Longest Goal Droughts in terms of TIME (not GP)?

[alphahelix]

Does anyone know who had the longest goal drought in terms of days passed between goals, or days passed between last goal and last game played in the league?

Maybe a player like Lemieux or Jagr who had long league hiatuses before making comebacks? or maybe Gordie Howe coming back from WHA, although I'm not sure that I would count that as the WHA was a top level league and he scored there.

And does anyone know which ACTIVE player currently has the longest active goals drought by days since he scored his last goal?

Connor Brown is currently at 691 days and I'm not sure if anyone else is up there atm.

 

[NyQuil]

I checked Bill Muckalt, who famously failed to score a goal for the Senators after being traded along with Spezza and Chara from the Islanders to the Senators in exchange for Alexei Yashin.

He scored his last goal for the Islanders on April 2nd, 2001 and didn't score in 70 games with the Sens, finally breaking the drought on October 15th, 2002 with the Wild.

561 days.

There are probably defencemen out there with big droughts but I find the forwards more interesting.

 

[GlitchMarner]

I checked Bill Muckalt, who famously failed to score a goal for the Senators after being traded along with Spezza and Chara from the Islanders to the Senators in exchange for Alexei Yashin.

He scored his last goal for the Islanders on April 2nd, 2001 and didn't score in 70 games with the Sens, finally breaking the drought on October 15th, 2002 with the Wild.

561 days.

There are probably defencemen out there with big droughts but I find the forwards more interesting.

How the hell does a player score 0 goals in 70 games and then five goals in eight games the next season?

His goal scoring wasn't bad outside of that one season, either...

 

[NyQuil]

How the hell does a player score 0 goals in 70 games and then five goals in eight games a little while later?

His goal scoring wasn't bad outside of that one season, either...

It’s a mystery for the ages.

IIRC he missed some real laughers too.

 

[Primary Assist]

I'm pretty sure I have the answer to this one:

2nd career goal: February 15, 2000 (nearly 24 years ago to the day!)

3rd career goal: March 21, 2013

That's a length of 4,783 days. Can anyone name this mystery player?

 

[NyQuil]

I'm pretty sure I have the answer to this one:

2nd career goal: February 15, 2000 (nearly 24 years ago to the day!)

3rd career goal: March 21, 2013

That's a length of 4,783 days. Can anyone name this mystery player?

I’m guessing it’s a goalie.

Martin Brodeur?

 

[Primary Assist]

I’m guessing it’s a goalie.

Martin Brodeur?

Well done, I wasn't expecting someone to get that so quickly. But I'm glad it didn't take 4,000+ days

 

[North Cole]

I'm pretty sure I have the answer to this one:

2nd career goal: February 15, 2000 (nearly 24 years ago to the day!)

3rd career goal: March 21, 2013

That's a length of 4,783 days. Can anyone name this mystery player?

Not sure goalies count haha

 

[Oddbob]

How the hell does a player score 0 goals in 70 games and then five goals in eight games the next season?

His goal scoring wasn't bad outside of that one season, either...

I don't know, ask Riley Sheahan. He played 79 games for Detroit with 0 goals in 16-17, then had a 2 goal game in his 80th game.

 

[NyQuil]

Well done, I wasn't expecting someone to get that so quickly. But I'm glad it didn't take 4,000+ days

I can’t think of too many goalies off the top of my head who have scored multiple goals and the years match up.

 

[Oddbob]

Stu Grimson is probably a candidate for longest drought. Scored in 93-94, then his next one was in 96-97.

 

[Primary Assist]

I can’t think of too many goalies off the top of my head who have scored multiple goals and the years match up.

Without derailing the thread, the only other NHL goalie with more than one goal is Hextall. He wouldn't fit the criteria very well here though since he scored goals in back to back seasons I believe - he represents both the first and second time that a goalie actually shot the puck to score a goal.

Getting back to the OP, if we are excluding our fine netminders, my guess is Ilya Kovalchuk if he counts. He took a 5 year hiatus in the KHL between NHL stints.

 

[NyQuil]

Getting back to the OP, if we are excluding our fine netminders, my guess is Ilya Kovalchuk if he counts. He took a 5 year hiatus in the KHL between NHL stints.

How long was Jagr’s?

 

[Nicko999]

Not the longest but Scott Gomez had a 369 days goal scoring drought.

Considering he was a #2C at the time still, it was quite the drought. There was also a website made to track the progress, didscottgomezscore

 

[Primary Assist]

How long was Jagr’s?

3 seasons.

Outside of enforcers and goalies, I think the best answer to this question is a player who made the team out of camp as a rookie and then toiled away in the minors for years before cracking a roster. Maybe someone in the expansion era. I will have to do some digging

 

[Brodeur]

Knee jerk thought was Zdeno Ciger. He scored 31 goals for Edmonton in 1995-96 but went back home to Slovakia. Returned (briefly) with the Rangers in 2001.

Last goal with Edmonton was March 30, 1996. First goal with the Rangers was October 10, 2001. Google says that's a 2,020 day gap. Slightly longer than Kovalchuk's gap of 1,993 days.

Edit: Had to check if Claude Lemieux scored a goal in his brief comeback with the Sharks in 2009. He had almost six years of retirement but he didn't score a goal.

 

[Brodeur]

Not quite the same, but Mike Mottau had a fun gap between points. Got an assist on March 28, 2001. His next assist would be October 6, 2007. He was spent almost all of 2001-07 in the AHL.

His NHL debut was October 26, 2000. His first goal was December 28, 2007.

 

[Toby91ca]

I think Lemieux's drought was around 1,353 days.....but only 1 scoreless game during that time.

 

[AlwaysSunnyInTampa]

I feel like Daneyko has to be in there somewhere unless we're counting that one time he scored in the playoffs

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Gotta be Gordie Howe, right? 8 years?

 

[Lshap]

Gotta be Gordie Howe, right? 8 years?

Yeah, I think so. If I got this right, Gordie scored his last goal with Detroit on April 3, 1971. He returned to the NHL with Hartford eight years later, scoring his first goal on October 13, 1979.

3116 days between NHL goals.

 

[Brodeur]

Little bit before my time, but Kent Nilsson had a long gap: March 4, 1987 - February 25, 1995. ~2,915 days between NHL goals.

 

[Voight]

Paul Ranger scored a goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning on October 10, 2009.

He didn't score another NHL goal until October 30, 2013 with the Maple Leafs.

Exactly 4 years and 20 days later (1481 days).

Of course Ranger basically disappeared off the face of the earth for a couple years, hence the gap.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Not the worst case, but Scott Gomez in Montréal

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Craig Adams went almost a full calendar year without a goal once, Sheahan went over 2 years without a goal IIRC I knew it was over a full 82 game season and bled into the following year, Harkins hasnt scored December 22 of last season, Zach Sill almost set an NHL modern day record for playing the most regular season games without scoring his 1st NHL yet if I'm not wrong.