50 Most Outstanding Players in St. Louis Blues History: 50-41

46. Tony McKegney

Forward, 1987-89; 151 games, 65 goals, 55 assists, plus-9 rating, 140 PIM

Tony McKegney only spent two seasons with the Blues during a time where offense was more inflated than it’s ever been around the NHL. With that said, his contributions were too impressive to leave him off this list entirely.

He collected 78 points during his first season with the Blues, scoring 40 goals while tallying 38 assists in 80 games. He was also a point-per-game player during that postseason, scoring three goals with six assists in nine games as the Blues advanced to the Division Finals. McKegney’s production dropped off a bit during his second and final year wearing the Blue Note, but he still had 25 goals and 17 assists in 71 games.

Perhaps the most impressive thing was that during an era of such prolific offense, he still managed to be a pretty effective two-way forward. He posted a plus-9 rating during his time with the Blues and was a plus-3 player for his career.

We’d also be remiss to avoid talking about the path that McKegney–an African-Canadian player who was part of an NHL that was much more heavily white than it is today–paved for African-American and African-Canadian players. McKegney had already become the first black player to score 20 goals in a season with the Buffalo Sabres, but while with the Blues in 1987-88, he became the first black player in NHL history to surpass the 500-point mark. Jarome Iginla has mentioned him as a childhood influence, and he undoubtedly was a role model for numerous other players of African descent who eventually went on to play professionally.