NEWSLETTER
On the 28th of each month – until the Blackhawks retire his jersey and/or the Hockey Hall of Fame inducts him – we’re celebrating the career of Steve Larmer. Our #retire28 campaign continues today as we look at how Gramps fared against the rest of the NHL.
During his 1,006-game regular season career, Larmer produced 1,012 points — making him a point-per-game player over 1,000 games at right wing. As we outlined previously, Larmer is one of only ten right wings to average a full point per contest over 1,000 games played — and one of the other nine is Patrick Kane.
Digging into his career, we find that Larmer didn’t discriminate when he produced offensively. In fact, he averaged a point-per-game against more than half of the NHL as it existed when he was a player.
Here are the teams against whom Larmer averaged a point per game during his career, a list that includes (sadly) the Blackhawks:
That’s 14 of the 26 NHL franchises that existed while Larmer played against whom he averaged a full point per game. It’s worth noting that Larmer only faced the original Winnipeg Jets.
Larmer just missed the mark with 39 points (16 G, 23 A) in 40 games against the Boston Bruins. He averaged better than .9 points per game against four more teams: the Bruins, Rangers (.94), Canucks (.92) and Red Wings (.91).
For the sake of comparison, Kane has averaged a full point-per-game against 17 of the 31 teams he has faced in his NHL career. If we go to averaging 0.9 points per night (Larmer was 18 for 26), Kane has done that against 25 of the 31 teams he has played against.
The team that gave Larmer the most trouble on the offensive end of the rink during his career: the Montreal Canadiens. Larmer was held to four goals and 16 assists for 20 points in 38 career regular-season games (.53 ppg). (He did face Anaheim just once and failed to register a point.)
