Will a NY Islanders player score 50 Goals Again? A Look at the decades long drought

It’s one of the most elusive milestones in New York Islanders history and one that hasn’t been touched in over 30 years. The last Islander to score 50 goals in a single season was Pierre Turgeon, who lit the lamp 58 times in 1992-93. Since then, fans have waited and waited for another sniper to join that elite club. So far, no one has.

Only four players in franchise history have ever reached the 50-goal plateau: Mike Bossy, Pat LaFontaine, Bryan Trottier, and Turgeon. Of them, Bossy stands alone - not just as the greatest goal scorer in Islanders history, but as one of the greatest the NHL has ever seen. He hit the 50-goal mark an incredible nine times, a feat that feels almost mythic in today's league.

Since Turgeon's 58-goal season, the closest any Islander has come was Zigmund Palffy, who had three consecutive 40+ goal seasons in the late 1990s. Palffy scored as many as 48 during the 1996-97 season as a 24-year-old and even finished 12th in Hart trophy voting on an awful Isles team. After that, the diminutive Jason Blake surprised everyone with 40 goals in 2006-07, and Anders Lee hit 40 in 2017-18. But 50? It remains out of reach.

The current roster isn’t built around a pure goal scorer. Mathew Barzal is a playmaker. Bo Horvat is steady and a consistent 30-goal threat, as is Kyle Palmieri, but neither has come close to 50 goals during their NHL career. Brock Nelson, who is now in Colorado, led the team in scoring for years, but never amassed more than 37 (in 72 games) during the 2021-22 season.

The NHL posted a graphic on social media Saturday that showed the last 50-goal scorer for each team. The Islanders aren't alone in having to go back 30 years or more for a 50-goal scorer, and some franchises have never had one. That list includes the New Jersey Devils and many of the newer franchises, such as Seattle and Vegas, along with Columbus and Utah (formerly Arizona). Nashville and Minnesota are also on the list.

For now, the 50-goal mark remains sacred ice, untouched since the early '90s. But with the Islanders slowly transitioning into a more offensive-minded organization, the dream isn’t dead. It’s just waiting for the right shot and the right moment to come back to life. Cole Eiserman, maybe? Long shot, and we could only be so lucky if he can regularly sniff that number. So, while having a 50-goal scorer isn't necessary to win a Stanley Cup, Islanders fans may have a better chance of seeing that happen before another player hits the milestone not reached since Turgeon.