Arizona Coyotes' Loui Eriksson reaches 1,000 career games

It might never have crossed Loui Eriksson's mind that he'd play 1,000 NHL games, let alone having the 1,000th against the team that drafted him, and in that team's building. But that's where Coyotes forward was when he took the ice in Dallas against the Stars Monday night. 

The season schedule just happened to work out for Eriksson, who at 36 years old is on the fourth NHL team of his 16-year career, to have game No. 1,000 land on Dallas at the Stars' building. He was traded to Arizona from Vancouver in the Oliver Ekman-Larsson-Conor Garland trade before this season, and prior to five seasons with the Canucks, spent three in Boston and the first seven in Dallas.

"It's always a nice feeling when you see Dallas, when you land here," Eriksson said Monday morning hours before the Coyotes and Stars played. "It brings up a lot good memories from playing here. So it's definitely special that it ended up being on my 1,000th game that we play against them. Pretty cool to be part of that."

Given his time in a Stars uniform, 501 games, the home team recognized him with a short tribute during the first period on Monday night. The Coyotes will celebrate Eriksson as well, announcing a pregame ceremony on Friday, December 10 when they face the Florida Panthers at home. 

Eriksson became the 360th player in NHL history to reach the 1,000-game milestone and the 14th player in Coyotes/Jets franchise history to play in his 1,000th game with the team. He is also the 14th Swedish player to reach the 1,000-game plateau, and is currently 13th among Swedish players in career goals.

Eriksson, with three assists this season, has 250 goals and 347 assists in his career, and was an NHL All-Star in n 2011 with Dallas. He played in only seven games last season with Vancouver and spent much of it on the taxi squad.

"There's not many Swedish players who made it to1,000 games and just to be part of those players who made it there, it's pretty cool," Eriksson said. "I worked very hard to stay in this league for that long. It's been slower the last couple of years getting games in, but I am definitely proud."

Get in touch with Jose Romero at Jose.Romero@gannett.com. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM.