Happy 1,000th!

Time for celebrating at CSA tonight as Chris Gratton plays his 1,000th game. Here is my story that ran on it today: click here for some good stuff, ya!

Here are some tidbits:

-- Gratts becomes the 217th player in league history to hit the milestone.

-- He becomes the 13th Florida player to hit the plateau.

-- Gratton is one of six players to hit 1,000 game while in a Florida sweater. The others: Scott Mellanby, Lyle Odelein, Greg Adams, Mike Foligno and Kirk Muller.

-- Here are all the Panthers (past and present) to hit 1,000 NHL games:

1,424: Scott Mellanby (552 games with Florida from 1993-2001)
1,349: Kirk Muller (162, 1997-99)
1,257: Joe Nieuwendyk (80, 2005-06)
1,232: Dino Ciccarelli (42, 1998-99)
1,208*: Martin Gelinas (156, 2005-present)
1,149: Gary Roberts (108, 2005-07)
1,097: Tom Fitzgerald (353, 1993-98)
1,084: Dave Lowry (272, 1993-97)
1,056: Lyle Odelein (82, 2003-04)
1,056: Greg Adams (60, 2000-01)
1,028: Gaetan Duchesne (13, 1994-95)
1,018: Mike Foligno (39, 1993-94)
1,000*: Chris Gratton (149, 2005-present)

COACHES

1,222: Mike Keenan (153, 2001-03)
1,214*: Bryan Murray (59, 1997-98)
1,008*: Jacques Martin (156, 2005-present)
1,000: Roger Neilson (132, 1993-95)

(*) – Counts tonight’s game between Florida and Ottawa. Bryan Murray is coach of the Senators.