Career milestones of hockey great Gordie Howe

The one and only “Mr. Hockey”, Gordie Howe, has died at the age of 88.

“Mr. Hockey” had suffered a stroke in October 2014, but according to family was making a slow recovery after an experimental stem cell treatment.

Altogether – regular season and playoffs – he scored 2,589 career points and was a six-time victor of the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL’s leading scorer and a six-time victor of the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player.

Howe, born March 31, 1928, was one of nine children. He was saddened by Friday’s news of Howe’s passing, but he said he hopes everyone takes this opportunity to reflect. After starting his career with the Red Wings, he returned to the game after fracturing his skull in 1950 when he hit the boards headfirst at a time when players wore no helmet.

“Howe was a special, special, special player”, Esposito said.

Howe signed his first professional contract in 1946 with the Detroit Red Wings, where he spent 25 years and won four Stanley Cups.

“You’re always going to remember [Howe] as a great player, a wonderful person and a tremendous family man”, Gretzky said in an interview in 2015.

He’s the oldest player to play in an National Hockey League game: He suited up for the Hartford Whalers at 52 years and 11 days during the 1979-80 season.

Howe also scored 174 goals during a six-year stint in the WHL.

He would even outlast the WHA.

Cournoyer made the comments with a heavy heart, noting that so many top players from the old days have died in the last few years, including Canadiens Jean Beliveau, Elmer Lach, Dickie Moore and Tremblay. His last season in the National Hockey League came with the Hartford Whalers during the 1979-80 campaign, when he became the oldest player to ever play an National Hockey League game at the age of 52, a mark that still stands today. He received honorary doctor’s degrees from two universities in Saskatchewan.

When he was finished playing hockey for good, Howe retired to the Detroit suburbs and became an ambassador for the sport.

Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch said Howe “embodied on and off the ice what it meant to be both a Red Wing and a Detroiter”.

It was still stunning for anybody that loved hockey to see Howe out and about in NHL circles over the past 15 years as his health began to fail him. Howe retired for a second time after the season at the age of 52. While he was “Mr. Hockey” to the sports world, he was that and so much more to Detroiters and Michiganders. His name graces a peculiar statistic that hockey fans adore – the “Gordie Howe hat trick” – when one player scores a goal, earns an assist, and gets in a fight all in one game.

“I thought I had something they would never touch”, Howe said.