Mark Recchi entered the National Hockey League in the 1988-89 season with the Pittsburgh Penguins after a stellar career with the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League. Recchi was drafted by the Penguins in the fourth round of the 1988 NHL Entry Draft, 67th overall. He has played with a handful of teams, including Pittsburgh, Philadelphia Flyers, Montreal Canadiens, Carolina Hurricanes, Atlanta Thrashers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins.

Mark is now in his 21st season in the NHL and still going strong. Although he has no major individual awards to his name, Recchi has been an All-Star eight times and has been on two Stanley Cup winning teams. His first Cup came with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and his second came fifteen years later with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Understandably, with 21 years of NHL hockey under his belt, Recchi’s name can be found on several ‘all-time’ lists. On several of these he has already moved up positions in the current 2010-11 season and is poised to move up even more if he continues on the pace he’s at now.

At the end of the 2009-10 season, Mark sat in 13th position for all-time regular season points with 1485. He is on pace for 1534 which will put him three ahead of Paul Coffey and into 12th spot.

Mark began the season with 563 career regular season goals which put in 22nd overall. Already this season, he has outpaced Joe Nieuwendyk and Mats Sundin to move into 20th position. He is on pace to pass Mike Bossy for the 19th spot any day now. He will have to surpass the 600 goal plateau in order to pass Jari Kurri and move into 18th place.

Recchi started the season with 194 regular season power play goals, putting him 17th on the NHL’s all-time list for this category. He has since surpassed Brian Bellows for 16th spot. Mark is on pace to complete the season with 204 PPG which would put him ahead of current 15th place holder, Steve Yzerman and in a tie for 14th with ‘The Great One’, Wayne Gretzky.

Being the clutch player that he is, it is no surprise that Recchi sat 19th on the all-time list for regular season game winning goals with 85. He has already moved into a tie for 15th with Mike Gartner and is poised to end the season tied for ninth with Sergei Federov and Joe Nieuwendyk. He has already leap-frogged Glenn Anderson, Pierre Turgeon, Joe Sakic and Luc Robitaille. He is on pace to surpass Wayne Gretzky, Jeremy Roenick, Mike Modano and Mark Messier.

He began the season with 922 career regular season assists, putting him 17th on the all-time list. He has since moved into 14th spot, surpassing Stan Mikita, Larry Murphy and Al McInnis. He is on pace to pass Jaromir Jagr and move into 13th position.

Mark was in ninth spot at the start of the season in regards to regular season games played with 1571. Since, he has moved ahead of Ray Bourque and Larry Murphy and into seventh spot. If he stays healthy and misses only one game for the rest of the season, he will move into fourth spot, surpassing Scott Stevens, Dave Andreychuk and Chris Chelios. If Mark played for another season and a half after this year, he would challenge Gordie Howe’s all-time mark of 1767 games. Standing between Recchi and Howe are Ron Francis with 1731 and Mark Messier with 1756.

In the late 1980’s, a player standing just 5’10” and weighing less than 200 lbs. certainly had the odds against him in regards to even a short NHL career. Recchi has destroyed those odds and gone on to what surely will be a Hockey Hall of Fame career.