The Canadian right wing spent his entire 10-year NHL career with the New York Islanders, playing a critical role in their four-straight Stanley Cup victories.
Bossy was diagnosed with lung cancer last October. Clark Gillies died in January and Jean Potvin died in March.
Only two players in NHL history have nine 50-goal seasons: Wayne Gretzky and Bossy. Alex Ovechkin has eight seasons with 50 or more goals, and has eight games left in the current season to score four more goals to match Bossy and Gretzky. Bossy has scored 50 goals or more in nine consecutive years. For eight seasons, Gretzky did it and for three years in a row, Ovechkin did it.
Bossy is the NHL's all-time leader in regular-season goals per game with 0.762. Bossy has more career hat tricks than any other player. Bossy's career is similar to that of Barry Sanders or Jim Brown in that he plays several seasons less than them.
The Islanders haven't been back to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1983, but they won four Cups and six straight conference titles. The NHL's playoffs Most Valuable Player was Bossy in 1982. He scored two championship-winning goals. Bossy has four game-winners in the same playoff series.
Bossy is third all-time in points per game and his 69 goals in 1978-79 has only been topped four times since 1990. The eight-time All-Star finished with 573 goals. He had 1,126 points and 553 assists. Bossy had 160 points in the playoffs. He ended his career in 1987 because of injuries. In his final NHL season, Bossy scored 38 goals and had 75 points. His jersey was retired by New York in 1992.
Bossy was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
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