Mikko Rantanen joined an exclusive club in 2023 after he registered his 40th goal of the season on Feb. 27 in a win over Vegas. He joined an even more exclusive on on Thursday after notching his 50th in a win over the Sharks.
He is just the fourth Avalanche player to have scored at least 40 goals in a season since the franchise moved to Denver in 1995. It has been done seven times in team history.
Here’s a look at the other six times it happened:
1. Mikko Rantanen — 55 (2022-23)
Hot off the team winning its third Stanley Cup, the Moose stepped up to fill in for an Avs team that suffered multiple injuries early in the year. He had already surpassed his career high (36 in 2021-22) by the end of February. He finished the regular season with a career-best 105 points.
2. Joe Sakic — 54 (2000-01)
Super Joe lived up to every bit of his moniker this season as he led Colorado to the best record in the league in the regular season before capturing the franchise’s second Stanley Cup in the playoffs. He also had 64 assists to finish with 118 points. The captain earned plenty of accolades, including the Hart Memorial Trophy, the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award.
3. Joe Sakic — 51 (1995-96)
In the Avs’ first season in Colorado after moving from Quebec, Sakic put up his first career 50-goal season. He also had career-bests in assists (69) and points (120). The Avs would go on to win the Stanley Cup and Sakic was honored with the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP.
4. Milan Hejduk — 50 (2002-23)
Two seasons after registering his first 40-goal season, the Czech forward hit the 50 mark in a year, earning the Maurice Richard Trophy for most goals in the NHL that season.
5. Nathan MacKinnon — 42 (2022-23)
Despite missing 11 games during the season, MacKinnnon joined Sakic and Hejduk as the only players to reach 40-plus goals in multiple seasons in an Avs jersey. He scored his 40th goal of the year early in the first period in the season’s last game, a 4-3 win over Nashville. He added two more to lift the Avs to victory — and a first-place finish in the Central Division.
6T. Joe Sakic — 41 (1998-99)
Despite missing nine games, Sakic registered his second of three 40-plus-goals season in an Avs uniform and the fourth of five with the franchise. He also had 55 assists and league-leading five short-handed goals for Colorado.
6T. Milan Hejduk — 41 (2000-01)
In just his third season in the league, Hejduk became — at the time — the first player not named Joe Sakic to score 40 goals in a season for the Avs. The crazy thing is he wasn’t even the leading goal-scorer on the team that season — that would be Sakic with a career high 54 (see above).
6T. Nathan MacKinnon — 41 (2018-19)
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 NHL entry draft became the youngest Avalanche player to reach the 40-goal mark at the age of 23. He did it by peppering goaltenders with an NHL-leading 365 shots on goal.
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