Milestone Saturday

Last night, two milestones were reached by two players who have spent their entire NHL careers with the same team.  Jarome Iginla netted his 500th goal in a victory for the Calgary Flames and Shane Doan netted his first NHL hat trick in a Phoenix Coyotes win.

Iginla was originally a first round pick of the Dallas Stars in 1995, but never played a game for them, as he was traded to Calgary in the Joe Nieuwendyk deal.  He would make his NHL debut in the Flames' playoff run in 1996 and his regular season debut the following season.  Through all of the failures, Iginla was the one constant for the Flames, so it should come as no surprise that he was the man in charge when the Flames made their improbable run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004.  500 goals and a Lester B. Pearson Trophy (in 2002) later, Iginla is almost certainly headed to the Hall of Fame.  The only question is whether he is a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Doan was a first round pick of the Winnipeg Jets in 1995 and played his first season with the team when they played their last game in Winnipeg.  The following year, he would go with the team to Phoenix, and though he hasn't put up the numbers that Iginla has, Doan became a reliable player for the Coyotes and like Iginla, was named captain of the team, an honor that both players still hold with their respective teams.  It is hard to believe that Doan, a prerennial 30 goal scorer, has never had a hat trick until last night.

Both players have been the rock of their respective franchises, and now, both are tied not just by draft year and their contributions to their respective cities, but by what they have done to help their teams win.