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On March 12, 2012, Teemu Selanne scored his 659th career goal and 1,399th career point against the Colorado Avalanche, thus surpassing Jari Kurri as the all-time leading scorer in NHL history among Finnish-born players. While Finland has often been overshadowed by its neighbor Sweden in hockey, it has nevertheless produced its fair share of NHL players, chief among them Kurri and Selanne, two of the top players of their respective generations and both Hall of Fame members. Between these two “Finnish Flashes”, who remain #1 and #2 in scoring among their countrymen and are also close friends in real life, their great careers beg the question:
Who was better – Jari Kurri or Teemu Selanne?
The Beginning
Like many European-born players, both Kurri and Selanne honed their craft in their native Finland before arriving in the NHL with a bang and quickly leaving their marks as elite players.
In the late 1970s, Kurri played his first three seasons of professional hockey with Jokerit in the Finnish Elite League and was drafted 69th overall in the fourth round of the 1980 NHL Entry Draft by the Edmonton Oilers. He came over to North America and joined Edmonton for the 1980-1981 season, where he was paired with “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky on the same line for the high-powered Oilers. During his first season in the NHL, Kurri scored 32 goals with 43 assists for 75 points with a +27 +/- rating, thus beginning one of the most prolific on-ice pairings in NHL history.
Likewise, Selanne grew up playing junior hockey in the Jokerit developmental system; though he was drafted 10th overall in the 1988 NHL Entry Draft by the Winnipeg Jets, he would continue to play for Jokerit and develop in his home country before finally coming over to the NHL for the 1992-1993 season. It was well worth the wait, as Selanne piled up 76 goals and 56 assists for 132 points with a +8 +/- rating in his rookie year, thus breaking both Mike Bossy’s rookie record of 53 goals and Peter Stastny’s rookie record of 109 points (both players are also Hall of Famers). In addition, he won the Calder Trophy for top rookie, was selected for the first of 10 career All-Star Games, and finished sixth in the Hart Trophy voting. Moreover, Selanne’s 76 goals (which tied with Alexander Mogilny for the league lead) remains the fifth-highest single season total, and the only players who have scored more goals in a single season are the aforementioned Gretzky (92 and 87), Brett Hull (86), and Mario Lemieux (85).
Career Comparison
While both players got off to fast starts in the NHL, Kurri would be an elite player for a decade before entering a slow decline, whereas Selanne had a more up-and-down career and remained a top-tier scorer well into his late 30s.
Kurri’s strong rookie season with the Oilers would mark a decade of 30-goal seasons, including seven 40-goal and four 50-goal campaigns. In 1982-1983, he put up 45 goals and 59 assists for 104 points with a superlative +48 +/- rating, garnering the first of nine All-Star selections, including six straight from 1985-1990; this was also the first of five consecutive 100+ point seasons, and six overall, for Kurri. His highest scoring season would come in 1984-1985, when Kurri tallied a career-high 71 goals, along with 64 assists, for a career-best 135 points and an astounding +78 +/- rating (also a career-best), and also won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for “sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability”. The following season, in 1985-1986, he would lead the NHL in goals scored with 68, and add 63 assists for 131 points with a +45 +/- rating. Though his longtime linemate Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in a blockbuster deal in 1988, Kurri continued to thrive, posting 44 goals and 58 assists for 102 points with a +19 +/- rating in his first season post the trade.
When his contract with Edmonton expired in 1990, instead of negotiating a new contract, Kurri chose to spend a year playing in the Italian Serie A league; his rights were then successively traded to the Philadelphia Flyers and then the Kings on the same day, which reunited him with Gretzky. However, during his time in Los Angeles, Kurri became more of a defensive-minded forward (though he never won the Selke Trophy, he was always considered one of the best two-way forwards in the league, even in his high-flying Oilers days, and finished top-five in Selke voting for four straight years in the mid-1980s) and rarely played with Gretzky on the same line. In nearly five seasons with the Kings, his best statistical season came in 1992-1993 on the strength of 27 goals and 60 assists for 87 points and a +19 +/- rating; in addition, Kurri scored his milestone 500th career goal that season in October 1992.
During the lockout-shortened 1994-1995 season, Kurri returned home to play for Jokerit and together with Selanne, led the team to the 1995 European Cup; upon his return to the NHL, he was subsequently traded to the New York Rangers and became a bit of a nomad his last couple of seasons. Following a brief stint with the Rangers, he played alongside Selanne again on the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (a team that came into existence following the popular Disney movies of the early 1990s), and finally, had one last hurrah with a Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic-led Colorado Avalanche team before retiring at age 37 after the 1997-1998 season.
As for Selanne, though his record-setting rookie season marked the beginning of a long and storied career, it would also be his finest from a numbers perspective. Over the next couple of seasons, he only played in 96 games total due to an Achilles injury and the 1994-1995 lockout, during which he went back to play for Jokerit alongside Kurri. Midway through the 1995-1996, despite putting up 24 goals and 48 assists for 72 points in 51 games (which was his best scoring pace since his rookie season), Selanne was traded with Marc Chouinard and a fourth-round draft pick to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in a blockbuster deal for Oleg Tverdovsky, Chad Kilger, and a third-round draft pick, and finished with his second career 100-point season (40 goals and 68 assists); Winnipeg would soon relocate and become the Phoenix (now Arizona) Coyotes.
During the next four-plus years with Anaheim, Selanne would team up with fellow Hall of Famer Paul Kariya to form a dynamic duo for the Ducks. In each of his full seasons with Anaheim, Selanne would tally at least 30 goals, including two straight 50-goal campaigns (51 goals in 1996-1997 and 52 goals in 1997-1998), and was selected to five straight All-Star Games from 1996 to 2000. Moreover, he led the NHL in goal-scoring in both the aforementioned 1997-1998 season and the 1998-1998 season (47 goals and 60 assists for 107 points), and became the inaugural winner of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy for leading goal-scorer in 1999. However, despite his consistently stellar on-ice play with Anaheim, midway through the 2000-2001 season, the rebuilding Ducks traded Selanne to the San Jose Sharks for Jeff Friesen, Steve Shields, and a second-round draft pick.
Selanne’s two-and-a-half years in San Jose were some of his lowest scoring seasons (54 and 64 points, respectively, in the two full years) and thus, in 2003-2004, he signed a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche to reunite with Kariya; however, it turned out to be the worst season of his career, as he only had 16 goals and 16 assists for 32 points in 78 games played.
Following this nadir, Selanne returned to Anaheim and experienced a career resurgence with consecutive 40-goal, 90-point seasons, winning the Masterton Trophy in 2005-2006 for his perseverance; career highlights during this second go-around with the Mighty Ducks included his 1,000th career point in January 2006 and his 500th career goal in November 2006. Over the last half-dozen years of his career, Selanne remained a key veteran presence for Anaheim, though his offensive production steadily declined, with his last great season coming in 2010-2011 (31 goals and 49 assists for 80 points with a +6 +/- rating). Post the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 season, Selanne announced that it would be his last season and retired after the 2013-2014 season at age 43.
Due to his longer NHL career (21 seasons for Selanne vs. 17 for Kurri), Selanne has a career edge in goals scored and total points , though Kurri still had more assists and a vastly superior +/- rating. Additionally, Kurri had more 30-goal seasons (11 vs. 10), the same number of 40-goal seasons (7x each), and more 100+ point seasons (6 to 4), as well as a higher point-per-game average (1.12 vs. 1.00); in fact, at the time of his retirement, Kurri was the highest-scoring European-born and bred player in NHL history (legendary center Stan Mikita of the Chicago Blackhawks had more career points, but grew up in Canada after being born in Europe). Awards-wise, Selanne had slightly more All-Star selections (10 vs. 9), and owns a Richard Trophy, Masterton Trophy, and Calder Trophy to his name vs. Kurri’s Lady Byng. As the two best Finnish-born players in NHL history, both were surefire Hall of Fame selections, Kurri in 2001 followed by Selanne in 2017.
Regular Season Statistics
| Jari Kurri | Player | Teemu Selanne |
| 17 (1980-1990, 1991-1998) | Seasons | 21 (1992-2014) |
| 1,251 | Games Played | 1,451 |
| 601 | Goals | 684 |
| 797 | Assists | 773 |
| 1,398 | Points | 1,457 |
| +304 | +/- | +95 |
| 9x | All-Star Games | 10x |
| – | Hart Trophies | – |
| – | Ross Trophies | – |
| 5x | Stanley Cups | 1x |
| – | Conn Smythes | – |
| 1x Lady Byng | Other Awards | 1x Richard, 1x Masterton, ROY |
| 2001 | Hall of Fame Induction | 2017 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
When it comes to the postseason, Kurri has a distinctive edge, winning five Stanley Cups to Selanne’s one; moreover, Kurri performed at an elite level in playoffs, averaging 1.17 points per game (above his regular season career average) with a substantially positive +/- rating, whereas Selanne was good, but not great (0.68 points per game, well below his career average, with a negative +/- rating).
As an integral member of all five Stanley Cup-winning Oilers teams in the 1980s, Kurri was a prime performer who led the playoffs in goal scoring 4x, though never captured the Conn Smythe for playoff MVP. In the 1984 Stanley Cup playoffs, he led all players with 14 goals, along with 14 assists, as the Oilers triumphed 4-1 over the New York Islanders. This was followed by an even better postseason in 1985, when Edmonton repeated by beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 in the Finals – Kurri again paced the league with 19 postseason goals, thus tying Reggie Leach for most goals scored in one postseason; in addition, his four hat tricks remain a playoff record. During the Oilers’ second back-to-back in 1987 (4-3 in the Stanley Cup Finals over the Flyers once again) and 1988 (a sweep of Ray Bourque and the Boston Bruins), Kurri scored 15 and 14 goals, respectively, to lead the league once again. Even without Gretzky, Kurri notched 10 goals in 1990 as the Oilers once again beat the Bruins (4-1 this time) for their fifth and final Stanley Cup to-date. In his latter years, he would make the Stanley Cup Finals again in 1993 as a member of the Los Angeles Kings and reclaim some of his prior magic with 9 goals, but the Kings would fall 4-1 to Patrick Roy and the Montreal Canadiens.
On the other hand, Selanne experienced relatively little postseason success until his second stint with the Ducks, never making it past the second round before then. However, as part of Anaheim’s magical postseason run in 2007, Selanne had his best individual postseason with 5 goals and 10 assists as the Ducks beat the Ottawa Senators 4-1 in the Finals for their first-ever Stanley Cup.
Internationally, both players were long-time stalwarts for their native Finland and helped guide the country to some of its greatest successes. After winning bronze at the 1991 Canada Cup, bronze at the 1991 European Championships, and silver at the 1994 World Championships, Kurri was part of the bronze medal-winning team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Selanne meanwhile has an even more impressive trophy case: silver and bronze medals at the Canada Cup (1991 – bronze, 2004 – silver), European Championships (1991 – bronze), and World Championships (1999 – silver, 2008 – bronze), plus four Olympic medals – 3x bronze at the aforementioned 1998 Games, 2010 in Vancouver, and 2014 in Sochi, as well as Finland’s best-ever silver medal at the 2006 Games in Turin, where they lost to the rival Swedish team led by NHL stars such as Nicklas Lidstrom and the Sedin twins.
Playoff Statistics
| Jari Kurri | Player | Teemu Selanne |
| 200 | Games Played | 130 |
| 106 | Goals | 44 |
| 127 | Assists | 44 |
| 233 | Points | 88 |
| +101 | +/- | -16 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; we saw this clearly with Kurri’s 1980s peak and 1990s decline, as well as with Selanne’s career progression. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Jari Kurri | Player | Teemu Selanne |
| 1980-1990 | Decade of Dominance | 1992-1993, 1995-2001, 2005-2007, 2010-2011 |
| 754 | Games Played | 776 |
| 474 | Goals | 451 |
| 569 | Assists | 512 |
| 1,043 | Points | 963 |
| +373 | +/- | +130 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Looking at their decades of dominance, Kurri clearly comes out ahead in all major counting statistical categories (in slightly fewer games played, no less), as well as on a per-game basis (1.38 vs. 1.24 points per game), thus speaking to how truly dominant a player he was in the 1980s with the Oilers.
My Thoughts
For the foreseeable future, Jari Kurri and Teemu Selanne will continue to be the two best Finnish-born players in NHL history (#3 on the career scoring list is Saku Koivu with “only” 832 points), a testament to each’s greatness and consistency. While Selanne is the all-time goal and point scorer among Finns and was one of the most respected players in the league during his day, he was more of a goal scorer rather than a complete hockey player (playmaking, defense, etc.). With regards to Kurri, I think people may be forgetting how great he really was – even on an Edmonton team stacked with Hall of Fame players such as Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Glenn Anderson, and Grant Fuhr, Kurri stood out as one of the best all-around players in hockey, as well as an elite postseason performer who consistently led the NHL in playoff goals. No disrespect at all to Selanne, but in his prime, the original “Finnish Flash” was the more dominant and more complete player.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Jari Kurri
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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