1987-88 Hartford Whalers Sylvain Turgeon Jersey

On this date in 1987, brothers Sylvain and Pierre Turgeon faced each other for the first time.

Sylvain had a four year head start on his younger brother Pierre, making his NHL debut in 1983-84 after being drafted 2nd overall. Sylvain stepped straight into the Hartford Whalers lineup and playing 76 games as a rookie, scoring 40 goals and 76 points right out of the chute. He continued his prolific output with 31 goals and then 45 in 1985-86. His total dropped to 23 the following season, but it was enough to give the left winger a 139 goal head start on his brother Pierre, who would join the league the following season.

When they did meet for the first time, Buffalo Sabres rookie Pierre scored his first two NHL goals during the game, but Sylvain's Whalers got the better of the Sabres and the two points in the standings with a 5-3 win.

Despite the two goals in only the Sabres fourth game, Pierre was unable to duplicate Sylvain's rookie season, finishing with 14 goals in 76 games. He found his game over the next couple of seasons though, scoring 34 in 1989-90 and matching Sylvain's 40 with 40 of his own in 1989-90. Another 30 goal season followed with 32 and then another 40 in the 1991-92 season, 38 of which came after being dealt to the New York Islanders.

Pierre then claimed top honors in the family with his career year of 58 goals and 74 assists for 132 points in 1992-93 which placed him fifth overall in league scoring.

Meanwhile, Sylvain's offensive numbers were greatly diminished by a series of injuries. In 1988-89 he played in only 42 games, his last season in Hartford. His last noteworthy NHL season came the following year with the New Jersey Devils with the fourth 30 goal season of his career.

Two seasons in Montreal followed, but Sylvain was limited to 75 games and 14 goals combined over the two years.

While Pierre was tearing up the league in 1992-93, Sylvain was experiencing the growing pains of playing with the expansion Ottawa Senators, as the inept club struggled through a 10-70-4 season, although Sylvain did lead the club with 25 goals.

Two more seasons in Ottawa, again limited in games to 42 and then just 33, cut his goal totals to just 11 each season, the last of his NHL career.

While Pierre continued to be a highly productive player with the Islanders (94 points in 1993-94), Montreal (96 in 1995-96) and five solid seasons with the St. Louis Blues, Sylvain spent one season with Houston of the AHL before continuing his career in Europe for the next six seasons, primarily in the German DEL, as well as Switzerland and even Italy.

Sylvain's career NHL totals are 669 games played, 269 goals and 226 assists for 495 points.

Following Pierre's time with the Blues, his career continued with five more seasons, three with the Dallas Stars and a final two with the Colorado Avalanche, with whom he would pass the 500 goal plateau and finish his career with 1,327 points in 1,294 games played.

Today's featured jersey is a 1987-88 Hartford Whalers Sylvain Turgeon jersey. The Whalers redesigned their sweaters when they changed their name from the New England Whalers to the Hartford Whalers as one of the conditions to their being accepted into the NHL after their seven seasons in the WHA. With the change to the name "Hartford" a new, instantly recognizable new logo was designed with the clever use of negative space creating a subtle "H" in the logo.

While their jerseys may have appeared to stay the same to the casual observer, the Whalers jerseys actually underwent a series of alterations. The green trim across the bottom was done away with and the arm stripes changed from angled to straight and back again before becoming straight once more!

The same season they dropped the green stripe across the bottom, someone had the horrible idea of dropping the beloved "Pucky the Whale" secondary logo from the shoulders, and the Whalers jerseys were never quite the same ever again.

Bonus Jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1987-88 Buffalo Sabres Pierre Turgeon jersey, as worn by Pierre during his rookie season when he faced Sylvain for the first time in his career.

Today's video segment features Pierre Turgeon's 1000th NHL point.

Here are highlights from the first Ottawa Senators game in the modern era, where Sylvain Turgeon scored the game winning goal versus the Montreal Canadiens.

1999-2000 St. Louis Blues Pierre Turgeon Jersey

Pierre Turgeon was drafted 1st overall in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft by the Buffalo Sabres and begain his NHL career in 1987-88 with a serviceable 42 points in 76 games. He more than doubled that total in just his second season with his first 30 goal season when he scored 34 goals and 54 assists for 88 points. He cemented his place as a fan favorite and team leader the next season with his first 100 point season, when he hit the 40 goal plateau and tallied 106 points. Once again he reached 30 goals in 1990-91 with 32, although his overall scoring dipped to 79 points.

In the first of some notable trades, Turgeon was dealt to the New York Islands along with Benoit Houge, Uwe Krupp and Dave McLlwain for Pat LaFontaine, Randy Wood and Randy Hiller plus future considerations.

He was a fan favorite on Long Island and would lead the Islanders in scoring, by margins of 7, 45 and 19 points, during his three full seasons with the club and finish tied for second the year he was traded away, despite playing in only 34 games, such was the state of the lowly Islanders in 1994-95.

His best season with the Islanders was the 1992-93 season when he would net 58 goals and add 74 assists for a 132 points, placing 5th overall in the league in what would prove to be his highest scoring season as a pro. He was also awarded the Lady Byng Trophy after the conclusion of the season.

Turgeon accepts the Lady Byng Trophy

When Islanders General Manager Don Maloney traded Turgeon to the Montreal Canadiens in 1994-95, concerned that Turgeon would never be the same player after the Dale Hunter incident, it turned into a nightmare for the Islanders, as Canadiens captain Kirk Muller was the main player the Islanders received in return for Turgeon, and Muller was clearly at a point in his career where he wanted to compete for another Stanley Cup, and not lead the downtrodden Islanders back to respectability. In the end, Muller would play just 27 games for the Islanders while Turgeon was named captain of the Canadiens for the final season at the historic Montreal Forum in which he scored 38 goals and 96 points.

After only nine games of the 1996-97 season, Turgeon was once again on the move, this time to St. Louis to join the Blues in a five player deal that brought Shayne Corson to Montreal. There, Turgeon found a level of stability, playing five seasons with St. Louis, where he averaged more than a point per game (1.09) with a high of 82 in 2000-01. His time in St. Louis included scoring his 1,000th point on this date in 1999 with a power play goal in a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers.

After five seasons in St. Louis, Turgeon signed on with the Dallas Stars as a free agent for the 2001-02 season. His offensive numbers reflected his changed role while with the Stars as he did not surpass 50 points again in his career, something that had only occurred once before in his career when he had 47 points in 49 games during the strike shortened season of 1994-95 while splitting time between the Islanders and Canadiens.

Following three years with Dallas, he signed as a free agent with the Colorado Avalanche coming out of the NHL lockout of 2004-05. While with Colorado that first season, Turgeon reached the 500 goal mark, just the 34th player in NHL history to reach that elusive milestone. He was limited to just 17 games by various injuries in his final season of 2006-07 and retired from the NHL in September of 2007.

Turgeon displays his 500th goal puck

His career point totals were 515 goals and 812 assists for 1,327 points in 1,294 games, a 1.03 point per game average for his entire 19 year NHL career.

Today's featured jersey is a 1999-2000 St. Louis Blues Pierre Turgeon jersey as worn during the season Turgeon scored his 1,000th NHL point as a member of the Blues.

The Blues changed to this style jersey full time after introducing a white version of this style as an alternate in 1997. They promoted that very well received jersey to the primary home jersey the following season and created today's blue road version to round out the set which replaced the controversial previous set which had repeating diagonal stripes and road jerseys with an unprecedented amount of red.

Turgeon is a fun player to collect, as his instantly recognizable #77 has been worn on the classic Sabres jersey with the Sabres 20th Anniversary patch and later the NHL 75th Anniversary patch, the classic New York Islanders jersey with both the NHL 75th Anniversary patch and the Islanders 20th Anniversary patch in 1991-92 and the Stanley Cup Centennial patch in 1992-93.

He then wore the iconic jerseys of the Montreal Canadiens while wearing both the assistant's "A" and captain's "C", the Blues jerseys with the repeating diagonal stripes and the subsequent set featured today with the NHL 2000 patch, both Blues styles with the assistant captain's "A", the wonderful Dallas Stars set with the integrated star shape in the body, the bizarre Stars "Mooterus" alternate, the championship era Colorado Avalanche jerseys (while wearing the unfamiliar #87), including their diagonally crested burgundy alternate, with the Avalanche 10th Anniversary patch and the one game only Teammates for Kids patch.

Additionally, Turgeon also played in four NHL All-Star Games in 1990, 1993, 1994 and 1996, giving the collector 16 different jerseys with multiple patching options to pursue.

Today's video section begins with the drafting of Turgeon #1 overall by the Buffalo Sabres.

Next up is his 1,000th NHL point, scored on this date in 1999, which was also his 399th goal.

Finally, Turgeon's first goal as a Montreal Canadien.

1991-92 New York Islanders Pierre Turgeon Jersey

Born on this date in 1969, Pierre Turgeon played 19 NHL seasons, including three and a half with the New York Islanders from 1991 to 1995 before being traded to the Montreal Canadiens.

Turgeon was involved in some notable trades during his career, the first of which brought him to Long Island when, along with Benoit Houge, Uwe Krupp and Dave McLlwain, Turgeon was traded by his original club, the Buffalo Sabres, for Pat LaFontaine, Randy Wood and Randy Hiller plus future considerations.

He was a fan favorite on Long Island and would lead the Islanders in scoring, by margins of 7, 45 and 19 points, during his three full seasons with the club and finish tied for second the year he was traded away, despite playing in only 34 games, such was the state of the lowly Islanders in 1994-95.

His best season with the Islanders was the 1992-93 season when he would net 58 goals and add 74 assists for a 132 points, placing 5th overall in the league in what would prove to be his highest scoring season as a pro.

Turgeon would also add 13 more points in 11 playoff games in 1993, but would suffer a separated shoulder after being checked from behind well after scoring a goal by Dale Hunter, who would be suspended a record 21 games for the cheap shot.

When Islanders General Manager Don Maloney traded Turgeon to the Canadiens in 1994-95, concerned that Turgeon would never be the same player after the Dale Hunter incident, it turned into a nightmare for the Islanders on several levels. Montreal Canadiens captain Kirk Muller was the main player the Islanders received in return for Turgeon, and Muller was clearly at a point in his career where he wanted to compete for another Stanley Cup, and not lead the downtrodden Islanders back to respectability.

In the end, Muller would play just 27 games for the Islanders before being traded once more when first year coach Mike Milbury thought Muller had become too much of a distraction. Maloney would eventually be fired for being unable to get Muller on board with life on Long Island.

The fans would never forgive Maloney for trading Turgeon, even after Maloney and Muller were both out of Long Island within nine months of the trade. It was during this time period that the Islanders new owners also chose to ditch their traditional jerseys and the logo they wore while winning four consecutive Stanley Cups in favor of the new "Fish Sticks" jerseys, which the fans immediately adopted as the symbol for all that was wrong with the club at the time.

Today's featured jersey is a 1991-92 New York Islanders Pierre Turgeon jersey. It features the NHL 75th Anniversary patch worn by all the teams to celebrate the founding of the league in 1917. It also has the New York Islanders 20th anniversary patch on the left shoulder, which commemorates not only the anniversary of the club, but it's four Stanley Cup championships as well, making for a very nice two patch jersey, something we here at Third String Goalie highly approve of.

Here is Turgeon scoring his 50th goal during the 1992-93 season. The video is pretty bad, but at least the audio manages to not make up for it...

This next clip is the notorious hit on Turgeon by Dale Hunter that separated Turgeon's shoulder in the 1992 playoffs and earned Hunter the longest suspension ever at the time.