Steven Stamkos scored his 500th NHL goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
The 32-year-old forward reached the milestone when he scored at 4:40 of the first period from a pass off the top of the crease. Alex Killorn. He then scored no. 501 at 14:35 after Killorn carried the puck out from behind the net and fed him in front.
Stamkos is the 47th player in NHL history to score 500 goals and the third active, joining the Washington Capitals forward. Alex Ovechkin (810) and Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (538). He is also the 23rd to do so with one NHL team, and the 18th to score 500 goals and get 1,000 points in fewer than 1,000 games (965).
Stamkos got his 1,000th point in a 4-1 win at the Philadelphia Flyers on Dec. 1.
“It just brings back so many amazing memories, like your parents getting you involved in the game, all that kind of stuff, just kind of flashes back,” Stamkos said after that game. “It’s one of those things that I don’t think hits you until a little later, but just to share that with the guys on the ice, that’s something you never dream of as a kid. So, for it to become a reality is pretty awesome.”
Selected with the no. 1 pick in the 2008 NHL Draft, Stamkos is Tampa Bay’s all-time leader in goals, points (1,023), power-play goals (190), power-play points (370), game-winning goals (76) and overtime goals. (13). He is second in assists (522), behind Martin St. Louis (588).
Stamkos also has 91 points (43 goals, 48 assists) in 117 playoff games, including helping the Lightning win back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021.
“That’s it [15] years of anticipation of getting your 500th goal,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said Thursday. “It’s a pretty exciting time, but I’m sure it can be a little stressful too because you want to get it over with. But eventually it will come, and just like his 1,000th point, when he gets it, he will reflect back and be like, ‘Wow, that’s a heck of a lot of goals.'”
Stamkos has won the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL’s leader in goals twice, the first coming in 2009-10, when he tied Crosby with 51 goals, and again in 2011-12, when he scored an NHL career-high 60.&
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