Tage Thompson has been the Buffalo Sabres' best goal-scorer over the past four seasons, with 160 goals during that span. In franchise history, he currently ranks 12th all-time with 213 total, but another 40-goal season will have him jump all the way to sixth and be one goal ahead of Craig Ramsay and only one goal behind Thomas Vanek.
While Thompson has a chance to reach the Top 5, if he hopes to be the franchise leader in that category, he will have a long road ahead of him. The record is currently owned by Gilbert Perreault, who had 512 goals in 1,191 games played and has 130 more goals than Rick Martin, who is second in Sabres' history.
How many seasons does Tage Thompson need to surpass Gilbert Perreault?
Entering this season, Tage Thompson is almost 300 career goals behind Gilbert Perreault and certainly would have a long way to go to surpass him to be the franchise leader in goals. In fact, if he were to average 40 goals per season, essentially what he has done over the past four seasons, it would take another 7.5 seasons.
If he is able to do that, then he would be 35 years old by the time he passes Perreault. It would also require signing another contract with the Sabres as he has four seasons left on his current deal, including this upcoming one.
However, if he is able to consistently put up 40-goal seasons each season, the Sabres would be foolish not to sign him to another long-term deal that keeps him in Western New York for the rest of his career.
The biggest question though, is whether or not Thompson will keep up that kind of production towards the tail end of his career. If he hopes to realistically own that franchise record, he probably needs to get closer to 50 goals the next few seasons to account for a dip in production towards the end.
One area where he certainly could do that is with scoring more on power plays. During the 2022-23 season, Thompson had 20 power-play goals, but over the past three seasons, he has had a combined 22 goals.
If he can continue to finish each season around 30-35 even-strength goals and get to double-digit power-play goals, that would put him in a great position to break Gilbert Perreault's record and be the Buffalo Sabres' new leader in career goals.
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