Steven Stamkos Again


With 50 goals, Steven Stamkos currently has an 11 goal lead on second place Evgeni Malkin. This works out to a 28.2% advantage on his nearest goal scoring rival. This would be the biggest gap percentage-wise in over ten years. In 1999/00 Pavel Bure's 58 goals were 31.8% more than next best Owen Nolan's 44.

I was somewhat surprised when I found that over the history of the NHL the goal leader has had at least 50% more goals than the second scorer in seven different seasons. Below are all the seasons in which the goal leader scored at least 25% more than the second place guy.

  • 1990/91 Brett Hull 86 goals; Fleury, Neely, Yzerman 51 goals....68.6% gap
  • 1965/66 Bobby Hull 54 goals; F.Mahovlich 32 goals....56.3% gap
  • 1983/84 Wayne Gretzky 87 goals; Goulet 56 goals....55.4% gap
  • 1952/53 Gordon Howe 49 goals;  Lindsay 32 goals....53.1% gap
  • 1951/52 Gordon Howe 47 goals; Mosienko 31 goals....51.6% gap
  • 1961/62 Bobby Hull 50 goals; Howe, Mahovlich 33 goals....51.5% gap
  • 1946/47 Maurice Richard 45 goals; Bauer, R.Conacher 30 goals....50.0% gap
  • 1970/71 Phil Esposito 76 goals; Bucyk 51 goals....49.0% gap
  • 1966/67 Bobby Hull 52 goals; Mikita 35 goals....48.6% gap
  • 1934/35 Charlie Conacher 36 goals;  Dillon 25 goals....44.0% gap
  • 1981/82 Wayne Gretzky 92 goals; Bossy 64 goals....43.8% gap
  • 1923/24 Cy Denneny 22 goals; Boucher, Burch, Dye 16 goals....37.5% gap
  • 1944/45 Maurice Richard 50 goals; Cain 32 goals....37.5% gap
  • 1956/57 Gordon Howe 44 goals; Beliveau, M.Richard 33 goals....33.3% gap
  • 1971/72 Phil Esposito 66 goals; Hadfield, Bobby Hull 50 goals....32.0% gap
  • 1999/00 Pavel Bure 58 goals;  Nolan 44 goals....31.8% gap
  • 1973/74 Phil Esposito 68 goals; Martin 52 goals....30.8% gap
  • 1991/92 Brett Hull 70 goals; Stevens 54 goals....29.6% gap
  • 2011/12 Steven Stamkos 50 goals; Malkin 39 goals....28.2% gap *as of 3/16/12
  • 2001/02 Jarome Iginla 52 goals; Guerin, Sundin, Murray 41 goals....26.8% gap
  • 1924/25 Babe Dye 38 goals; Joliat 30 goals...26.7% gap
  • 2007/08 Alex Ovechkin 65 goals; Kovalchuk 52 goals...25.0% gap
  • 1987/88 Mario Lemieux 70 goals; Simpson 56 goals....25.0% gap
No real shock that the two most convincing goal scoring titles in history belong to Bobby and Brett Hull. Stamkos certainly won't match that this season, but his margin of victory looks like it will be one of the more impressive ones ever.

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