Teemu Selanne just turned 50: Here's 50 interesting facts about Selanne's career!

Mulletman

Registered User
Feb 23, 2013
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3,716
So one of the greatest hockey players of all time just turned 50. This is a good time to look at 50 interesting facts about Selanne and his career. Some well known facts and some lesser known facts. So here we go:

#1: Selanne scored 76 goals during his rookie year in 1992-93 which is the rookie record for goals. This is by far the best known fact about Selanne and has totally shaped his career ever since...

#2: Selanne also scored 132 points during his rookie season. It's tecnically also the rookie record even if Gretzky had 137 points in his first NHL season. But Gretzky didn't count as a rookie...

#3: Selanne also used to have the longest point streak by a rookie at 17 games straight with a point. Unfortunately that was broken by Paul Stastny in 2006-07, when Stastny put up a point in at least 20 games. Being beaten by Paul Stastny, now that is embarrassing...

#4: Selanne's famous glove shooting celebration only happened once...

#5: Selanne also holds the record for the most goals ever in the month of March with 20 goals. That record was set in March 1993. Unfortunately Selanne had 4 goals on February 28th. If the schedule was moved by 1 day forward Selanne would've scored 24 goals, which would've been the most goals in any month ever!

#6: Selanne started his second season with a hattrick in his first game. The hype after this game was incredible and many thought he was going to beat Gretzky's 92 goal season.

#7: Even if Selanne was able to break Mike Bossy's rookie record he wasn't able to reach 100 goals in less games than Bossy. It took Selanne 130 NHL games to score 100 NHL goals. That's one game slower than Bossy and only the 2nd fastest in history to 100 goals when you measure in games played...

#8: Selanne used #8 as his jersey number for most of his career

#9: Selanne severed his achilles tendon in his second season and missed the final 33 games. Many say he was never the same player after this and only recovered to gaining about 85 % of his speed and skating ability for the rest of his career...

#10: Selanne was drafted 10th overall in the 1988 NHL draft. My Leafs selected Scott Pearson with the number 6 pick that year... :(

#11: Selanne lost the 1994-95 Art Ross because of this hit by Peca on February 9th: You get a good angle of the hit at around 1:05. At this time Selanne was already 4 points ahead of his team mate Zhamnov who finished the season 3rd in points only 5 points behind Jagr and Lindroos for the Art Ross.

#12: Despite being one of the greatest goal scorers of all time Selanne only led the NHL in goals 3 times...

#13: Selanne also used #13 as his jersey number. This was mostly during his rookie season and during his rebirth season in 2005-06

#14: Selanne was traded to Anaheim during the 1995-96 season. The trade messed up his pointscoring streak as he went pointless in his last game with Winnipeg. Selanne had points in 15 straight games at the time and would go on to have points in his 15 first games with Anaheim. So if the trade didn't mess with Selannes mind he could've had a 31 game point streak. Only Gretzky and Lemieux has ever had a longer point streak in the NHL...

#15:
Selanne's numbers fell off in 1995-96 after his trade to Anaheim. He was on pace for 115 points when the trade went down but ended up with only 108 points...

#16: Kariya benefitted hugely from the Selanne trade as Selanne carried him to his only 50 goal season in his career. Kariya scored 21 of his 50 goals after Selanne arrived to set him up...

#17: Hockey historians has had a Kariya fetish and have tried to make him out to be the better player despite Selanne outscoring him on a regular basis before his knees broke down...

#18: A little known fact is that Selanne played the original Winnipeg Jets in their last game before being shipped off to Arizona and becomming the Coyotes...

#19: Some view 1996-97 as Selanne's best season as he set a Ducks record with 109 points and finished 2nd to Lemieux. If Lemieux had desided to retire one year earlier Selanne would've won the Art Ross as the only player to reach 100 points...

#20: Selanne scored the most points and goals in NHL in 1997. Selanne had 63 goals and 106 points. The bigger surprise is that some guy named John LeClair was second with 56 goals and 103 points...

#21: Selanne became the first European player to win the MVP award at the 1998 All Star game...

#22: Selanne made his debut in the NHL as a 22 year old. This means he had already lost 4 seasons of NHL hockey by this time. Or in other words anywere between 250 - 400 NHL career points...

#23: Kariya's greedyness cost Selanne the Art Ross in 1997-98, when Kariya held out for the first 32 games of the season. Selanne's numbers for those games speak for them self as he put up 24+9=33 points

#24: Despite Selanne scoring 24 powerplay goals in his rookie season it's not the rookie record for powerplay goals...

#25: The 1997-98 season was the last time that Selanne was able to reach 50 goals despite playing for another 16 years in the NHL. Selanne only scored 50 goals or more 3 times in the NHL...

#26: Selanne became the first player ever to win the Rocket Richards trophy after leading the NHL with 47 goals in 1998-99.

#27: Despite finishing 5th in points in 1999-00 it was shaping up to become a real disaster for Selanne. Selanne was actually 40th in scoring as laste as January 20th 2000 when he was tied with Claude Lemieux. But Selanne turned things around and actually scored the most points of all players from there on out during the rest of the regular season and was able to climbe to 5th overall in points.

#28: Selanne has said that his knee problems started during the 2000-01 season. Selanne even had a small knee surgery in the middle of the season when he was traded to San Jose.

#29: Selanne's debut with the Sharks was off to a rocky start. But as soon as he faced the Ducks for the first time after the trade he put up a hattrick.

#30: Despite many Sharks fans trying to paint Selanne's stay with the Sharks as a complete failure, Selanne had the most goals and points of any Sharks player during his run with the Sharks from 2001 to 2003...

#31: Selanne would've been traded to New Jersey before the 2003 trade deadline, but he blocked the trade with his no trade clause. If he had gone to New Jersey he would've won the cup while playing against his former Ducks team mates.

#32: Going to Colorado ended up being the lowpoint in Selanne's career as he only had 16 goals and 32 points playing mostly on the 4th line with limited icetime and busted up knees...

#33: After getting new knees Selanne made the biggest comeback since John Travola in Pulp Fiction by putting up 40 goals and 90 points...

#34: Selanne won his only cup in 2007...

#35: Selanne ended the 2006-07 regular season with 48 goals only 2 goals from becomming the oldest player ever to reach 50 goals. But at least Selanne became the oldest player to reach 45 goals and the oldest player with back to back 40 goal seasons...

#36: Selanne sat out the first 56 games in 2007-08 because of lazyness and lack of motivation. A decision that cost him around 25 goals based on the pace he had after returning. This basically made Selanne lose out on both hitting 700 goals and 1500 points and thereby delivering a huge blow to his overall legacy...

#37: Selanne has said that it wasn't until comming back after winning the cup that he really started taking hockey seriously and really enjoying it to the fullest. He also said that he had seen how dedicated Sakic was to training and learned what it takes to stay in shape from him. Also said that be picked up a lot of stuff regarding neutrition from Kariya.

#38: In 2008-09 Selanne got injured while being on the greatest powerplay run of his career. Anaheims powerplay was running perfectly and Selanne had 13 powerplay goals after only 20 games. That's a pace of 53 powerplay goals during a full season, easily shattering Tim Kerr's single season record of 34 powerplay goals from 1985-86...

#39: Selanne was joined by his finnish buddy Saku Koivu for the 2009-10 season. Unfortunately Koivu was over the hill by this time and Selanne was once again struck by several injuries missing 28 games in total

#40: In 2010-11 Selanne had his last great run as he put up 80 points in 73 games as a 40 year old. That was good enough for 8th in points while missing 9 games because of hip problems. Selanne also had the best playoffs of his career with 6 goals in 6 games.

#41: Selanne was good enough to reach the top 10 in points for the first time in 1992-93 and for the last time in 2010-11, that's a 18 year gap inbetween. The only 2 players to be able to do the same are Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe...

#42: The sucess of Selanne in 2010-11 also made 2 old hockey legends return to the NHL as both Peter Forsberg and Jaromir Jagr decided to return. Jagr never admitted it but it's been speculated that he only returned so Selanne wouldn't pass him in goals. Selanne was only 9 goals behind Jagr after 2010-11 and both had been bitter rivals throughout the 90s

#43: The 2011-12 season was a complete disaster for Anaheim as Getzlaf lost most of his hair and confidence and dragged Corey Perry down along with him. So Selanne had to pretty much carry the team and ended up leading his team in scoring at 41 with 66 points. This tied Gordie Howe's record, but Jagr later broke it by leading the Panthers in scoring...

#44: A little known fact about Selanne is that he has a twin brother named Paavo. But Paavo Selanne quit playing hockey, so Selanne was basically Daniel Sedin without his Henrik for his whole career. Just imagine what could've been with another Selanne feeding him the puck during all those years...

#45: Another little known fact is that Selanne was 8th in scoring during a 2 year period from february 2010 to the end of January 2012: NHL.com Stats All this while playing less games than anybody infront of him...

#46: The 2012-13 season started off with a bang as both Selanne and Jagr opened the season with 4 point nights. Unfortunately it was pretty much all downhill from there for Selanne as age finally started to catch up to him...

#47: Selanne played his last season in 2013-14 and it was a complete mess with anaheim failing to use him to his potential. But a bright spot was the fact that Selanne was able to win the MVP award as the best player at the Olympics at 43 years old. Selanne also holds the all time record for most points scored in the Olympics...

#48: Selanne played until the wheels fell off and after his career was over he released a controversial book were he bashed Ryan Getzlaf and coach Bruce Bordeau for holding him back the last few years of his career.

#49: Selanne has remained a popular figure in his home country Finland and has been seen as resposible for the current popularity and development of Finnish hockey players. He has had some backlash for his far right political views, but still enjoys a pretty huge following...

#50: Teemu Selanne became a first ballot hall of famer in 2017. Paul Kariya joined him in the Hall of fame the same year. Paul Kariya admitted that he wouldn't have made the Hall of fame without Teemu Selanne...
 

jetsforever

Registered User
Dec 14, 2013
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Gotta give props for putting together this giant list, although it's a bit sad with all the Ross near-misses
Also, "Selanne was basically Daniel Sedin without his Henrik for his whole career." :laugh:
 

Black Kevin

I don't work my ass off
Nov 19, 2019
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Before someone compares him to Thomas or TonyD, fwiw, far right political views in finland are not quite the same as far right political views in the US.
 

RorschachWJK

Registered User
Dec 28, 2004
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Before someone compares him to Thomas or TonyD, fwiw, far right political views in finland are not quite the same as far right political views in the US.

You're right about that. There's a rather large difference. That said, we do have our share or mindbogglingly stupid and/or fanatical people
 

RorschachWJK

Registered User
Dec 28, 2004
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You're right about that. There's a rather large difference. That said, we do have our share or mindbogglingly stupid and/or fanatical people

Plus, I think he meant far right regarding the stance to economical questions not regarding other things. There's two kinds of far right in many countries: fiscal and fundamental...

Was going to edit the previous message but ended up replying to myself, oh well...
 

crowi

Registered Loser
May 11, 2012
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Cheers, you eh.... GREAT man.................

you only get to be 50 once. Hope he hits 76.
 

mattihp

Registered User
Aug 2, 2004
20,421
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Uppsala, Sweden
I hoped he would teach his mindset of scoring goals to his sons, but none of them seem to be on track of being even a semi-professional player.
 

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