Colorado Avalanche forward Jarome Iginla will play in his 1500th NHL game on Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens.
Iginla was one of the game’s best power forwards in the early aughts, captaining the Calgary Flames to a Stanley Cup Final in 2004.
The 39-year-old has 614 goals, good for 16th on the all-time list, 11 behind Joe Sakic for 15th. Jaromir Jagr (755) is the only active player with more goals.
“It’s one of those things you don’t really think about along the way, but as it approaches and I get there, or get really close, it definitely makes me appreciate how fortunate I’ve been to play this long and play that amount of games,” Iginla told ESPN when asked about the milestone. “When you start, you don’t think about it like that, you’re just playing. It’s one also that I’m very thankful for because a lot of it is staying healthy.
“A lot of that is out of our control and I’ve been very fortunate, very lucky.”
The Edmonton native’s 1279 points has him 35th on the all-time scoring list, and he is likely to pass Alex Delvecchio (1281) by season’s end.
He was drafted 11th overall in 1995 by the Dallas Stars and traded to Calgary for Joe Nieuwendyk in December of that year.
There, he won the Rocket Richard Trophy twice (in 2002 and ’04), and the Art Ross Trophy once (’04).
The six-time all-star is in the final season of his three-year, $16-million contract with Colorado and has accumulated 1,001 career penalty minutes.
He’s also spent time with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Boston Bruins in his 20-year NHL career.
