Teppo Numminen plays his 1252nd game

Last night he broke the record for the most games played by a European-trained player. My guess is that “European-trained” means born-and-raised in Europe and he didn’t play in the Canadian juniors system or with any of the American or Canadian universities before joining the NHL. The previous record of 1251 games was set by Jari Kurri in 1998 and probably concluded with his retirement. The Sabres are doing quite well this season, he’s only 38 and he’s a defenseman so I think Teppo will have no trouble pushing the ceiling on his record to over 1300 as some defensemen can keep playing to their early forties.