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Flashback Friday: Seven of the Flames’ 10 Hall of Fame skaters picked up a point in their first NHL regular season game

Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images

By Cynthia Ryley Delaney

Oct 9, 2026, 15:30 EDTUpdated: Oct 9, 2026, 13:54 EDT

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On Thursday evening, Jonathan Castagna made his National Hockey League debut.

It didn’t take him long to pick up his first career point either, winning a puck battle in his own zone and getting the puck up to Adam Klapka for a rush chance. This goal, while it being Castagna’s first point, is in the highlight reel thanks to Klapka’s toe-drag and snipe.

This wasn’t the first time a Flame making his NHL debut picked up a point in their first game, and it almost certainly won’t be the last. Funnily enough, seven of the 10 Flames’ skaters inducted into the Hall of Fame also achieved this feat.

Will Castagna be a Hall of Famer when all is said and done? Probably not, but it’s a cool tidbit for the 21-year-old rookie.

In this edition of Flashback Friday, the first of the 2026-27 season, we’ll look at the seven Hall of Famers who played for the Flames who also picked up a point in their first game. The three players who didn’t achieve the feat are: Martin St. Louis, Doug Gilmour, and Al MacInnis.

First point with the Flames

Brett Hull will go down as one of the best goal-scorers in NHL history.

Hull scored his first career NHL goal and point in his regular season debut on Nov. 13, 1986. Hull played two postseason games during the 1986 postseason. It was the first of 29 goals he scored for the Flames, one in five games during the 1986-87 regular season, two in that year’s postseason, and 26 in 52 games with the Flames in 1987-88.

Unfortunately, his best days weren’t with the Flames, as they traded him along with Steve Bozek to the St. Louis Blues for Rob Ramage and Rick Wamsley on Mar. 7, 1988. Over 1,269 games with five teams, the Belleville, Ontario product scored 741 goals and 1,391 games, winning the Hart Trophy in 1990-91, as well as two Stanley Cups.

Joe Nieuwendyk was teammates with Hull on the Flames in 1987-88, at least until Hull was traded. Nieuwendyk made his NHL debut on Mar. 10, 1987, scoring his first NHL goal and point in a 6-3 victory over the Washington Capitals. It was the first of a long list of goals, as he scored 51 goals in back-to-back seasons, adding 10 more in 22 playoff games during the Flames’ 1989 Stanley Cup run.

The Oshawa, Ontario product went on the play nine seasons with the Flames, scoring 314 goals and 616 points in 577 games, with 32 goals and 60 points in 66 playoff games. He was traded to the Stars on Dec. 19, 1995, winning a Cup with them (and Hull) in 1999, then another one with the New Jersey Devils in 2003. In 20 seasons, Nieuwendyk scored 564 goals and 1,126 points in 1,257 games.

Trading a Hall of Famer must’ve resulted in the Flames losing the trade, right? Wrong. In return, the Flames received a young prospect named Jarome Iginla. That name may sound familiar, as he’s the father of current Flames’ prospect Joe Iginla.

Obviously, everyone knows who Jarome Iginla is. Like Hull, his NHL debut actually came in the playoffs, but he managed to pick up an assist in a 7-5 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on April 21, 1996. Iginla also scored in his first regular season game, beating Kirk McLean for the Flames’ lone goal in a 3-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Oct. 5, 1996.

Unlike Hull and Nieuwendyk, Iginla spent the majority of his career as a Flame, though he never hoisted a Stanley Cup. In 1,219 games with the team, he scored 525 goals and 1,095 points, winning a Hart Trophy and two Rocket Richard Trophies. It’s a fantastic résumé for a player widely considered one of the best power forwards in NHL history.

Before the 2013 trade deadline, Iginla was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in an effort to help him win the Stanley Cup. He also played for the Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, and Los Angeles Kings, but the ultimate goal ultimately eluded him.

Between Nieuwendyk’s first career points and Iginla’s first career point was Sergei Makarov’s first career point. In fact, the Russian forward scored a goal and picked up two helpers in his NHL debut on Oct. 5, 1989, a 10-7 victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

Makarov holds the distinction of the oldest Calder Trophy winner, ending the 1989-90 season with 24 goals and 86 points in 80 games. The Russian was named the league’s best rookie for that season at the age of 31 years old, something that’ll never happen again as age eligibility is now capped at 26 years old.

Due to coming over to the league as late as he did thanks to geopolitics well out of the scope of this article, Makarov only played 424 NHL games, scoring 134 goals and 384 points. Four of his seven seasons were spent with the Flames, scoring 94 goals and 292 points in 297 games. While the NHL track record wouldn’t get many players in the Hall of Fame, he had a terrific career in Russia during his 20s.

First point with a different team

Those were the four Flames’ Hall of Famers who picked up their first NHL point as a Flame, but there are three other Hall of Famers who played for the Flames who got their first NHL point in their first NHL game on other teams.

We all know Lanny McDonald’s final NHL point, a goal that turned out to be the game-winner to clinch the Flames their one and only Stanley Cup in 1989. But 16 years before that, the Hanna, Alberta product made his NHL debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Oct. 10, picking up a pair in a 7-4 victory over the Buffalo Sabres.

McDonald went on to score 500 regular season goals and 1,006 regular season points in 1,111 regular seasons games. That goal in the 1989 postseason was one of just 44 playoff goals he scored, and one of 84 playoff points he got in 117 playoff games.

Nearly a decade after McDonald’s first point, the Sabres were on the other end of a future Hall of Famer picking up their first career point. On Oct. 6, 1982, Phil Housley picked up a helper in the Sabres’ 6-4 loss to the Québec Nordiques, though he finished a -3.

The defenceman played eight seasons with the Sabres, scoring 178 of his 338 goals and 558 of his 1,232 points with the Western New York team. After a stint with the Original Winnipeg Jets and a short stop in the the Gateway of the West (St. Louis), Housley played 59 games with the Flames in 1995-96 before being traded to the New Jersey Devils.

Following the 1995-96 season, Housley joined the Washington Capitals for two seasons, before playing three more seasons with the Flames. In 1999-2000, he made the All-Star Game with the team, the first time he achieved that feat since the 1992-93 season. It was the final time he appeared in the All-Star Game.

After his second stint with the Flames ended, Housley joined the Blackhawks for parts of two seasons, before playing a game with the Toronto Maple Leafs to end his career in 2002-03.

In the game that Nieuwendyk picked up his first career point, right winger Joe Mullen picked up two assists. By that point, he was an established NHLer, and the first of his many points came on Oct. 6th against the Penguins, picking up an assist in a 6-2 victory. Like Hull and Iginla, Mullen made his debut in the postseason, where he failed to pick up a point.

Mullen had a solid career with the Blues, scoring 25 goals and 59 points that season, before back-to-back 40 goal seasons in his final two seasons with the midwest-based team. Before the 1986 trade deadline, Mullen was traded to the Flames, playing parts of four seasons with the team and helping them win the Stanley Cup in 1989.

The winger scored a career-high 51 goals and 110 points in 79 regular season games, then led the postseason with 16 goals, though he fell short of the Conn Smythe Trophy.

Mullen’s first NHL point came against the Penguins back in 1981, but a decade later he won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the team, giving him three Stanley Cups in just four seasons, doing all this in his early 30s.

He played two more seasons with the Penguins, another with the Bruins, before returning to play his final NHL season with the Penguins in 1996-97. Over 17 NHL seasons, Mullens scored 502 goals and 1,063 points in 1,062 games, playing in the postseason in all but two of his NHL seasons.

Cynthia Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for DFO Calgary, DFO Edmonton, and Blue Jays Nation. She can be followed on Twitter @CynthiaRDelaney.

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