I mean, it's not really surprising that a defenceman didn't score 50.Paul Coffey 48.
Messier suprisingly only did it once and only hit 50 on the nose.
Mikita had zero
There have been a lot of highly skilled European players that I think could have easily broken 50 but didn't for various reasons. A few that come to mind initially:
Alex Kovalev (44)
Kent Nilsson (49)
Tomas Sandstrom (45 in 68 games)
It’s really just the hype. Lindros had so much damn hype that it’s caused a bias. I was a young kid when he came into the league, but part of me sort of naively assumes/falsely remembers him as being better than he was. For example in the late 90s Jagr was tearing up the league, but until recently looking back on that time in depth I would have said Lindros was the best player in the league (just based off the hype that I still remember). Hell, he probably got more coverage than Jagr, Federov and Forsberg combined, all of whom had more impressive careers than him.
Both Mats and Markus, actually. Not sure who you're referring to, though.Näslund?
Dale Hawerchuk & Bryan Trottier also hit 50 only once.
Savard and Perreault are the ones I immediately thought of when reading this title. When you think of Savard you think of the spinorama goals immediately, and there were lots of them. But he only had 473, yeah "only", in his career. Just three times he hit 40 in a season, surprisingly. But he was an elite playmaker.
Perreault you think of the skating and the pretty skating strides that made you happy to be a fan. But yeah, never more than 44. Hard to believe. But he let guys like Rick Martin score more. Perreault was the playmaker. 512 in his career though. Three times at least 40.
actually, the guy i'm most surprised about never hitting 50 is darryl sittler. i don't know the 70s guys that well but among that second tier of star centers (ratelle, perreault) i felt like he was the most shootey. similar to hawerchuk, relative to stastny and savard.
I'm surpised that the entire nation of Swedes managed to score 50 goals once.
And that it took Håkan Loob of all people to do it while still not finishing top-5 in goals that year. Craig Simpson and Jimmy Carson enjoyed that list so much better.
Gilbert Perrault - topped out at 44 in 75-76. Linemate Rene Robert also topped out at 40.
Yvan Cournoyer only hit 47.
Frank Mahovlich 49.
Paul Coffey 48.
Jean Ratelle 46.
Dave Taylor peaked at 47 in 72 games.
Wendel Clark hit 46 in 64.
Patrick Kane (46)
Savard and Perreault are the ones I immediately thought of when reading this title. When you think of Savard you think of the spinorama goals immediately, and there were lots of them. But he only had 473, yeah "only", in his career. Just three times he hit 40 in a season, surprisingly. But he was an elite playmaker.