Blackhawks History: Power Play, Penalty Kill Records

[Chicago Blackhawks]

Blackhawks History: Power Play, Penalty Kill Records

Because August is a quiet month for hockey and the Blackhawks are celebrating their Centennial this coming season, we’ve been rolling through some of the franchise leaders from throughout the history of the franchise. Today, we’ll look at some unique benchmarks achieved on special teams.

Over the past few weeks as we’ve discussed the first century of Chicago Blackhawks hockey, we’ve looked at:

• Franchise Rookie Records
• Calder Trophy Winners
• Four-Goal Periods for Blackhawks Skaters
• Hart Trophy Winners
• Franchise Goalie Records
• Vezina Trophy, Jennings Trophy Winners
• Norris Trophy Winners
• Franchise Scoring Records
• Art Ross Trophy Winners
• Franchise Assist Records

In the history of the NHL, there have only been 13 seasons in which a player recorded at least 60 points on the power play. During the 1987-88 season, Denis Savard recorded 62 points while on the advantage, tying him for the ninth-best season in history with Adam Oates and Leon Draisaitl. Lemieux has four of the top five seasons in history on the power play; Connor McDavid’s 71 in 2022-23 ranks fourth and is one of only four 70+ power play point seasons in league history.

Blackhawks Special Teams History​

Power Play​

Six players in Blackhawks history have recorded at least 100 power play goals while with the franchise:

• Steve Larmer — 153
• Bobby Hull — 152
• Stan Mikita — 150
• Patrick Kane — 122
• Jeremy Roenick — 108
• Denis Savard — 101

Only two players in Blackhawks history have recorded at least 400 power play points with the franchise: Mikita (462) and Savard (402). Kane came up two points short of joining that club.

There have been seven seasons in which a Blackhawks player recorded at least 20 power play goals in a single season, accomplished by only four players:

• Jeremy Roenick — 24 (1993-94)
• Bobby Hull — 22 (1965-66)
• Jeremy Roenick — 22 (1991-92)
• Jeremy Roenick — 22 (1992-93)
• Steve Larmer — 21 (1987-88)
• Bobby Hull — 20 (1968-69)
• Al Secord — 20 (1982-83)

There have been 12 individual seasons when a Blackhawks player had recorded at least 40 points on the power play in a single season, but those have come from only six skaters:

• Denis Savard — 4 times
• Jeremy Roenick — 3 times
• Steve Larmer — 2 times
• Chris Chelios
• Gary Suter
• Bobby Hull

Penalty Kill​

In the history of the NHL, there have only been six individual seasons in which a player has recorded at least 10 short-handed goals. Mario Lemieux owns the all-time record with 13 shorties during the 1988-89 season. Super Mario and Wayne Gretzky have four of the six seasons in which a player scored ten times on the penalty kill. The other two: Marcel Dionne for the Detroit Red Wings in 1974-75 and Blackhawks legend Dirk Graham in 1988-89. Dionne and Graham each had ten in their great seasons.

Three players in Blackhawks history have recorded at least 20 short-handed goals while with the franchise:

• Dirk Graham — 26
• Eric Nesterenko — 22
• Tony Amonte — 20

Bobby Hull, Steve Larmer and Jeremy Roenick each scored 19 goals while killing penalties with the Blackhawks.

Five players have scored at least seven short-handed goals in a single season with the Blackhawks:

• Dirk Graham — 10 (1988-89)
• Steve Sullivan — 8 (2000-01)
• Steve Larmer — 7 (1987-88)
• Denis Savard — 7 (1987-88)
• Patrick Sharp — 7 (2007-08)

Yes, that’s Savard and Larmer scoring seven in the same season — the year before Graham had his club record-setting ten.

Four players in Blackhawks history have recorded at least 10 points while short-handed in a single season. But there have been five seasons in which a player hit double-digit points killing penalties in franchise history:

• Denis Savard — 13 (1987-88)
• Dirk Graham — 11 (1988-89)
• Steve Larmer — 11 (1987-88)
• Steve Larmer — 10 (1988-89)
• Steve Sullivan — 10 (2000-01)

Why do I still say to this day that Steve Larmer is the greatest special teams player in the history of the Chicago Blackhawks? Larmer is still the franchise’s power play goal scoring record holder. He has two of the five seasons in which a Blackhawks player had double-digit points on the PK.

There are two players in Blackhawks history who had at least 40 points on the power play and at least 10 points on the penalty kill in the same season: Larmer (40 power play points, 11 short-handed points) and Savard (62 power play points, 13 short-handed points ) in the same 1987-88 season. Ironically, that was the only season in Larmer’s Blackhawks career during which he didn’t record a game-winning goal.

To that point: there have only been 15 seasons in NHL history in which a player had at least 40 power play points and at least 10 penalty kill points. Wayne Gretzky owns six of them; Mario Lemieux contributed three more. In total, eight players have had 40 power play points and 10 penalty kill points in a single season: Gretzky, Lemieux, Savard, Larmer, Marcel Dionne, Bobby Orr, Mark Messier and Bernie Nicholls. Six of the eight are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Larmer and Nicholls continue to wait.

And y’all might have wondered why this published on the 28th of the month…

Lou Capozzola-USA TODAY Sports

Source: https://www.bleachernation.com/blac...awks-history-power-play-penalty-kill-records/