After scoring 103 and 130 goals in his final two seasons with Quebec of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Lafleur is taken by the Canadiens with the No. 1 pick in the 1971 NHL Draft. He averages 26 goals through his first three seasons before breaking out with a 53-goal, 119-point performance in 1974-75. Lafleur
leads the NHL in scoring
with 125 points (56 goals, 69 assists) in 1975-76 and wins the
Art Ross Trophy
again in
1976-77
and
1977-78
; in all, the forward scores at least 50 goals and finishes with 119 or more points in each season from 1974-75 through 1979-80. Lafleur wins the
Hart Trophy
as the regular-season MVP and the
Conn Smythe Trophy
as playoff MVP in 1976-77, when the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup for the second time in what eventually becomes four consecutive seasons.
Lafleur retires early in the 1984-85 season and is elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988. But at 37, he returns to the NHL with the New York Rangers for the 1988-89 season, finishing with 45 points (18 goals, 27 assists). The Rangers trade him to the Quebec Nordiques in the summer of 1989, and he plays two more seasons before retiring for good in 1991 with 1,353 points (560 goals, 793 assists) in 1,126 games.
