Various milestones that Penguin players are approaching

Given that a primary function of the current edition of the Pittsburgh Penguins is to enjoy the individual milestones of its long-time players, pausing the gameplay with a two-day break allows us to take a look at some upcoming events.

Sidney Crosby

597 goals

Crosby is closing in on the .600 mark after scoring four goals in his last two games. It will be interesting to see if he hits a bump in the road and stalls for a few games once he hits 599, or if he can assert himself straight away.

1,013 assists

Crosby is just three assists away from tying Joe Sakic for 13th all-time on the NHL career assist list. Crosby moves within touching distance of Mario Lemieux's career total (1,033), which will be the first major statistic Crosby surpasses Lemieux's.

Helps with a franchise

A somewhat obscure NHL record, but a cool one that Crosby could own before all is said and done. He is less than 100 assists away from breaking the mark currently held by Ray Bourque for most assists by a player for a single franchise.

Team player assistants
BOS Ray Bourque 1.111
EDM Wayne Gretzky 1,086
DET Steve Yzerman 1,063
PIT Mario Lemieux 1,033
DET Gordie Howe 1,023
COL Joe Sakic 1,016
PIT Sidney Crosby 1,013

419 even strength targets

Not the greatest article, but the Penguins sent this graphic that we found amusing, so we'll share it. That was before the Montreal game, so he passed Luc Robitaille with the 5-on-5 goal he scored on Saturday.

475 multi-point games

Crosby's two points against Montreal move him within two games of seventh all-time by several points over Steve Yzerman. This will be another area where Crosby should overtake Lemieux in the relatively near future, noting that Sid has played nearly 1,300 games in his career and Mario has only played 915.

Player multi-point games

Wayne Gretzky 824
Jaromir Jagr 540
Marcel Dionne 513
Mark Messier 513
Gordie Howe 511
Mario Lemieux 497
Steve Yzerman 477
Sidney Crosby 475

93 game-winning goals in his career

Crosby scored the game-winning goal against Montreal, his second GWG in as many games. He is now tied with Joe Nieuwendyk and Sergei Fedorov for 14th all-time in the category. Sid's next GWG will see him tied for 13th place with Steve Yzerman.

Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang

This is another unknown but still pretty cool area. Letang assisted on Crosby's power-play goal on Saturday, marking the 305th goal scored by both players over their long careers. That's the third-most all-time for a forward-defender combination and just one point shy of second place.

Goals scored by the team's forward defender

EDM/LAK Wayne Gretzky Paul Coffey 350
BOS Phil Esposito Bobby Orr 306
PIT Sidney Crosby Kris Letang 305
LAK Anze Kopitar Drew Doughty 304

Erik Karlsson

Karlsson is working his way up the list of all-time great defenders, and he's doing so in some serious company. He just passed Red Kelly this week and Doug Wilson is next.

Rank Defender PTS

15 Gary Suter 844
16 Doug Wilson 827
17 Erik Karlsson 825
18 Red Kelly 823
19 Sergei Gonchar 811