66, 68, 87, 71 in good company for the 400 Club

As we enter a stretch where every goal or point could be a significant milestone, Evgeni Malkin’s goal last night pushed him to 400 on his career. He joins the elite club of the four best Penguins’ of all time who have scored 400 goals with the team. You probably already know the list without needing to see it - Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Jaromir Jagr, and now Malkin.

It’s the Pens’ Mount Rushmore. Probably will be for a long, long time.

For funsies, here’s the other franchises’ around the league’s 400 club entries, just to give a sense of what a marker like this means. (It’s franchise, so Colorado includes the previous location in Quebec City, Carolina has Hartford, all that good stuff).

Anaheim (1) - Teemu Selanne (457)

Arizona (1) - Shane Doan (402)

Boston (3) - John Bucyk (545), Phil Esposito (459), Rick Middleton (402)

Buffalo (1) - Gilbert Perreault (512)

Calgary (1) - Jarome Iginla (525)

Carolina - none

Chicago (3) - Bobby Hull (604), Stan Mikita (541), Steve Larmer (406)

Colorado (2) - Joe Sakic (625), Michel Goulet (456)

Columbus - none

Dallas (1) - Mike Modano (557)

Detroit (4) - Gordie Howe (786), Steve Yzerman (692), Alex Delvecchio (456), Sergei Fedorov (400)

Edmonton (3) - Wayne Gretzky (583), Jari Kurri (474), Glenn Anderson (417)

Florida - none

Los Angeles (3) - Luc Robitaille (557), Marcel Dionne (550), Dave Taylor (431)

Minnesota - none

Montreal (5) - Maurice Richard (544), Guy Lafleur (518), Jean Beliveau (507), Yvan Cournoyer (428), Steve Shutt (408)

Nashville - none

New Jersey (1) - Patrik Elias (408)

New York I (2) - Mike Bossy (573), Bryan Trottier (500)

New York R (1) - Rod Gilbert (406)

Ottawa (1) - Daniel Alfredsson (426)

Philadelphia (1) - Bill Barber (420)

Pittsburgh (4) - Mario Lemieux (690), Sidney Crosby* (451), Jaromir Jagr (439), Evgeni Malkin* (400)

San Jose (1) - Patrick Marleau* (514)

St. Louis (1) - Brett Hull (527)

Tampa Bay (1) - Steven Stamkos* (406)

Toronto (1) - Mats Sundin (420)

Vancouver - none

Vegas - none

Washington (2) - Alex Ovechkin* (679), Peter Bondra (472)

Winnipeg - none

***

(* indicates still active with their team)

The Penguins are now tied with Detroit for second all-time with four members of the 400+ goals with a franchise club, behind only Montreal. And while the list above is pretty much nothing but legends, it’s hard to rank any team in front of Lemieux, Crosby, Jagr and Malkin for a compliment of skill.

Before it’s all said and done, the Pens could join the Canadiens by having three players to score 500+. Not bad for Pittsburgh existing half of the time as Montreal and having to deal with free agency and big time contracts in the modern day era.