Top Single Season Point Producers In Philadelphia Flyers History

The Philadelphia Flyers were one of six teams to enter the National Hockey League as part of the 1967-68 expansion. The Flyers were the first of the six to win a Stanley Cup, accomplishing the feat in 1973-74 and again in 1974-75. The team has seen surprisingly few individual offensive outbreaks. Just five different players have totaled 100 or more points in a single season with the record sitting at a surpassable 123.

Mark Recchi

Mark Recchi holds Philadelphia’s single season record with 123 points. Recchi accomplished this over 84 games in 1992-93, scoring 53 goals and adding 70 assists. The total was good for just tenth place in the NHL that season with Mario Lemieux capturing the Art Ross Trophy with 160 points. As a team, Philadelphia finished fifth in the Patrick Division that year, out of playoff contention.

Recchi was originally a fourth round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1988. 1992-93 was one three times Mark surpassed the 100 point plateau over his 1,652 game NHL career. He played in the league from 1988-89 to 2010-11 with the Penguins, Flyers, Montreal Canadiens, Carolina Hurricanes, Atlanta Thrashers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins. He sits fourth on the NHL’s all-time games played list behind only Gordie Howe, Mark Messier and Ron Francis.

Bobby Clarke

Bobby Clarke is behind the second and third single season point productions in Flyers history. In 1975-76, he accumulated 119 points on 30 goals and 89 assists in 76 games. He finished second to Guy Lafleur of the Montreal Canadiens in the scoring race and won the Hart Trophy as league MVP. The Flyers finished first in the Patrick Division and second overall, behind only Montreal. Philadelphia met the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup final and were swept in four games.

Clarke was a second round pick of the Flyers in 1969. He played a total of 1,144 regular season NHL games between 1969-70 and 1983-84, all with Philadelphia. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy on three occasions and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987. The Bob Clarke Trophy is handed out each season in the WHL to the player with the most points. Clarke led the league twice as a member of the Flin Flon Bombers in 1967-68 and 1968-69.

Bobby totalled 116 points the previous season, 1974-75, on 27 goals and 89 assists over 80 games. Clarke finished sixth in the race for the Art Ross Trophy, behind winner Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins. The Flyers finished the regular season first in the Patrick Division and won the Stanley Cup with a 4-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

Eric Lindros

Eric Lindros contributed 115 points in 1995-96 on 47 goals and 68 assists in 73 games. It was Eric’s only 100 point season and he finished that season sixth in the NHL with Mario Lemieux leading with 161. The Flyers were first in the Atlantic Division and bowed out to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

Lindros was the first overall pick at the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, going to the Quebec Nordiques. He was fresh off earning the Eddie Powers Trophy as the Ontario Hockey League’s leading scorer with 149 points in just 57 games with the Oshawa Generals. He played 760 regular season games during his NHL career with the Flyers, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Dallas Stars. He won the Hart Trophy in 1994-95.

Bill Barber

Bill Barber played second fiddle to Bobby Clarke in 1975-76 with 112 points on 50 goals and 62 assists in 80 games. Barber finished fourth in league scoring, two positions behind Clarke. It was Bill’s only 100 point season in the NHL after two with the Kitchener Rangers in the Ontario Hockey Association.

He was the seventh overall pick at the 1972 NHL Amateur Draft. He played 903 regular season games between 1972-73 and 1983-84, all with the Flyers. Barber was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990.

Hockey Trivia: You Gotta Have Hart

The Hart Memorial Trophy has been handed out to the National Hockey League’s Most Valuable Player since 1924. The trophy was donated to the NHL by Doctor David Hart, who was the father of Cecil Hart, former coach and general manager of the Montreal Canadiens.

Test and expand your hockey trivia knowledge with these following questions regarding the Hart Memorial Trophy.

Q. What Philadelphia Flyers player won the Hart in 1994-95?

A. Eric Lindros won the Hart Trophy in 1995. Lindros tied Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins for most points during the shortened 1994-95 NHL season. Lindros and Jagr both had 70 points, five more than Alexei Zhamnov of the Winnipeg Jets. Jagr was awarded the Art Ross Trophy because he had more goals.

After a junior career with the Oshawa Generals in the Ontario Hockey League, Lindros played 760 regular season games in the National Hockey League from 1992-93 to 2006-07 with the Flyers, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Dallas Stars. His numbers were impressive with 372 goals and 493 assists for 865 points.

Q. Who is the only NHL goalie to win consecutive Hart Trophies?

A. Dominik Hasek of the Buffalo Sabres won the Hart Trophy in 1996-97 and 1997-98. Hasek and Jose Theodore are the only goalies to win the Hart since Jacques Plante won it in 1962.

Hasek started his NHL career humbly with the Chicago Blackhawks, appearing in just five games in 1990-91 and 20 the following season. However, once he was sent to the Buffalo Sabres for the 1992-93 season, Dominik’s NHL career took off. He played with the Sabres until the end of 2001-02 before joining the Detroit Red Wings. Hasek also played a year with the Ottawa Senators along with pro hockey in the Czech Extraliga and the Russia based KHL before retiring after the 2010-11 season.

Q. Other than Wayne Gretzky, who was the only player to win the Hart Trophy during the 1980’s?

A. Mario Lemieux won the Hart in 1988 while playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Gretzky won the previous eight as a member of the Edmonton Oilers and won again the year following Lemieux as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.

The first overall pick at the 1984 NHL Entry Draft, Lemieux won the Hart Trophy two more times over his career. He played his entire NHL career with the Penguins from 1984-85 to 2005-06 with a three year layoff between 1997-98 and 1999-00.

Q. Who was the first player to win the Hart Trophy when it was introduced in 1924?

A. Frank Nighbor of the Ottawa Senators won the first ever Hart Trophy. Nighbor was also the first ever recipient of the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy when it was introduced the following year. In that 1923-24 season, Frank scored ten goals and assistsed on three for 13 points over 20 games. Ottawa placed first overall in the four team league over the 24 game regular season schedule. The Senators then fell to the Montreal Canadiens in a two game total goal Stanley Cup final.

Nighbor played with the Senators from 1915-16 until a midseason traded sent him to the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1929-30, his final year in the NHL. Frank was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947. It was just the second round of inductions with 1945 being the first.

 

Hockey Trivia: Keystone State

The state of Pennsylvania is home to two NHL hockey teams, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers. Both teams entered the league during the expansion season of 1967-68. They are not the first NHL teams to play out of these cities. In the early days of the National Hockey League, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Quakers existed for a short period of time.

Test and expand your hockey trivia knowledge with these four questions with a Keystone State theme.

Q. What was the first team to beat the St. Louis Blues?

A. The Pittsburgh Penguins entered the league along with the St. Louis Blues and four other teams in 1967-68. St. Louis played their first ever game against the Minnesota North Stars and the game ended in a 2-2 tie. The Blues faced the Penguins in their second game and Pittsburgh won by a score of 3-1.

Q. What team did the St. Louis Blues record their first ever win against?

A. The next night, after the Blues fell to the Penguins for their first loss, the Blues scored a 4-2 victory in the home and home weekend set. Ironically, both teams won in the other team’s arena.

Q. Mark Recchi has scored 50 goals in a season once in his long, illustrious career. What team was he playing for when he accomplished this?

A. In 1992-93, Recchi scored 53 goals for the Philadelphia Flyers. Other than that season, the closest Mark would get to the 50 goal plateau were two 40 goal seasons, one with the Flyers and one with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He finished up his NHL career with 577 goals over 22 seasons.

A true representative of the Keystone State in the National Hockey League, Recchi spent parts of 16 of his 22 seasons with teams in Pennsylvania. Mark was a fourth round pick of the Penguins at the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, 67^th overall, and started his career in Pittsburgh in 1988-89. He was traded to the Flyers midway through 1991-92 and played with them until being traded to Montreal during the 1994-95 season. Recchi was returned to Philadelphia by Montreal midway through 1998-99 and remained with the club until the end of the 2003-04 season. He then spent parts of three more years with the Penguins between 2005-06 and 2007-08.

Q. What Flyers player had three consecutive 50+ goal seasons in the mid 1990’s?

A. John LeClair had 51 goals in 1995-96, 50 in 1996-97 and 51 in 1997-98. In keeping with the Keystone State theme, LeClair finished up his career with the cross-state Pittsburgh Penguins. After starting his NHL career in Montreal in 1990-91, John was traded to Philadelphia during the 1994-95 season, ironically in exchange for Mark Recchi. He remained with the Flyers until 2003-04 and joined Recchi in Pittsburgh for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons before retiring.