By: Camryn Meece | Follow me on Twitter / X @MeeceCamryn
Phil Esposito is remembered as one of the greatest goal scorers in Boston Bruins history. In his 1970-71 season, he scored 76 goals in 78 games, setting a National Hockey League (NHL) record. However, Esposito’s NHL career did not start that way. As a rookie with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1963-64, Esposito played 27 games and scored just three goals and two assists.
The Chicago Black Hawks selected Esposito as the 67th overall pick in the 1962 NHL Draft. Before making his NHL debut, he spent the 1962-63 season with the St. Catharines Teepees of the Ontario Hockey Association, where he scored 46 goals and 90 points in 50 games. He joined Chicago the following season, but his scoring numbers were much different in the NHL.
Esposito’s scoring numbers began to climb during his time in Chicago. In his second season with Chicago, he nearly increased that number sevenfold, scoring 23 goals, and his ice time also increased as he played in 70 games. He followed that with 27 goals in 69 games during the 1965-66 season before scoring 21 goals the following year. After four seasons in Chicago, Esposito was traded to Boston during the summer of 1967, along with Ken Hodge and Fred Stanfield.
Esposito scored 35 goals and 84 points in his first season with Boston. The following year, his numbers jumped again. In 1968-69, he scored 49 goals and added 77 assists for 126 points, becoming the first player in NHL history to reach 100 points in a season. Esposito finished one goal short of 50, a mark that had only been reached by Maurice Richard and Bernie Geoffrion of the Montreal Canadiens and Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks. Esposito followed that season with 43 goals and 99 points in 1969-70, helping the Bruins win the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1941. During his time in Boston, coach Harry Sinden saw Esposito as a player who could drive the Bruins’ scoring. Ken Hodge became his regular right wing, and Wayne Cashman eventually joined them on the left.
Then came the 1970-71 season. By that point, Esposito had become one of the NHL’s top scorers, and the line with Hodge and Cashman was one of the league’s most productive. The three combined for 140 goals and 336 points that season. On February 20, 1971, his 29th birthday, Esposito scored his 50th goal of the season against the Los Angeles Kings. He became just the fourth player in NHL history to reach 50 goals in a season. Esposito reached the mark in his 58th game, with 20 games still left on the schedule. He did not slow down, scoring 26 more goals over the remainder of the season.
Esposito finished the season with 76 goals in 78 games, passing Bobby Hull’s previous NHL record of 58 goals. He became the first player in league history to score 70 goals in a season and also recorded 76 assists for 152 points. The Bruins had several players putting up big numbers that season. Johnny Bucyk scored 51 goals, giving Boston two 50-goal scorers, while Bobby Orr recorded 139 points and Ken Hodge finished with 105. The four Bruins finished first through fourth in NHL scoring, with Esposito leading the scoring race.
Esposito would reach 50 goals in five different seasons as a Bruin and finished his Boston career with 459 goals. His 76-goal season remains the most goals scored by a Bruin in a single season. The NHL record stood for 11 years before Wayne Gretzky scored 77 goals for the Edmonton Oilers in 1981-82. Since then, only three other players have scored more than 76 goals in a season: Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull, and Gretzky, who did it twice.
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