3 unbreakable Blackhawks franchise records

“Records are made to be broken,” as the old adage goes. But when you’ve played 100 seasons of hockey like the Chicago Blackhawks, there are going to be some records that won’t ever be broken. Today, we’ll look at three that fall into that category.

Tony Esposito Shutout Record

Before the NHL installed the waiver wire system that we are used to, they held an annual intra-league draft from 1952 to 1975. It was originally created to keep a competitive balance during the Original 6 era. Held in June, each team submitted a list of players to be protected, and the draft order was determined by the reverse of the previous season’s standings, with the non-playoff teams picking twice. Any team that chose an unprotected player would have to drop a player from their own protected list. The team losing a player would be compensated with cash.

In 1969, the Montreal Canadiens had a budding star goaltender in Ken Dryden, so they left Tony Esposito unprotected. The Blackhawks claimed him, with the Canadiens claiming Jack Norris as compensation. The move forever changed the franchise and immediately paid dividends.

The 1969-70 season saw Esposito go from a rather unknown to one of the top goaltenders in the league. He won the Calder Trophy, the Vezina Trophy, and finished second for the Hart Trophy after one of the greatest rookie seasons ever played. He won 38 games with a sterling .932 save percentage (SV%), 2.17 goals-against average (GAA), and a record 15 shutouts. Those shutouts are not only a Blackhawks record for the most in one season, but also a modern-day league record.

Esposito’s first shutout came on Oct. 25, 1969, against his former team, the Canadiens. He shut them out again on Nov. 16. He blanked the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, St. Louis Blues, and Pittsburgh Penguins twice, while picking up solo shutouts against the Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings, and Oakland Seals.

It is hard to imagine anyone would ever come close to breaking this record. With teams leaning more towards goaltending talent, and the league having an all-time high of dynamic talent, shutouts are hard to come by these days.

The only other Blackhawk to have 10 shutouts in a season since this terrific season was Esposito in 1973-74. Jeff Hackett and Jocelyn Thibault had eight shutouts in 1997-98 and 2002-03, respectively. The closest anyone has come to breaking Esposito’s record was during the 1997-98 season when Dominik Hasek had 13 for the Buffalo Sabres. Since 2012-13, there has only been one goaltender to have double-digit shutouts, and that was Marc-Andre Fleury in 2014-15 for the Penguins.

Current Blackhawks goaltender Spencer Knight had three shutouts last season, and has eight total in his career. While we’d love to see him give Tony O’s record a run for its money over the next few seasons, that's unlikely.

Steve Larmer’s Iron Man Streak

Nobody was as consistent in Blackhawks history as Steve Larmer. Not only did you know what you were going to get from him every single night, but you knew you were going to see No. 28 on the ice every time they took the ice. He never missed a game for his entire career with the Blackhawks, playing in 884 consecutive games.

It wasn’t just that Larmer played in 884 straight games; it’s when he did it. If you’re too young to have experienced the Norris Division of the 80s and early 90s, it was a different kind of hockey. The game was far more physical, and games against the likes of the Blues and Minnesota North Stars were all-out wars.

There have only been six streaks longer than Larmer’s in the history of the NHL. Brent Burns is currently on the second-longest consecutive games played streak at 1,007 games. He enters the 2026-27 season 58 games away from breaking Phil Kessel’s all-time Iron Man streak.

For any Blackhawks player to break this record, they would have to go without missing a game for over 10 and a half seasons. Considering Ryan Donato was the only one to play in all 82 games last season, the likelihood of this happening is slim. Even getting a player to play 11 straight seasons with the team would be an accomplishment in itself.

Bill Mosienko’s Hat Trick

On March 23, 1952, Bill Mosienko made Blackhawks and NHL history when he netted a hat trick in only 21 seconds against the New York Rangers. His first goal came at 6:09 of the third period. He beat goaltender Lorne Anderson again 11 seconds later. The Blackhawks quickly went on a power play, where Mosienko finished off his hat trick 10 seconds later. He beat Anderson again 45 seconds later, but was denied by the goalpost. This hat trick shouldn’t have come as a big surprise when you consider his first two NHL goals came only 21 seconds apart.

It’s been 74 years since Mosienko set this record, and the closest anyone has ever come to breaking it was in 1955 when Canadiens legend Jean Beliveau scored three goals in 44 seconds. That was the last time we saw a hat trick scored in under a minute. In 1991, former Blackhawks head coach Derek King potted three goals in 1:18 for the New York Islanders. The next fastest hat trick in Blackhawks was Al Secord’s in 3:15 in 1987.

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