Aside from Marcel Dionne and Luke Robitaille, perhaps nobody is identified is identified with the pre-Gretzky Los Angeles Kings as King lifer Dave Taylor.
Despite never playing a full season, Taylor put up impressive numbers throughout his career, much of it spent on the first line of the kings.
But are his stats enough to get him in the Hall? We discuss his case in our latest episode:
Taylor’s stats:
Career:
- NHL: 1977-94; 17 seasons, 14 quality
- 431G, 638A for 1069P, +186 in 1111 games; 84.5 PS
- Draft: 210th overall in the 1975 NHL Amateur Draft, Taylor is
- 1st in Goals
- 1st in Assists
- 1st in Points
- 2nd in Plus/Minus
- 2nd in Point Shares (by 0.5 PS)
- 1st in Games Played
- Era: Of the 13 of players to play in at least 1,066 games between 1977 and 1994 (i.e. 13 full seasons), Taylor is
- 6th in Goals
- 6th in GPG
- 7th in Assists
- 7th in APG
- 7th in Points
- 8th in PPG
- 7th in Plus/Minus
- 7th in Offensive Point Shares
- 9th in Point Shares
- 82-game average: 32G, 47A for 79P, +14
- 3-year peak (1979-82): 82-game average of 48G, 72A for 120P, +32
- No possession stats
- Playoffs: 26G, 33A for 59P, -11 in 92 games
- Adjusted: 352G (-79), 521A (-117) for 873P (-196)
- Adjusted 82-game average: 26G, 38A for 64P
- Obviously Taylor is not on any adjusted per game leaderboards
- Never traded (though his WHA rights were traded!).
Accomplishments:
- Top 10 Player (by PS) once (‘81)
- Top 10 Offensive Player (by OPS) twice (‘79, ‘81)
- Top 10 in Goals once
- Top 10 in GPG twice
- Top 10 in Assists twice
- Top 5 in APG once, Top three times
- Top 5 in Points once, Top 10 three times
- Top 5 in PPG once, Top 10 twice
- Top 5 in Plus/Minus once, Top 10 twice
- Scored
- 45 goals once,
- 40 goals three times,
- 35 goals five times
- 30 goals six times
- 25 goals eight times
- 20 goals twelve times
- Tallied
- 60 assists twice
- 50 assists four times
- 40 assists eight times
- Scored
- 110 points once
- 100 points twice
- 90 points five times
- 70 points six times
- 60 points ten times
- 50 points twelve times
- 2nd Team All Star once
- 4 All Star Game appearances
- Clancy and Masterton in the same year (but who cares about that).
- College:
- Tied the record for the most points in a single season in NCAA hockey in 1977 and co-held it until 1985
- ECAC Player of the Year (‘77)
- Division I Scoring Champion (‘77)
Great Teams:
- NHL:
- Role Player (by points) on one Runner Up (‘93 Kings)
- No international success