Sebastian Aho is gearing up for another big outing in the Carolina Hurricanes‘ Global Series matchup against the Seattle Kraken.
Aho made his mark in the Global Series with a two-goal performance in Thursday’s 4-1 win over Seattle. The performance gave him 322 career goals, allowing the Finnish native to pass another Finn in the process.
Peter Dewar and Walt Ruff of Hurricanes.com shared on Saturday, “Recording his 321st and 322nd goals on Thursday, Sebastian Aho surpassed Olli Jokinen (321) for sole possession of fourth place in NHL history among Finnish players. Only Teemu Selanne (684), Jari Kurri (601), and Mikko Rantanen (325) have more.”
That said, he has more milestones to hit, and that may occur on Saturday afternoon during the second game of the series. Should Aho one-up his Thursday performance and notch a hat trick, he will tie Rantanen in career goals.
Rantanen also has a game on Saturday, as his Dallas Stars will square off against the Buffalo Sabres. Rantanen has nine goals in 18 games this season, compared to Aho’s 12 goals in 20 games.
Aho Moving Closer to Finland’s All-Time Greats
Sebastian Aho and Mikko Rantanen will go down as two of the greatest players of this generation, and perhaps the two best Finnish players. Ironically, the two forwards were teammates between Jan. and Mar. 2025 after the Colorado Avalanche shockingly traded Rantanen to Carolina.
With 322 goals for Aho and 325 for Rantanen, they will spend their careers vying for third place on the all-time list, while pursuing Selanne and Kurri.
Rantanen is on pace to collect 42 goals this season. Therefore, with Aho on pace to score 50 goals, he is also on pace to end the season third on the all-time list. Still, Aho and Rantanen may very well keep swapping the third and fourth positions in the foreseeable future.
Should they remain hot over the next five to 10 seasons? Both will find themselves in the conversation to surpass Kurri and Selanne. That will be one interesting race to watch.
In the short term? Look for Aho to close in on Ron Francis as far as franchise history goes.
Sebastian Aho Closing In On Hurricanes Franchise History
Dewar and Ruff also noted that Aho’s “…322nd goal also moved him into a tie with Eric Staal for the second-most goals in franchise history. Ron Francis (368 [sic]) is the only name ahead of those two.”
It is all but a done deal that Aho will pass Staal in the very near future. Aho can dramatically close in on Francis this season if he keeps up his current scoring pace.
As mentioned, he is on an 84-game pace to notch 50 goals. With the second game of the Global Series marking the quarter-way mark for Carolina, Aho’s ability to constantly find the net this season is more than just noise. It is a trend.
Should he end the year at that 84-game pace, he will need 22 more goals in 2027-28 to tie Francis (who has 382 career goals with Hartford/Carolina) and 23 to pass him. That will be an interesting development worth watching for Aho.
Hurricanes’ Sebastian Aho Now Threatening Two Historic Scoring Marks