At 21, Kariya Is Nearing a Scoring Milestone

Now that Paul Kariya has already doubled the Mighty Ducks’ record for goals in a season, there’s really only one personal milestone left.

Fifty goals.

Kariya would rather have four points in the standings and a spot in the Western Conference playoffs. But after scoring twice during the Ducks’ 7-3 loss to Colorado Wednesday, he has 48 goals, leaving him two away from one of the NHL’s landmark achievements with two games left in the regular season.

It’s something few 21-year-olds accomplish. Only 15 players in NHL history have scored 50 goals in a season before the age of 22. Vancouver’s Pavel Bure, who scored 60 goals at 21 in 1993, was the most recent, and if Kariya does it, he’ll be only the second player that young to manage the feat in the last eight years.

No one but Bure has done it since the remarkable class of 1988, when five players 21 or younger reached 50 goals, including 19-year-old Jimmy Carson.

Wayne Gretzky was the youngest player to score 50 goals, at 19 years 2 months in 1980.

The Ducks’ Teemu Selanne was 22 in 1993 when he scored a rookie-record 76 goals.

The remarkable thing is that Kariya came to the NHL with a reputation as a playmaker, not a goal-scorer. There were those who questioned his ability to play at hockey’s highest level because of his size, and three teams passed on him in the 1993 draft. (Ottawa took Alexandre Daigle, San Jose traded its pick to Hartford, which took Chris Pronger, and Tampa Bay took Chris Gratton.)

Those who thought Kariya would never score 20 goals in the NHL already have been quieted by a 100-point season in his second year as a pro.

“Anything Paul does doesn’t surprise me,” said General Manager Jack Ferreira, who looks around the league and is hard-pressed to see many players he’d rather have, given Kariya’s youth.

“That’s the group he’s in with, the Jagrs, the Fedorovs, the Forsbergs, all those great young players,” Ferreira said.

Kariya never imagined he would be known as a goal-scorer in the NHL, but he says he has always tried to adjust to the circumstances. Until Selanne arrived, the circumstances were that he needed to score if the Ducks were going to have half a chance.

The improvements Kariya made to his shot after his first NHL season are one reason he was able to move to the point on the power play this season--and many of his goals have come on slap shots from just inside the blue line with the Ducks holding a man advantage.

The only NHL player with more power-play goals than Kariya this season is Mario Lemieux, who has 30. With 20 power-play goals, Kariya has nearly equaled the Ducks’ previous overall season high: 23 by Bob Corkum in 1993-94.

Kariya has been on a particular tear while the Ducks make their push for the playoffs. Since Selanne arrived on Feb. 7, Kariya has 19 goals and 41 points in 27 games--a 1 1/2 points-per-game average.

Some say Kariya has been obsessed with getting the team to the postseason, but Selanne said Kariya’s intensity has been only “a little bit” higher than Kariya’s usual game face.

“He’s always really focused in games,” said Selanne, who has scored more than 50 goals twice in four NHL seasons and has 38 this season. “He has lots of concentration and he pushes himself every night. That’s what makes players superstars.”

Kariya has been that much more super since Selanne arrived.

“There’s been a big jump,” Ferreira said. “He’s certainly one of the elite players in the league now.”