Two milestones for Stan Mikita, who scored his first NHL goal and his 1,300th NHL point on Oct. 7

October 7 was a big day for milestones in the career of Stan Mikita.

The Chicago Blackhawks legend scored his first NHL goal on this date in 1959, and he collected his 1,300^th regular season point exactly 17 years later.

Mikita, in his rookie season with Chicago, scored and also picked up an assist in his team’s season opener, a 5-2 win over the New York Rangers. It was Mikita’s fourth NHL game, as he had played in three contests the previous season as an amateur call-up from his junior club, the St. Catharines Teepees.

He had won the Ontario Hockey Association Junior A scoring championship with St. Catharines in 1958-59, scoring 38 goals and 97 assists in only 45 games, and was also named the league’s most outstanding player. Big things were expected of him in the NHL as well, but he struggled and the Calder Trophy for the best rookie went instead to his Chicago teammate, Bill Hay.

Mikita won his only Stanley Cup in 1961 with the Black Hawks (as they were known then), then finally broke out offensively in 1961-62, when he finished fourth in league scoring. He moved up to third the following season and won his first Art Ross Trophy in 1963-64 with a league-best 89 points. Mikita won four NHL scoring titles, and in 1967 and 1968 he achieved an unprecedented trifecta by winning the Art Ross Trophy, the Hart Trophy as most valuable player, and the Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship. No other player has won all three awards in the same season.

At age 36, Mikita entered the 1976-77 campaign with 1,297 total points. He wasted little time reaching the milestone of 1,300 points, doing so with a third-period goal – the 484^th of his career – that marked his third point of the night in a 6-4 win for Chicago over the St. Louis Blues. He became only the third player in NHL history to accumulate that many points, following Johnny Bucyk, who had accomplished the feat in March of the same year, and Gordie Howe, who got there in November 1964.

Mikita retired after chronic back pain cut short his 1979-80 season. He finished with 541 goals, 926 assists, and 1,467 points in 1,396 regular season games, adding 59 goals and 150 points in 155 post-season contests.

Also on this date:

1942 – Gordie Drillon, recently traded by the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Montreal Canadiens, was quoted as saying the trade was “the best thing that could have happened.” Disappointed at having been benched for the last four games of the recent Stanley Cup final, which the Leafs had won in a historic comeback, Drillon was happy to move on from Toronto. “It’ll be a welcome change of scenery,” he said to a reporter, adding that he was looking forward to playing again for Dick Irvin, the former Leafs’ coach who was now running the Habs’ bench. “I led the league in scoring for Dick and I think I can do it again.” Drillon, whose 1937-38 scoring title is the most recent one to have been won by a Leaf, got 28 goals and 50 points in his only season as a Canadien. The war interrupted his career in 1943 and, after it ended, he did not return to the NHL.

1955 – Andy Hebenton of the New York Rangers kicked off an NHL career that would see him become the league’s ironman. He suited up for the Rangers’ season opener against Chicago, the first of what would become 630 consecutive regular season games, breaking the record of 580 games, set in 1960 by Johnny Wilson. After eight seasons in New York, during which he also appeared in 22 playoff games, Hebenton was acquired by the Boston Bruins and finished his NHL career in 1964. He was never out of the lineup from the time he entered the NHL until he left it. Interestingly, given that he had ironman streaks in the minor-pro Western Hockey League immediately before and after his NHL career, Hebenton actually played in at least 1,100 consecutive games, including playoffs.

1972 – The visiting Atlanta Flames beat the New York Islanders 3-2 in the first regular season game for both teams, which were new to the NHL as expansion teams for 1972-73. Morris Stefaniw of the Flames scored not only his team’s first goal, and not only the first regular season goal at Nassau Coliseum, but also the only goal of his brief NHL career. Ed Westfall, the Islanders’ first captain, scored his team’s first goal. The Flames finished their inaugural season with a respectable 25-38-15 record and finished seventh in the eight-team West Division, while the Islanders were last in the East and overall at 12-60-6. But that last-place finish earned the Isles the first pick in the 1973 NHL Amateur Draft; they used it to select Denis Potvin.

1976 – On the same night Stan Mikita reached 1,300 points in the NHL, his new Chicago teammate, Bobby Orr, picked up his first two points as a Hawk. He had a goal and an assist.

1986 – The Detroit Red Wings named 21-year-old Steve Yzerman as their new captain. Chosen to replace Danny Gare, Yzerman was, and remains, the youngest captain in franchise history. He wore the ‘C’ for an NHL record 19 seasons – it would have been 20 if not for the lockout that wiped out 2004-05 – and hoisted three Stanley Cups with Detroit. He’s now the Red Wings’ general manager.

1990 – Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins scored his first NHL goal, and it turned out to be the winner in a 7-4 victory for the Pens over the New Jersey Devils. Jagr’s goal, at 14:10 of the third period, snapped a 4-4 tie.

1991 – Mark Messier, who had just relinquished the ‘C’ upon leaving the Edmonton Oilers three days earlier, was named captain of the New York Rangers. Messier was chosen to succeed Kelly Kisio, and as captain he brought the Stanley Cup back to Broadway in 1994, the team’s first championship since 1940. Messier actually had two stints as Rangers’ captain – from 1991 until 1997, when he signed with the Vancouver Canucks, then again from 2000 until 2004, when he played his last game.

1992 – Chris Kontos became an instant hero as the Tampa Bay Lightning won their first regular season game 7-3 over Chicago. Kontos scored four goals, including the first two in franchise history, while Joe Reekie added four assists. The Bolts finished their first season 23-54-7, sixth and last in the Norris Division. Kontos still shares team record with Martin St-Louis, who scored four in a January 2014 game against San Jose, and with Steven Stamkos, who got four against Edmonton in December 2023.