In essence, Kyle Connor is just getting started.
Despite playing his 500th career game last Saturday — a significant milestone for sure — many believe that number to be less than half of what he’ll cover over his expected journey through the National Hockey League.
At just 27 years old and already a seven-year veteran, Connor is just now creeping up to his prime years. The best, many believe, is still yet to come from the Michigan native.
In the last five years only six other players have scored more goals in the league than Connor’s 161. Only two of them are younger — Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid — and not by much.
Once again, Connor is pacing the Jets in goal-scoring with 19 this season, a number that would certainly be considerable higher had he not missed 16 games to injury.
Moreover, he’s on a clip this winter for another 30-goal campaign, which would be his sixth — something no other Winnipeg Jets player has accomplished in the team’s short 13-year history. Not Blake Wheeler. Not Mark Scheifele. not Nikolaj Ehlers.
In fact, it’s quite possible both Connor and Scheifele will at some point find themselves in a race for the all-time record in franchise goal scoring, with Connor — who is nearly four years younger — coming out on top based on his goals/per game ratio being much more prolific to this point than Scheifele’s.
At his core, Connor is a pure goal scorer. The way he shoots the puck and his ability to dart, dash and read the ice at an incredible speed separate him from most others around the league. In terms of goal scoring ability, there is nobody better on the Jets and history already tells us there wasn’t anyone like him before he arrived.
Last Saturday, Kyle Connor hit a pretty big milestone in playing his 500th career game. And based on the runway that lies ahead of the Jets’ sniper to this point, he’s only getting started.