One season in the NHL in which a hockey player scores 40 or more goals is routine for a player like Alexander Ovechkin. This mark has been surpassed 623 times in the history of the overseas elite league. This was not uncommon, especially during the 1970s and 1980s.
The 2019-20 season saw five players crack the 40-goal mark in the NHL regular season, even though the season was interrupted by a coronavirus outbreak. Last season, when teams played only 56 games, Auston Matthews was even able to reach that milestone.
Once in a while, however, somebody shows up to score more than forty goals in a single season, and then you never hear about them again in that context. Some manage to do it early in their careers, and others find the right chemistry with their teammates and manage to double their usual number of goals. In the chapters below, you will find the 20 most surprising 40-goal scorers in NHL history.
Canadian Wayne Babych was picked third overall in the 1978 NHL draft and was considered a great talent. He was discovered by scouts from the St. Louis Blues, who he played six of his nine seasons within the NHL. The fans loved him, but he was unlucky to play on a team that didn’t have enough good teammates around him.
In his debut season, he scored 27 goals; however, he managed to double that number in the 1980/81 season – he scored fifty-four times behind the goalkeepers’ backs. In the opinion of many commentators, he virtually single-handedly took the team to the playoffs, where they cruised past Pittsburgh but then failed to beat the New York Rangers in the second round. The remainder of Babych’s NHL career didn’t go so well – he was plagued by a series of injuries and never got past the 20-goal mark again. He ended his career at age 28 with 519 games and 438 points (192+246).
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