As Ilya Kovalchuk approaches another personal milestone (his last one with the Thrashers? Cue the trade talks...), I wanted to take another look at the fastest/youngest players to reach 600 points in their NHL career. Here is what I have so far (after the jump).

Fastest players to 600 points:

Gretzky: less than 4 seasons

Lemieux: less than 5 seasons

Statstny, Bossy, Kurri, Hawerchuk, Trottier, Denis Savard and Coffey: less than 6 seasons

Robitaille, Yzerman, Lafleur, Dionne, Selanne, Turgeon, Goulet, Jagr, Sakic, Nilsson, Anderson, Clarke, Orr, Hull, Lindros, Propp: less than 7 seasons

Another 22 players accomplishing this feat in less than 8 seasons, Kovalchuk being the only one having started his career in the current millenium.

Youngest player to 600 points

Gretzky: age 22 or younger

Lemieux, Hawerchuk: age 23 or younger

Yzerman, Turgeon, Jagr, Trottier, Savard, Orr, Coffey: age 24 or younger

Francis, Kurri, Goulet, Sakic and Lindros: age 25 or younger

Another 16 players accomplishing this feat at 26 or younger, Kovalchuk being the only one having started his career in the current millenium.

At LW, Ilya's competition is made of the usual suspects: Robitaille, Goulet, Muller, Bellows, Propp.

Finally, looking at goalscoring and taking 320 (Ilya's current total) as the reference mark:

- only 11 players have scored 320 goals at age 26 or younger: Gretzky, Lemieux, Hawerchuk, Yzerman, Jagr, Kurri, Goulet, Robitaille, Bossy, LaFontaine and Kovalchuk.

- only 16 players have scored 320 goals over their first 8 seasons: Gretzky, Bossy, Brett Hull, Lemieux, Hawerchuk, Yzerman, Jagr, Kurri, Goulet, Robitaille, Lafleur, Selanne, Anderson, Rick Martin, Dionne, Gartner and Kovalchuk.

Of course, the Malkin, Ovechkin and Crosby of this world are soon going to make their entrance in these prestigious lists but for now, let's just show our appreciation to Kovy.