History was made on Wednesday nightJust as interestingly, Stastny's 17-game streak has now surpassed his father, Peter Stastny (16 games in 1980-81), for the longest scoring streak by a rookie in franchise history.
Paul Stastny, who somehow regularly escapes the rookie of the year spotlight that Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal seem to own, is said to be a chip of the old block.
While his mannerisms and hockey sense are uncannily similar, only time will tell if Paul has a career resembling his father's. Peter Stastny was one of the true NHL greats in the 1980s. After he and brothers Anton and Marian defected from communist Czechoslovakia, Stastny quickly established himself as the first NHL superstar from the former Eastern Bloc. If you don't know the story of the Stastny brother's defection, I highly suggest reading this lengthy New York Times article from 1982.
Stastny helped make the Nordiques a powerhouse in the NHL's Wales Conference. Many great regular season and playoff battles occurred with the provincial rival Montreal Canadiens in one of the greatest and unfortunately shortest rivalries the league has ever seen. Despite some great runs, Stastny and the Nords never did make an appearance in the Stanley Cup finals.
Stastny was the second highest scoring player in the entire decade of the 1980s, trailing only Wayne Gretzky, of course. He finished his career with 1237 career points, which at the time was the most points recorded by a European trained player (Jari Kurri and Jaromir Jagr have since surpassed this mark).
One of Peter Stastny's last great contributions to the Nordiques was tutor a young Joe Sakic. It is interesting to see that now Sakic is the veteran who is tutoring Stastny's son.
In case you didn't know, Peter has another son, Yan, who has played in the NHL this season. Yan, more of a fringe role player, appeared in 21 games with the Bruins this season before being traded to St. Louis where he was assigned to their minor league affiliate.
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