Hitting the century mark, no small feat for these Raiders.

100 points in a hockey season is something that is associated with all-time great players like Gretzky, Messier, Howe & Jagr. What about in the WHL? How frequently does this plateau get reached and does it get surpassed all that often?

Well, if you are a Prince Albert Raiders fan regardless of time frame be it from the SJHL Raiders to your modern-day WHL club you should know that this has been done exactly 26 times. I could go on an entire rampage of stats and seasons for each time but instead, I have knocked this list down to a Top-3 with one honourable mention.

Lee Leslie

Let’s get to the honourable mention first, it was the 1991-92 WHL season and the Raiders were a red hot club with three players going over the 100 point mark but my primary focus is on the one who hit it dead on, Lee Leslie. This was his final season in the WHL, all three seasons spent with the Raiders. Leslie managed to score 30 points in year one and 71 the following season. The 40 point jump statistically in just 10 extra games was quite the feat but jumping by another 29 points was another thing altogether.

Improving on his season total of 29 goals the year before to 52 and nearly attaining the same amount in assists, Leslie totalled 100 points. These jumps in points per season are exactly what caught the attention of the St.Louis Blues who drafted Lee in the fourth round of the 1992 NHL Entry Draft. Six minor pro seasons followed including time with the Canadian National team before retirement from the game.

Leon Draisaitl, photo property of the Prince Albert Raiders

Keep in mind the five selections are in no particular order.

Neon Leon

We’ll start first with one of the best young NHL talents in the NHL today, Leon Draisaitl.

Draisaitl came to the Raiders as the second overall pick of the 2012 CHL Import Draft. The talent was obvious, especially when you consider that he scored nearly two hundred points in just 29 games with the U-16 Mannheim Hockey Club.

Raiders fans didn’t have to hold their breath for too long because the 2013-14 season was his time to shine. 38 goals and 67 points helped lead the way on a very talented squad that had the likes of future Winnipeg Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey sitting in second with north of 70 points for the Raiders. Since hitting this mark with the Raiders, Draisaitl has done it again twice more with the Edmonton Oilers and if this NHL season wasn’t shortened he would probably have done it again.

Photo Credit – Prince Albert Raiders Website

Mike Modano; ahead by two centuries. 

Mike Modano’s name in the junior hockey circuit is synonymous with the Prince Albert Raiders brand. His number hangs in the rafters, he scored a hat trick in his first-ever WHL game. By his second WHL season, he was already the most intimidating player in the Western Hockey League. When Mike was on the ice, all eyes were on him in anticipation of what he would do next, he never failed to entertain.

You could be forgiven if you forgot about his 127 point season, you really could.

Arguably the WHL was the most talented league shy of the NHL at the time with the likes of Joe Sakic, Theo Fleury, Mark Recchi, Terry Yake, and Greg Hawgood out on the ice. Modano’s third season was his last in the WHL and he went out with a bang, although a quieter one than last. Scoring 105 points in just 41 games is remarkable no matter what level of hockey you are playing. His WHL career ended six points shy of 300. By 2012 he was in the US Hockey Hall of Fame, and in 2014 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. In 2018, Modano was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame. These achievements individually are near impossible to obtain nevermind as a trifecta.

Memorial Cup Celebration Dan Hodgson; Photo Property of the Prince Albert Raiders

The Raider

When Dan Hodgson arrived in Prince Albert he was already a junior hockey star. In 1980, while competing for the Cowichan Valley Capitals of the BCHL, he had already come within arms reach of 100 points in a season which he then achieved the very next season with 120 points. Frankly, for Dan, it was really just a matter of “when” he would reach and surpass the 100 point mark in the WHL.

It really didn’t take long, one season, 130 points.

Nobody on the 1982 club was even within spitting distance of his point totals. In 1983-84, he would blast off into space and nearly hit the moon with 181 points in just a mere 66 games! You would think that was good enough to take first place in the league but a little-known hockey player now turned analyst, Ray Ferraro, was having himself a blast with the Brandon Wheat Kings scoring 192 points.

The 1984-85 season was his most complete season in junior hockey and that is truly saying something. As Captain of the Raiders, he led the way surpassing last season’s total by a single point, which once again was good enough for second place in league points totals. However, the season-ending was different. Dan was voted to the CHL All-Star Team, he was the CHL Player of the Year, made the WHL East First All-Star Team and of course, the ultimate cherry on top, won the Memorial Cup while being named the tournament’s MVP.

The Toronto Maple Leafs selected Hodgson in the 1983 NHL Draft in the fifth round, he made his NHL debut with the Leafs during the 1985-86 season scoring 25 points in 40 games. Three more NHL seasons had him walking the tight rope of the NHL, frequently seeing playing time but not able to stick with it long enough.  Dan Hodgson retired from hockey after the 2005 season, having spent the majority of his professional career in Switzerland, winning three league championships. Dan is still to this day the only Raiders player to eclipse 100 points in a season three times and it is a team record that will not be broken any time soon.