"Has a good shot of breaking it" =/= break it.
Sorry dude. Marleau did it and none of those you say did it before him and will never do it.
The end.
This was written over 2 years ago, but is still, for the most part, true:
The GP record is a little fascinating to think about. It's a record that probably ten other players in history could have attained, if they had just
wanted to.
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Mark Messier could have come back after the lockout. He had scored 43 points (2nd on his team) and was a plus player on a bad team. I realize that describing him like that is flattering to his actual level of play, but he was an NHL caliber player who chose to end his career at the lockout given he would have turned 45 during 05-06. Someone would have employed him, even if it ended like Brett Hull or Dave Andreychuk, he'd have gotten the games in.
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Jaromir Jagr could have just as easily decided not to go to the KHL for three seasons, and it would have only taken him till the end of his age 42 season to break the record. Remember that in his age 43 season he was a 66-point player (55 ESP!)
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Ron Francis would have only needed a team to employ him for one post-lockout season at age 42. He was in the same boat as Messier, he only had to
want to come back one more time as a shell of himself to break the record, but he didn't want to.
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Joe Thornton could, in theory, pass Howe himself. He would have to complete this season (very likely), play most/all of next season (unlikely) and then have another team employ him for a few games despite being useless (it worked for Marleau). I realize this may be out of Joe's hands, though.
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Mark Recchi in his 40s was best suited to be a team's 6th best forward. He went out on top following a cup finals performance for the ages. But what if Boston had lost game 7? Can you imagine him coming back for another season? And another partial one before breaking down for good? Sure, it's possible. If not Boston, he could have been plenty of teams' 6th-best forward.
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Ray Bourque ABSOLUTELY could have broken the record if he had only wanted to. He left the game a champion like Recchi, which made it a logical endpoint, but unlike Recchi, was still one of the best defensemen in the world at 39. two full seasons could have done it. Not only could he have done it, but he may have still been a #1 defenseman by the end of the second season, with a few optional decline years left to go. Who knows how many games he could have piled up if he had Chelios' love for the game, or Marleau's thirst for a record?
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Larry Murphy: same boat as Bourque. He was just a #4 defenseman by the end of his last season, but still very much an NHL player who could have caught on for two more full seasons without much problem. He was no worse than the versions of Paul Coffey and Phil Housley that hung on as long as they could.
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Zdeno Chara has proven by moving to Washington, that he will play as long as someone wants him. He has been a very capable #5 defenseman on a very affordable contract. He can and will get another contract. Will he get two? That's all it would take.
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Nicklas Lidstrom would have had to play three more seasons to get the record. But, does anyone doubt he could have? he was still racking up 23+ minutes a game in his age 41 season and for a 102 point team. Would ages 42-44 have been pretty? probably not, but at the right price any team would take a chance on him.
The difference between these guys and Marleau, is that they didn't
want to chase the record even though they could have, while he
wanted to chase the record even though he wasn't good enough to. He shouldn't have a job in the NHL right now, but for sentimentality, record-chasing, and because he can't really make a bad team any worse, here he is. It's a perfect storm - the Sharks are the only team that would put him on the ice right now, and he's lucky they are bad. A contending Sharks team would not employ him.
