San Jose center Ron Sutter played in his 1,000th career regular season game Oct. 16, a 3-2 win over the Capitals in Washington. The sixth and final active Sutter brother becomes the 141st player to reach this plateau and trails brother Brent by 107 games for the family lead in games played. The Sutter clan is approaching the 5,000 games. Below are the Sutters’ career stats:
SUTTER SEASONS GP G A Pts PIMs
Brent 1980-98 1,111 363 466 829 1,054
Ron* 1982- 1,004 199 320 519 1,314
Rich 1982-95 874 149 166 315 1,411
Brian 1976-88 779 303 333 636 1,786
Duane 1979-90 731 139 203 342 1,333
Darryl 1979-87 406 161 118 279 288
Totals 4,905 1,314 1,606 2,920 7,186
* Active through 10/24/99
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LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Seventeen countries are represented by players in the NHL, including hockey hotbeds such as Latvia (4) and Ukraine (3); Germany, Lithuania, and Poland (2 each); Belaurus, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and South Africa (1 each). Pittsburgh and Washington have iced the most diverse cultural mosaics with eight nationalities on their rosters. Below is the league composition:
Canada 56.4%
USA 16.0%
Russia 7.5%
Czech Republic 7.0%
Sweden 5.1%
Finland 3.3%
Slovakia 1.9%
Other 2.7%
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LAND OF THE GIANTS
This season the NHL features 13 players who are 6 feet 6 inches or taller. For the third straight year, New York Islanders defenseman Zdeno Chara is the tallest player in the league at 6-9, followed by 6-8 Los Angeles left winger Steve McKenna. Defensemen Hall Gill (Bruins) and Chris McAllister (Maple Leafs) are next at 6-7.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Rangers’ Theoren Fleury is the shortest NHL player at 5-6 while Calgary goaltender Fred Brathwaite and Vancouver left winger Steve Kariya are next at 5-7.
YOUTH MOVEMENT
The Ottawa Senators were the youngest team in the NHL last season with an average age of 26.0 years. This season, four teams average under 26 years of age. They are: Boston (25.8), Calgary (25.4), Edmonton (25.4) and the youngest club with an average age of 25.3 years, the New York Islanders.
