Islanders Legend Mike Bossy Made History 35 Years Ago Today

Islanders legend, Mike Bossy ranks very high on my list of players I wish I was able to see play. For fans 40 and younger, Bossy is an icon but we only know him from watching highlights or reading his insane stats off of a website.

35 years ago today, Bossy made history becoming the first player in the history of the league to score 30 or more goals in each of his first 10 seasons.

Seriously, my brain can't even begin to process that. Wayne Gretzky would also do that a couple of years later as he went the first 13 years in the league with 30 or more goals in a season. Alex Ovechkin also did it for the first 15 years of his career, the only reason it came to a stop was the shortened 2020-2021 season where he played in 45 games and still scored 24 goals.

Two times in Bossy's legendary career he led the league in goal scoring with 69 in the 1979 season and then 68 in the 1980-1981 season. In fact, his 10th and final season in the league was the only time he scored fewer than 50 goals in a season.

Legend doesn't even begin to do it justice with Mike Bossy. His career was unfortunately cut short due to injuries and he remains one of the biggest "what if's" in the sport.

He called it a career after his age 30 season with 573 career goals in 752 career games. If he played even 1,200 career games which is roughly another six seasons in the league, and kept up the same pace, he would've finished with 914 career goals which would currently put him in the lead (Gretzky holds the record at 894).

Hats off to Mike Bossy on this one, here's some of those goals that we can enjoy: