The best season a player from each NHL team had while missing the playoffs
If your team misses the playoffs, the season was a failure and there’s nothing to celebrate. Or at least, that’s typically what fans are told, especially at this time of year. And often, it’s true enough. But not always, because even a season that doesn’t lead to a playoff run can still have its highlights. Like, for example, a player who puts together a season for the ages, despite all the losing. That sort of success seems worth recognizing. So today’s assignment is simple: Let’s go through all 32 teams and highlight the single best season any player has ever had in a year where they still didn’t make the playoffs.
Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks have had two players hit the 50-goal mark in a non-playoff season, and you can probably guess who they are. Paul Kariya had 50 in 1995-96, which was all the more impressive for being just his second NHL season. But I’m going to go with Teemu Selanne and his 52-goal campaign in 1997-98, which still stands as the franchise’s single-season record. It was so impressive that Selanne was a finalist for the Hart despite the (Mighty) Ducks missing the playoffs by 13 points.
Boston Bruins
Despite having a ton of history to draw from, we don’t have to go very far back to find a Bruins candidate. That would be David Pastrnak, who had 43 goals and 106 points last year, while also being one of the only Bruins to make it through the whole season without being traded.
Buffalo Sabres
We’ve got lots of options to choose from here, including multiple Rasmus Dahlin seasons and Rick Martin’s 52 goals in 1973-74. But as with most attempts to find a “best” of just about anything with the Sabres, this one ends with everyone looking up at Dominik Hasek. Specifically, his 1995-96 season in which he led the league with both a .920 save percentage and 43.3 goals saved above average. Note that this was considered a bad year by Hasek’s standards; it was the only season in a six-year stretch where he didn’t both win the Vezina and be a Hart finalist. What a bum.
Calgary Flames
There are two strong candidates from the 1991-92 team, with Gary Roberts scoring 53 goals while Al MacInnis added 20 from the blue line. But there’s no surprise over who I’m going with here: One of my all-time favorites, Jarome Iginla. This will, of course, be his 2001-02 campaign, which saw him put up 52 goals and 96 points to win both the Rocket Richard and the Art Ross. But not, somehow, the Hart — he finished tied for first with Jose Theodore, who won on the tie breaker. Why yes, I do plan to die mad about that, thanks for checking.
Carolina Hurricanes
If we’re counting the Whalers years, we could go with Blaine Stoughton’s 52 goals, or maybe somebody such as Brendan Shanahan or Geoff Sanderson, or even Zarley Zalapski. But we’ll keep it in Carolina, which means I think we give the nod to Cam Ward back in 2010-11, when he led the league in games, minutes, shots and saves and somehow still had the energy to put up a .923 season and finish a career-best seventh in Vezina voting.
Chicago Blackhawks
I’m not sure what’s weirder: that we have a Hart Trophy winner available to us, or that he’s barely in the running. That would be Al Rollins, the beleaguered goalie on the 1953-54 team that finished last while hanging him out to dry so badly that he got the Hart in one of the weirdest pity votes in sports history. Instead, we’ll go with Bobby Hull, whose 58 goals didn’t just lead the league in 1968-69, but stood as the most any player had ever had in NHL history to that point.
Colorado Avalanche
The offensive ranks are dominated by Nordiques, including 100-plus point seasons by Joe Sakic, Peter Stastny and Michel Goulet. I’ll give the nod to Joe Sakic, but we’ll make it the 2006-07 version, who had 100 points on the nose at the age of 36 in what would turn out to be the last full season of his career.
Columbus Blue Jackets
We’ll pause here so you can all get your “isn’t every year of Blue Jackets history a non-playoff year” jokes off, because Columbus actually serves up three very strong candidates. We could go with Rick Nash’s 2003-04 season, in which he earned a share of the Rocket Richard with the genuinely hilarious stat line of 41 goals and 16 assists. There’s last year’s Zach Werenski campaign (and maybe this year’s). But I’m going to go with Sergei Bobrovsky in 2012-13, in which he made his Blue Jackets debut by winning his first of two Vezinas.
Dallas Stars
We’ve got lots of North Stars history to choose from, including some impressive seasons from Dino Ciccarelli, Brian Bellows and Bill Goldsworthy. Dallas doesn’t give us quite as much to work with, which means we probably have no choice but to go with Jamie Benn and his 2014-15 season that saw him lead the league in scoring. That’s right, an Art Ross despite a playoff miss. Impressive, right? Please don’t ask how many points he had.
Detroit Red Wings
With all due respect to DGB favorite Reed Larson, who managed 60-plus points from the blue line while missing the playoffs five different times, this one ends up being easy. With a nod to Marcel Dionne’s 121 points in 1974-75, it has to be Steve Yzerman and his 62 goals and 127 points in 1989-90.
Edmonton Oilers
The Gretzky-era Oilers never missed the playoffs, and the decade of darkness doesn’t offer us much beyond the occasional solid season from Sheldon Souray or Devan Dubnyk, so this is going to come down to Connor McDavid vs. Leon Draisaitl. While Draisaitl can boast a 50-goal season in 2018-19, I’ll go with Connor McDavid and his 108-point Art Ross win in 2017-18.
Florida Panthers
A funny thing about Panthers history is that it’s chock full of goaltenders having excellent seasons and missing the playoffs anyway. On most teams, Roberto Luongo’s 2003-04 season would be an easy pick, given he led the league in goals saved above average while finishing as a Vezina finalist. But I think he’s narrowly beaten out by John Vanbiesbrouck in 1993-94, as the former Ranger stood on his head for a brand-new expansion team, finishing as Vezina runner-up and a Hart finalist. (Bronze goes to Pavel Bure’s 59 goals in 2000-01).
Los Angeles Kings
It’s another tough break for Marcel Dionne, whose 56 goals and 107 points in 1982-83 would top most teams. Not the Kings, though, as the first ever career playoff miss by Wayne Gretzky in 1993-94 came with a league-leading 92 assists and an Art Ross-winning 130 points.
