On This Date in Sports March 16, 1997: Andreychuk 500

In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com

With a power-play goal in the first period, Dave Andreychuk of the New Jersey Devils becomes the 26th player in NHL history to score 500 goals. Andreychuk’s goal helps the Devils beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 at Continental Airlines Arena in Meadowlands. Spending a bulk of his career with the Buffalo Sabres, Dave Andreychuk retired with 640 career goals in 2006.

Dave Andreychuk was born on September 29, 1963, in Hamilton, Ontario. After playing with the Oshawa Generals in the OHL, Andreychuk was picked with the 16th overall pick in the 1982 NHL Draft. A consistent goal scorer for most of his career, Dave Andreychuk never led the league in goals but managed to score at least 30 goals in most of his 25-year career. His best season was in 1992/93, scoring 54 goals as he was traded late in the season from the Sabres to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Grant Fuhr.

After playing parts of four seasons with the Maple Leafs, Dave Andreychuk was moved again, landing with the New Jersey Devils in 1996. The Devils played a defensive first trap system that did not mesh well with Andreycuk’s goal-scoring prowess. In his first full season with the Devils, Dave Andreychuk scored 27 goals. The milestone came at the Meadowlands against the Washington Capitals. The Devils already had a 1-0 lead when they got a power play in the middle of the first period. It was on the power play that Dave Andreychuk netted his 500th goal, with an assist from Bill Guerin and Lyle Odelein. The Devils would win the game 3-2. 

Dave Andreychuk would play with the Devils until 1999, he split the next season with the Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche, before returning to Buffalo for the 2000/01 season. Andreychuk ended up with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 2001/02 season. Dave Andreychuk would play the rest of his career in Tampa, and won the Stanley Cup in 2004. After the lockout, he played one last season and retired, finishing with 640 goals and 698 assists. In 2017, Dave Anderychuk was elected to the Hall of Fame.