List of NHL players with 50 goal seasons

Scoring 50 goals in one season is one of the most celebrated individual achievements in the National Hockey League (NHL). In 1944–45, Maurice Richard became the first player to score 50 goals in a season. Bernie Geoffrion became the second player to reach the milestone 16 years later in 1960–61. Fifty-goal seasons increased in frequency during the 1970s and 1980s as offense increased across the league. By 1980, it had been reached 24 times in NHL history; the plateau was reached 76 times in the 1980s alone.

Wayne Gretzky scored his 50th goal in his 39th game in 1981–82, the fastest any player has done so. He also shares the record for most 50-goal seasons with Mike Bossy, each having reached the milestone nine times in their careers. A record fourteen players exceeded 50 goals in 1992–93, after which offence declined across the league, and with it the number of players to reach the total. For the first time in 29 years, no player scored 50 goals in 1998–99. Ninety unique players have scored 50 goals in any one NHL season, doing so a combined 186 times.

Joe Malone scored 44 goals for the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL's inaugural season of 1917–18—a season with a twenty-game schedule. It was a record that stood nearly 30 years. The introduction of the centre red line and permission of forward passing out of the defensive zone in 1943 increased scoring; six players scored 30 goals in 1943–44, the first time in league history so many players reached that total in one season.Maurice Richard averaged a goal per game for Montreal in 1944–45 and surpassed Malone's record late in the season. He was as obsessed with reaching the 50-goal mark as his opponents were with preventing it. Richard faced opponents who repeatedly elbowed, hooked and held him in an effort to prevent him from reaching 50. As a result, he scored only seven goals in his final 13 games. Richard scored his 50th goal, in 50 games, in the third period of Montreal's final game of the season against the Boston Bruins. The league introduced the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy in his honour in 1999, and the Canadiens donated the physical trophy.

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