened 2012-13 season.
For Marian Hossa, after he averaged 1.22 points per game in 2006-07, he never topped the one point per game average again in his career. He did play ten more seasons averaging just under a point per game, but never got close to that mark, the best of his career.
Paul Kariya is included because he was a consistent points producer for Anaheim until injuries waylaid his career. Already a victim of several concussions by age 28, his 0.99 PPG mark in 2002-03 was far from his best . Still, he was able to be a solid offensive force when he was older and stayed healthy.