Jonathan Toews has accomplished many amazing feats during his 16 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, and he added one more significant benchmark to his Hall of Fame resume.
With his assist on Connor Murphy’s goal during the second period in Dallas on Wednesday night, Toews becomes just the eighth player in Blackhawks’ franchise history to record 500 assists.
Here’s the short list of players ahead of the Captain on Chicago’s all-time rankings:
- Stan Mikita — 926
- Patrick Kane — 762
- Denis Savard — 719
- Doug Wilson — 554
- Bobby Hull — 549
- Duncan Keith — 520
- Steve Larmer — 517
- Jonathan Toews — 500
Toews is now just 17 assists behind Steve Larmer (#retire28) for the seventh spot on the all-time assists ladder with a couple of months before the NHL trade deadline and a chance to move up another spot or two before all is said and done.
Toews, who was the third overall selection in 2006, becomes the fourth member of his draft class to reach 500 career regular-season assists. Washington’s Nicklas Backstrom, Ottawa’s Claude Giroux and Vegas’ Phil Kessel have also passed the milestone.
He is also the 22nd active skater to have 500 regular-season assists (though NHL.com’s active leaderboard still includes Mikko Koivu and Keith for some reason, I’m not counting them).