By Bill Hoppe, Features Writer
Jimmy Carson is on the phone
chatting about his exploits as the greatest teenage goal-scorer in NHL
history, and he’s doing a little research at the same time.
He
can’t remember when he learned that the 92 goals he scored for the Los
Angeles Kings – 37 as a rookie in 1986-87 and a whopping 55 in 1987-88,
the highest total by a U.S.-born player at the time – are the most by a
player under 20.
The affable, down-to-earth Carson, the No. 2
overall pick in 1986, is pretty sure he had no idea at the time. He
thinks perhaps he heard about it in 2013 when TSN aired a feature on his
career to mark the 25th anniversary of that little trade he was
involved in that sent Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles. “At some point,
someone said, ‘You know, you have the most goals in the history of the
NHL as a teenager,’ ” Carson said.
Carson never looked into it
until now. “I’ve been led to believe that’s an accurate record,” he
said. “Is ‘record’ the right word?”
Record. Achievement. Distinction. Whatever you want to call it, Carson owns it.
From
Oct. 11, 1986, when he scored a power-play goal in his second NHL game,
until March 30, 1988, when he tallied four times and broke Bobby
Carpenter’s record for most goals in a season by an American player, he
compiled 92 regular-season goals before he turned 20 on July 20, 1988.
Carson
is so curious about his accomplishment – he wants to double-check he’s
really first – he types “most goals in NHL history by a teenager” into
an internet search engine. “Let’s see what comes up,” said Carson, now
56 and working as a personal financial representative in suburban
Detroit.
First, he finds another one of his records: most goals in
a single season by a teenager, 55. After adjusting his search, he finds
what he’s looking for. The legendary names behind Carson on the list of
the top teenage scorers – Dale Hawerchuk, Gretzky, Sidney Crosby –
illustrate how dynamically he performed. Hawerchuk (85) had the
second-most goals, followed by Patrik Laine (80), Gretzky and Brian
Bellows (76 each) and Crosby (75). No one else has hit 70.
So, how
has Carson’s mark lasted for 37 years? For starters, most youngsters
don’t play two full seasons as a teenager. Gretzky turned 20 about
halfway through his second season with the Edmonton Oilers. Ditto for
Connor McDavid, who broke his clavicle as a rookie en route to 16 goals
in 45 games.
The
high-scoring era Carson played in certainly buoyed him. In 1986-87 and
’87-88, the NHL averaged 7.3 and 7.4 goals per game. In 2023-24, games
averaged 6.2 goals. In 2024-25, the average was 6.0 goals.
While
some teenagers possess the talent and maturity to produce in a demanding
league, it usually takes years. McDavid and Connor Bedard are often
called generational talents. Bedard, who turns 20 on July 17, scored 45
goals over his first two seasons with two awful Chicago Blackhawks
teams.
Several other factors (most notably talent) contributed to
Carson’s unique place in history. He used his speed and lethal shot to
make an immediate impact. “He had an explosive first few strides,” said
Morris Lukowich, one of the linemates Carson played with as a rookie.
“He had huge legs. That was one thing that was tremendous about him.
When he got the puck, he’d be gone.”
JIMMY CARSON
But
Carson, the NHL’s youngest player during his rookie season, also found
himself in the right place at the right time in Los Angeles. The Kings
immediately expressed their belief in him, putting him in situations to
succeed and showcase his high-end skill set. Like the rest of the Smythe
Division in the late 1980s, they played an up-tempo style. Carson was
teammates with respected veterans – Marcel Dionne, one of his childhood
heroes, Dave Taylor and others – who welcomed him. He also adapted to
the NHL alongside Luc Robitaille, another special rookie.
If
Carson’s hometown Detroit Red Wings, who owned the No. 1 pick in 1986,
had drafted him, he wouldn’t have enjoyed the same early success. The
Wings selected Joe Murphy, who, coincidentally, was traded for Carson in
1989. “In hindsight, it was a real blessing for me, I believe, that I
was not picked by Detroit, because they had a whole different style of
play, and the Norris Division was much more clutch-and-grab,” Carson
said. “Who knows if I would’ve made the team or if I would’ve been sent
to the minors or back to juniors? Would I have had as good of a start?
You never know how those things develop.”
Carson, who scored 70
goals and 153 points for the QMJHL’s Verdun Junior Canadiens in 1985-86,
learned early in his first training camp just how much the Kings valued
him. “I had a pretty good training camp,” he said. “And then, we
started some exhibition games, and I was told, ‘You’re making the team,
and we expect you to be an impact player right away.’ ”
The news
filled the durable Carson, who played all 160 games over his first two
seasons, with confidence. If he had a poor shift or a weak game, he
never felt like he would be demoted. While he admits he was raw, he
produced from the get-go on a line between Lukowich and Taylor.
“Wherever I played, I could put numbers on the board and score,” he
said. “It just kind of started translating right away.”
As
a rookie, Carson never went more than eight games without a goal. He
enjoyed his hottest stretch in late March, scoring nine times in seven
games to hit 37 goals. Meanwhile, Robitaille, a ninth-round pick from
1984 who was always exceeding expectations, scored 45 goals.
Having
entered the league together, Carson and Robitaille are often linked.
They developed a close friendship off the ice and displayed special
chemistry on it when they became linemates in 1987-88. “We were both
kind of finding our way around,” Carson said. “But Luc always exerted
such enthusiasm and love of the game and a very strong offensive nose.
We had a lot of fun off the ice. We had a lot of fun on the ice. And we
were putting some good numbers up.”
Carson – whose 186 points as a
teen rank fourth behind Crosby, Gretzky and Hawerchuk – remembers
watching the 1987 Canada Cup with Robitaille during their second
training camp in Victoria, B.C. When Gretzky and Lemieux combined to
score their legendary tournament-clinching goal against the Soviet Union
– Lemieux, a right-handed shot, moved the puck to Gretzky, a lefty, on
the left wing before completing a 2-on-1 – Carson, a righty, and
Robitaille, a lefty, looked at each other and said, “Wow!”
“We’re
like, ‘We’re going to have to use that play this year,’ and I’ll never
forget, we actually did a few times,” Carson said. “I think we called it
‘The Mario’ or something. I remember a few times, right in the middle
of a game, we would see the play develop, and one of us would yell,
‘Mario!’ ”
Carson scored his 50th during a three-goal performance
on March 26, 1988. He scored four times four days later, reaching 92
goals as a teenager. Robitaille, who turned 22 that season, scored 53
goals.
Then, four months after Carson scored five goals in five
games in the 1988 playoffs, the Kings sent him to Edmonton in the
massive deal that landed them Gretzky. But even before he was a major
part of the biggest trade in sports, Carson had secured his place in
hockey history. His early success might never be duplicated. “It’s very
hard to compare eras,” Carson said. “Am I surprised? I’ve never really
thought about it.”
This article
appeared in our 2025 Top-100 NHLers issue. This issue focuses on the
100 best players currently in the NHL, with the Avalanche's Nathan
MacKinnon sitting atop the list. We also include features on Alex
Ovechkin finally beating Wayne Gretzky's goal-scoring record, and former
CFL running back Andrew Harris' switch to semi-professional hockey. In
addition, we provide a PWHL playoff preview as the regular season nears
its end.
You can get it in print for free when you subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/Free today. All subscriptions include complete access to more than 76 years of articles at The Hockey News Archive.
Terry Wilson/OHL Images
