How many points would a prime Paul Kariya put up in todays NHL?

[Islay1989]

Disgusting.

Low key biggest POS to ever play the game. He went on the rampage prior to the Olympics and just targeted every star Canadian he could.

 

[BraveCanadian]

In prime seasons he'd be a steady 100+ point guy with peak as high as anyone today. The game today would suit him much more than a large part of his actual career.

 

[QJL]

Peak Kariya was pretty unreal. He would be among the best players in the league right now and push for the scoring title.

 

[Machinehead]

I think people are overshooting it here just a bit.

Crosby averages about 105 per 82. McDavid, 109. Malkin, 97.

I don't think Kariya is as good as any of those three. Only 7 guys had 85 points this past year in a fairly high-scoring season, although it was short. 19 guys hit that number last year, so I think high-80's, low-90's is a safe bet.

Now if it's *peak* Kariya and we're talking about that 108 point season where the guy in second had 44, that could easily have been 130-140 with a supporting cast.

 

[lawrence]

he had a similar career to Pavel Bure as in, both these guys didn't really have a chance to play with an elite centre. They were the play drivers.

 

[Regal]

I think people are overshooting it here just a bit.

Crosby averages about 105 per 82. McDavid, 109. Malkin, 97.

I don't think Kariya is as good as any of those three. Only 7 guys had 85 points this past year in a fairly high-scoring season, although it was short. 19 guys hit that number last year, so I think high-80's, low-90's is a safe bet.

Now if it's *peak* Kariya and we're talking about that 108 point season where the guy in second had 44, that could easily have been 130-140 with a supporting cast.

I think most people are looking at his best couple years with a full 82 games in the current scoring environment, not a 10-15 year prime like those guys (who all also played through the low scoring period in the early to mid 2010s). In a 5 year span from 95-96 to 99-00, Kariya finished 7th, 3rd, 3rd, 4th in points in his 4 mostly healthy seasons, and had 31 points in 22 games in the other (115 point pace in a year with only one player topping 100 points). Over those 5 years, he finished 5th in scoring and tied with Selanne for 4th in points per game. So if we're looking at his finishing around 5th in scoring that was MacKinnon this year with 93 points, on pace for 110, Crosby/Marchand the year before with 100, and MacKinnon again the year before that with 97. So roughly a 102 point pace over the last 3 seasons since scoring went up. I think that would be pretty reasonable. If it was over more than 5 or 6 years then yea, he'd probably drop quite a bit.

 

[thadd]

Disgusting.

Yeah that was beyond nasty. I'll never forget watching that on Sportdesk on the night that it happened. Paul's dad was working as a math teacher at my high school and everyone was talking about it the next day like a horrible tragedy had fallen upon the school, which my English/lit teacher often insisted he attended.

 

[Ducks in a row]

Prime Kariya would be a 100+ point player in a full 82 game season no doubt in my mind.

 

[Isaac Nootin]

Similar to Kane/Kuch so in his prime 100+