St. Louis Blues: Top 10 Single-Season Performances in Team History

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4. Al MacInnis (1998-99)

82 regular season games, 20 goals, 42 assists, +33 rating, 70 PIM, 29:07 average time on ice; 13 postseason games, 4 goals, 8 assists, -2 rating, 20 PIM; NHL All-Star, James Norris Memorial Trophy Recipient

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Blues had perhaps the best duo of defensemen ever assembled with Chris Pronger and Al MacInnis. MacInnis’s impact is often considered by Blues fans to be the lesser of the two, because he didn’t arrive in St. Louis until age 31 (his 14th season in the NHL), while Pronger spent much of his prime with the Blues. That doesn’t mean that MacInnis wasn’t absolutely spectacular in St. Louis, though; in fact, his 1998-99 season may have been his best in the NHL.

In a 98-99 season that was the third-lowest-scoring year in modern NHL history at an average of 2.63 goals per game around the league, MacInnis managed to put up 62 points, averaging one in roughly three out of every four games. His plus-33 rating was the sixth-highest single-season total in franchise history, and the fact that he played in all 82 games and averaged nearly 30 minutes on the ice provided credence to his durability.

All that success earned MacInnis his first-ever Norris Trophy (the award bestowed on the league’s best defenseman), which was quite the feat in his age 35 season. Aside from two legends–Doug Harvey, who won the award seven times between the ages of 30 and 37, and Nicklas Lidstrom, who won it seven times between ages 30 and 40–MacInnis is the oldest defenseman ever to win the award.

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