Islanders history during Patrick Marleau’s record-breaking career

Last night, San Jose Sharks forward Patrick Marleau broke an NHL record many thought couldn’t be broken. Marleau passed Gordie Howe’s games-played record of 1,767 NHL games by skating in game number 1,768. With the record broken, I wanted to look at the New York Islanders during Marleau’s record-breaking career.

Drafted second overall in 1997, Marleau made jumped straight into the NHL for the 1997-98 season. That was an incredible 23 years ago now.

So knowing the Isles history you can imagine that they haven’t been exactly “eye-catching” since Marleau entered the league over two decades ago.

New York Islanders record since 1997

Since Marleau entered the league, the New York Islanders have a 786-785-67(ties)-163 record. That’s 1,802 points from 1,801 games for an exact 0.500 record. Which ranks them 26th in the NHL. Only the Oilers, Wild, Jets, Blue Jackets, and Golden Knight have fewer points.

Now, to be fair to some of these teams below the Isles, haven’t exactly been around as long. The Wild and Blue Jackets only joined the NHL in the 2000-01 season. The Jets didn’t become a franchise (again) until 2011. And the Golden Knights didn’t exist until 2017.

So actually, the Oilers are the only team with a worse record than the Islanders since 1997-98. Woof.

At the player level here are some of the leaders for a number of categories:

• Games played: Josh Bailey (908)
• Goals: John Tavares (272)
• Assists: John Tavares (349)
• Points: John Tavares (621)
• Starts (goalie): Rick DiPietro (309)
• Wins (goalie): Rick DiPietro (130)
• GAA (goalie)*: Robin Lehner (2.13)
• SV% (goalie)*: Robin Lehner (2.13)

*At least 20 games played.

Josh Bailey could very well join the Isles 1,000 games played club. Only Bryan Trottier and Denis Potvin are the only two members of that prestigious club.

We might not like how John Tavares left things, but there’s no doubt how impactful he was for the Islanders while he was here. His 621 points since he put on the Orange and Blue isn’t even close to being broken. Josh Bailey is second in points with 501 points.

In the crease, you can see why Islanders fans were so keen to have Ilya Sorokin make his way to North America this season. DiPietro hasn’t played an NHL game since February 2013 but eight years later he still holds the lead in starts and wins.

Thomas Griess is second for both starts and wins with 180 starts and 101 wins.