500 NHL Goal Scorers - Project Complete!

One of the bonuses of completing the 1,000 NHL Point Project is that the list contains most of the NHL's 500 Goal Scorers. It definitely reduced the need for finding a lot more hard-signed hockey cards.

In the history of the NHL, 42 players have scored 500 goals in their career. Luckily for me, 40 of those players finished their careers with over 1,000 points.

The only two players to score 500 goals but not reach 1,000 points are Maurice 'The Rocket' Richard and Peter Bondra.

Peter Bondra scored 503 goals and 892 points in his career. Long remembered as a Washington Capital, he holds many team records. A five-time NHL All-Star, Bondra twice won the Fastest Skater Competition on All-Star weekend. Although he never scored 90 points in an NHL season, he twice scored 50 goals.

From 1995-96 Upper Deck Be A Player comes this Global Training hard-signed autograph of Peter Bondra. Pulled from a pack years ago by myself, this card is easily available for only about $5.

Maurice 'The Rocket' Richard was the first NHL player to score 50 goals in one season, doing so in 50 games, and the first to score 500 goals in a career. He finished his career with 544 goals and 965 points. He added another 82 goals in 133 playoff games. Inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961, Richard won 8 Stanley Cups as a player.

A legend in Montreal, Maurice Richard was famous as a member of the 'Punch Line' with Elmer Lach and Toe Blake. He is also remembered for the Richard Riot in 1955 and the classic story 'The Hockey Sweater' by Roch Carrier.

From 1994-95 Signatures Rookies comes this hard-signed autograph of Maurice Richard from the Cool 5 subset /1050. Although quite plentiful, the card often sells between $50-$100 and I was lucky enough to win an auction for one on eBay in the $60 range.

And Project Complete!

With the Bondra and Rocket autographs, I now have hard signed autographed hockey cards of all forty-two 500 goal scorers and, as mentioned previously, all seventy-nine 1,000 point scorers.

On to the next project...