Crosby set his mark in the 1,310th game of his career, while Lemieux needed just 915 games. The fact Lemieux reached it in nearly 400 fewer games is a testament to not only how dominant he was, but also the era he played in where offense was significantly higher than most of Crosby’s era.
Either way, they are both among the 10 greatest players in NHL history.
Crosby is 12th on the NHL’s all-time assist list and has a chance to move into the top-10 by the end of this season.
He is just 15 assists behind Gordie Howe (1,049), the player who currently occupies the No. 10 spot.
Marcel Dionne (1,040) is in the No. 11 spot and the next player for Crosby to top on the all-time list.
Between the two of them, Crosby and Lemieux are the Penguins’ all-time leaders in most major offensive categories.
Crosby has the games-played, assists, even-strength goals, game-winning goals and shots-on-goal marks, while Lemieux has the goals-scored, power-play goals and shorthanded-goals marks.
Crosby is still 98 goals behind Lemieux (690 vs. 602) for that record, which may be tough for him to match. He does, however, have a great chance of breaking the all-time total points record in the franchise as he is just 87 points back as of Sunday.
Crosby is in his age-37 season and just signed a two-year contract extension that keeps him in Pittsburgh for three more full seasons. (He has one more year on his current contract and then the two-year extension.)
The fact he is still playing at such an elite rate offensively only adds to his status as one of the NHL’s best ever. The other big record Crosby is chasing this season is that if he maintains a point-per-game average, it would be the 20th consecutive season in which he has done that, breaking a record previously held by Wayne Gretzky.
