Bossy’s career built around his ability to score at will
By Will MacLaren
Mike Bossy ranks no. 5 on the CHL’s Top 50 Players of the Last 50 Years
Just before Mike Bossy’s rookie season in the NHL, he made it a point to tell New York Islanders’ General Manager Bill Torrey that he would score 50 goals that year. Torrey was equal parts impressed and skeptical. Seven months later, after Bossy set a new rookie record with 53 tallies, he was only the first thing. But it was far from the last time Islanders management and fans alike would be mesmerized by the skinny kid from Montreal.
Suiting up for the Laval National, Bossy took the QMJHL by storm as a rookie, recording 70 goals to set a league record for 16-year-old players that, 52 years later, has yet to be broken. The National was an average at best outfit in during those years. However, that didn’t prevent Bossy from putting the club on his back, one goal at a time. In the spring of 1975, Bossy posted over two points per game and the National reached the league final despite finishing the regular season with a pedestrian 25-41-6 record. They remain one of only two teams in QMJHL history to reach the Final despite posting a sub-.500 record in the regular season. By the time he departed from the junior ranks, after selection by the Islanders with the 15th pick in the 1977 NHL Amateur Draft, Bossy held the ‘Q’ career goal mark of 309. It’s another record that has yet to be eclipsed.
Bossy reached the Isles at a time when that team was nearing its peak. With a cast of All-World talent, the club would capture four consecutive Stanley Cups form 1980-83. Bossy would mirror that consistency, posting nine consecutive 50-goal seasons, an NHL record that still stands. Five of those campaigns were of the 60-goal variety.
In three of the Islanders’ four Cup winning years, Bossy led the group in goals, culminating in his capturing the Conn Smythe Trophy as postseason MVP in 1982. In both 1982 and ’83, it was the dazzling #22 that potted the Cup winning tally. Then there was the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year in 1978; the two goal scoring titles in an era where “merely” being a 50-goal man did not guarantee that accolade by a longshot. There was also the three Lady Byng Trophies for the man who always prided himself on gentlemanly play. Internationally, Bossy put on a star-studded performance in winning the 1984 Canada Cup with Team Canada.
Indeed, Bossy could put a team on his back an any level. But by 1986, his own back was becoming a hinderance. He played through pain during the 1986-87 season, missing extended periods of action. That campaign would ultimately prove to be his last. Bossy retired with 573 goals and 1,126 points in 752 regular season NHL games to go with 85 goals and 160 points in 129 playoff games. Sadly, Bossy passed away from lung cancer on April 15, 2022, his life cut short much like his magnificent career. He remains a legend of the game; a legend developed thanks to a CHL career with few comparables.
