NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time

The NHL has so many great moments throughout a single game. It’s the most exciting sport because it never stops and the great moments are some of the prettiest to watch. It can be a deke that knocks a guy out of his skates, a tape-to-tape pass that bends geometry as a core concept, or a massive save that feels utterly impossible. However, there’s nothing like a great goal.

The best goal scorers in history were constantly on the highlight reel. Some were able to skate through an entire defensive front and score on his own. Others had the most unreal shot. Then, there were those who could combine the two.

This list will look at those scorers who could do it all to get the puck in the back of the net. This won’t be a list that looks at the list of top goal scorers, because that’s no fun. This is looking at the scorers who in their prime were the very best. They had a run of seasons where they were literally unstoppable. They couldn’t be stopped by a change in league rules or simple defensive schemes. These players put their team on the board as much as anyone in history.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 30 Auston Matthews

Auston Matthews will be the only player on this list that is this early in his career, but it seems almost impossible to talk about the greatest pure goal scorers and leave him off. This is his fifth season in the league. He’s broken 40 goals twice, including 47 goals in 70 games when the pandemic put a freeze on the 2019-20 season. As of this writing, he has 21 goals in 30 games this season.

Matthews is impossible to stop. His goals come at all strengths, at all different times during the game, and they come in bunches. Teams will put two players on him despite the fact that William Nylander, John Tavares, and Mitch Marner all play for the Toronto Maple Leafs as well. He still finds a seam and puts the puck in the back of the net with consistency.

The former number-one overall pick has exceeded expectations for the most popular team in the NHL. It’s hard to live up to said expectations over a full year. For Matthews to do it in just five years is incredibly impressive. Matthews is expected to get even better as he ascends into his prime. At the time of writing this, he is going to surpass 200 goals in only his sixth season. His .57 goals per game is the tenth best in history, and it’s better than every current player who isn’t number one on this list.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 29 Ziggy Palffy

Here’s another supreme scorer who doesn’t get the credit he deserves. Ziggy Palffy played just 12 seasons in his career due to a lingering shoulder injury. It seemed to really take the spark out of him. However, at his peak, Palffy was one of the best goal scorers of the late 90s and early 2000s.

Palffy was never in the Hart Trophy conversation, nor was he considered the best in the world, but that was mostly because of the talent surrounding him. He was able to score 40+ goals three times for the mid-90s Islanders. He was a player that dominated on a team that had nothing else.

The injuries started to pile up, however, and the 1997-98 season was the last time he played a full 82 game season. He was still a prolific scorer after he was surprisingly traded to the Los Angeles Kings. After failing to hit 30 goals in his first season in LA, he broke out the following season. He lit the lamp 38 times in 73 games. Fighting through injuries every year, he still broke 30 goals in the next two seasons as well.

Coming out of the 2004 lockout, Palffy signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins to show he could overcome a career full of injuries. It didn’t work, and he surprisingly retired in the middle of the season, despite scoring 11 goals in 42 games. His shoulder just didn’t have it anymore, and it was time to step away from the greatest league in the world. He was able to continue his career later overseas, but he wasn’t able to handle the grind of the NHL.

This shouldn’t take away from the greatness of Palffy. When he was right, he was unstoppable. If he stayed healthy across his career, he’s probably a top 20 scorer of all-time. Despite playing through injuries, he’s still in the top 30 in goals per game of every player who has at least 200 goals.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 28 Alexander Mogilny

The story of Alexander Mogilny’s journey to the NHL is insane. He started his career in the Soviet Union, which wasn’t too keen on players leaving to play in the NHL. During the 1989 World Junior Championships, Mogilny stayed in Stockholm, Sweden, giving the Buffalo Sabres a chance to save him from going back to what’s now known as Russia.

Once Mogilny came to the U.S., it did not take him long to become one of the best pure goal scorers in hockey. In his sophomore season, he broke the 30-goal plateau at 21-years-old. Two years later, he led the entire league with 76 goals. Only three players in the history of the league have scored more in one season.

The real issue with Mogilny was consistency. He had that aforementioned 76-goal season, a 55-goal season, a 43-goal season, then a lot of decent campaigns around that. He was absolutely dominant three times. Like, best in the world at scoring goals at a time where Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux were in the league, sort of dominant. There was nobody outscoring him in 1992-93. However, he only had five other 30-goal seasons. He had eight seasons where he failed to hit 30 goals altogether.

Mogilny was and still is one of the most underrated players in the history of the league. That year with 76 goals? He got zero Hart Trophy votes. Despite his amazing seasons, he’s still falling short of the Hall of Fame.

This is a Stanley Cup Champion that made back-to-back Final appearances in 1999 and 2000. He scored 16 points in the 2000-01 playoffs. He had eight playoff goals for the Toronto Maple Leafs surprise run in the 2002 playoffs. Mogilny deserves a lot more credit. His peak was amazing, and he deserves recognition for how good he was in this league.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 27 Ilya Kovalchuk

What a strange career for Ilya Kovalchuk. Outside the Montreal Canadiens, the fans for the teams he played on pretty much hate him. He left the Atlanta Thrashers high and dry basically by leaving that franchise. He retired in the middle of a 15-year contract with the New Jersey Devils just two years after going to the Stanley Cup Final. The Los Angeles Kings weren’t a fan after signing him to a three-year deal. Now, he’s back in Russia.

Despite all the controversy surrounding Kovalchuk, nobody could deny he was probably the best pure scorer in the NHL. Despite playing for the lowly Thrashers, he scored 40+ goals for six-straight seasons. He won the Rocket Richard Trophy in the season before the 2004-05 lockout, and he probably would have had another 40-50 goal season under his belt if the 2012-13 lockout didn’t happen (he only had 19 goals in Russia that season, but nothing about that season made sense).

Once he went to the Devils, he was still a prolific goal scorer. He was playing with Zach Parise, and together, they helped give Martin Brodeur one last run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012. He led all goal scorers in the playoffs that season. He was still the guy a team could lean on when they needed a goal.

Kovalchuk had that deceptive shot that’s very popular in Russian hockey and he did it better than anyone. He could snipe every corner of the net and beat goalies on a regular basis. Kovalchuk is the quintessential “what if” player. He simply ran into a string of unfortunate circumstances such as a horrible fit in LA, losing one of his best seasons to a lockout, and spending long stretches in Russia when he prematurely decided to call it a career. He deserves his ranking on this list but his career ended on more of a whimper rather than on a high note.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 26 Jarome Iginla

We go from one of the most controversial players of all time to one of the biggest fan favorites in hockey history. Jarome Iginla was a player just about everyone (outside of Oilers’ fans) rooted for. He was another great player that spent too much time on bad teams, but he lifted the Calgary Flames to a contender out of nowhere. After missing the playoffs for seven straight seasons, Iginla carried the Flames to Game 7 of the 2004 Stanley Cup Final. He put up 13 goals over that postseason, which included seven at even strength and two on the penalty kill.

Iginla was a one-man wrecking crew in his prime. He is a two-time Rocket Richard Trophy winner and finished second in Hart Trophy voting twice. There was a real question of whether he was the very best player in the NHL in the time between Mario Lemieux’s dominance and Sidney Crosby taking the throne.

Iginla was incredibly consistent over his 20-year career. He scored 625 goals and had 675 assists for a nice even 1,300 points in his career. He scored 30 goals in 11-straight seasons. There were no injuries derailing him during his time in Calgary.

After 16 years with the Flames, it was finally time to go to a franchise with a focus on winning. Iginla was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins where he could play with a legitimate center. He then signed with the Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche before finishing his career with the Los Angeles Kings. Outside of that last season with Colorado, he never had a bad year. Even when he went to the Kings, he scored six goals in 19 games to finish out the regular season. Iginla retired as one of the very best this league has ever seen.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 25 Mats Sundin

One of the greatest Toronto Maple Leafs of all time, Mats Sundin was a breath of fresh air at a time the Leafs really needed it. He was originally a draft pick of the Quebec Nordiques, where he scored 135 goals in just four seasons. The Nordiques were about to put together one of the best teams in the league (that would come together in Colorado), so they made a monster move, sending Sundin to Toronto for a massive package that included Wendell Clark. It’s one of the biggest trades in NHL history, and it led to one of the great careers ever in the hockey capital of the world.

The 1994 lockout caused a delay in the start of his Maple Leafs’ career, but he didn’t take long to get going. He scored basically a goal every two games in his first season with the Leafs. He would go on to score 30+ goals in nine of his first 10 full seasons with the Leafs (not counting the lockout-shortened season). That is ridiculous consistency from a forward who was the focus of many coaching staffs.

Sundin was so much more to the Maple Leafs than just a scorer, but when it came to putting the puck in the net, he was one of the best. Sundin is the Maple Leafs all-time leader in goals. As controversial as the team may be, they are one of the most popular in the history of the league, and their best scorer deserves some love on this list.

Sundin is also the highest-scoring Swedish player of all time, and it’s not close. He leads Daniel Alfredsson by more than 100 goals. Nicklas Backstrom is the closest among current players, and he’d need 300 goals in the latter half of his career to catch him. There are some great young players that could one day be in the conversation (Elias Petterson, Mika Zibanejad, and William Nylander seem to be the leaders in the clubhouse), but for now and for a while, Sundin is the greatest Swedish goal scorer of all time.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 24 Jean Beliveau

Now, we’re going way back to talk about one of the early greats. Jean Beliveau was greatness personified in the regular season, and he led a powerhouse Montreal Canadiens team in the playoffs. He won 10 Stanley Cups (He also won seven more Stanley Cups as a team vice president, so he must be the most decorated human in sports). He also has the most points in the Stanley Cup Final over his career with 62.

While Beliveau played at a time when only six teams were in the NHL, he also only got 70 games in a season. So the years when he was scoring more than 40 goals are even more impressive.

Beliveau is just hard to compare to the other scorers in more recent eras. Hockey was just different in the 50s and 60s. Still, Beliveau could be dropped into today’s game and still score 30 goals.

He helped bring hockey into the mainstream, and the game is different today because of him. Beliveau was one of the greatest athletes in the world when he was at his peak. He made the game look incredibly easy every night. His ability to make plays at a time where people were still asking for “old-school hockey” was incredible. He was a two-time Hart Trophy winner, he won the original Conn Smythe Trophy in 1965 and found himself on the All-Star Team 13 times over his career.

Beliveau was one of the best at putting the puck in the back of the net. No matter how many teams were in the league, he’d dominate. He’s probably more revered as a player than just a scorer, but his ability to light the lamp was second to none during that period.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 23 Joe Sakic

Joe Sakic was one of the great hockey players of the 90s. He had a grit about him that fit perfectly with the Colorado Avalanche. His demeanor made him the right choice for captain of that franchise. He broke 100 points in a season six times in his career, showing he could get his teammates involved in the action. However, his scoring is largely underrated.

Was Sakic deking out defenses like Gretzky or skating past opposing players like McDavid? Not on that scale, but he found a way to score in every way possible. In 1999, he led the league in shorthanded goals. In 2001, the year the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, he led the league in game-winning goals during the regular season.

Want to talk about ridiculous shooters? Sakic is a perfect 5-for-5 in his career in penalty shots. In an era that included the shootout, when goalies were more used to taking on penalty shots, he was perfect. He’s seventh all-time in playoff goals (84), and led the league twice in that category in 1996 and 2001, the two years he won the Stanley Cup.

His playoff prowess made him one of the best players in NHL history. Scoring 18 goals in the 1996 postseason was straight up masterful.
All you need to know about Joe Sakic is the playoff record he currently holds. He has eight goals in overtime in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. When push came to shove, the Avalanche wanted to have the puck on his stick.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 22 Mark Recchi

Mark Recchi is someone who just kept playing and playing and playing until someone tore the skates off his feet. He was in the NHL for 22 years, and the entire time he was a goal scorer. He weirdly got traded a lot. He was shipped away midseason six times. Somehow, despite constantly going to new systems and learning to play with new teammates, he was able to score 577 goals over his career.

Recchi did what many players could not when he walked away after winning the Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins in 2011. He put up a surprise performance, scoring 11 points including 5 goals as a 42-year-old. He scored three goals in the Final against the Vancouver Canucks that year.

He was able to break the 40-goal plateau three seasons in a row, and he probably could have made it four if it wasn’t for the 1994-95 lockout.

It was a strange career for Recchi that probably would have been even better, but things kept stopping and starting his career. If he was able to stick with the Penguins during the apex of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, he’d definitely be north of 600 goals right now. If the Flyers kept his line with Eric Lindros together, that might have changed history. He was constantly moved and shuffled, but he was scoring no matter where he went. He was an accumulator more than he was one of the best, but being consistent over more than two decades deserves a place on this list.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 21 Luc Robitaille

Luc Robitaille is someone who deserved more credit for what he did in the NHL. Sure his teams weren’t always great, but he was able to score north of 50 goals three different times, broke 40 goals five times beyond that, and broke 30 goals in 12 of his 19 seasons in the NHL. Robitaille was an absolute animal with the puck on his stick. He’s also one of the best stories.

Robitaille was a ninth-round pick due to his “poor skating ability.” The Kings drafted MLB Hall of Famer and Atlanta Braves great Tom Glavine before they drafted Robitaille. It didn’t take him long to prove the Kings right for taking a chance on him. In fact, he turned his junior career around in such a phenomenal way, they named the QMJHL trophy for most goals in a season the Luc Robitaille Trophy.

Robitaille scored many of his goals on pure tenacity. He never gave up on a play, and that’s why he turned into a fan favorite in every city he played. His wrist shot became downright insane. It was one of the best shots in the history of the game. His ability to put it anywhere he wanted faster than the blink of an eye made it impossible to stop.

It didn’t take him long to make a name for himself in the league. He scored 53 goals in his second year with the Kings. It took him nine years into his career to score less than 40 goals in a season. His 63 goals in 1992-93 was must-see TV. He helped lead the Kings to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in franchise history. He finally won the Cup during the twilight of his career with the Detroit Red Wings, which makes him one of the few players who chased a ring at the end of an illustrious career and actually got it. His scoring ability kept him in the league for 20 years, and his skating never really became a problem. Don’t tell the scouts.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 20 Mike Gartner

Mike Gartner is someone who seems to be forgotten in NHL lore, but he is one of the better scorers this sport has ever seen. He’s never had the Mogilny 76-goal season, but he did score between 40 and 50 goals in nine of his 19 NHL seasons. He missed the 30-goal plateau twice. Both seasons it was due to injuries limiting his games. Gartner was one of the most consistent goal scorers in NHL history.

His consistency is untouchable. His 17 seasons with 30+ goals is an NHL record. There are few things in life that are guaranteed. There are U.S. taxes, death, and Gartner hitting 30 goals in a full season. He was even able to provide important star power to franchises that needed it like the Minnesota North Stars and Phoenix Coyotes. Being able to light the lamp for five different franchises made him a fan favorite across his career.

His iconic mustache made its mark with the Washington Capitals. He scored 397 goals in 758 games, which was the team record at the time. It wouldn’t last as Peter Bondra would eventually break it. That record has since been broken by another name on this list.

Gartner has some detractors when looking at his numbers. They will claim he was only able to put up the seventh-most goals in NHL history because of the era he played in. It’s true that the 80s were run and gun, but his speed and puck handling stood out among everyone. He would absolutely be a star today as he can just rocket past defensemen without losing the puck.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 19 Bryan Trottier

Bryan Trottier is another player that played in the 70s and 80s that seems to get swept under the rug in terms of all-time scorers, and that’s unfortunate. Trottier was one of the very best players of this era. Unlike some others on this list, he was much more than goal scoring. He was a Hart Trophy finalist four times and won the award once as league MVP. He led the NHL in assists twice. Still, that doesn’t take away how great he was as a pure goal scorer.

Trottier doesn’t have the consistency that Gartner had during his era, falling off a cliff in the last five seasons of his career, but at his peak, he was second to none. He was able to bring a special something to a franchise, winning four Stanley Cups with the Islanders dynasty and then another two with the first great Penguins teams. He broke double-digit playoff goals over two different seasons, and he was able to find the best way to get his team to win.

Trottier was always a “sum of all parts” player. He isn’t the best shooter, the best skater, or the biggest guy on the ice. However, he will make sure he is built into a player that is winning games based on what his team needs. If his team needed someone to score goals, he went and scored goals. That is what made him so special as someone on this list. It wasn’t about the numbers. It was about winning.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 18 Brendan Shanahan

Many fans today know Brendan Shanahan as the guy running the Maple Leafs or the guy who used to dole out punishment for dangerous hits. But, he goes down as one of the most important players of the 90s and early 2000s. He was iconic for those Red Wings teams. He was the go-to scorer. Before that, he might have been even better.

He started his career with the New Jersey Devils, but he wanted big money, so he signed a restricted free agent contract with the St. Louis Blues. That led to Scott Stevens going to New Jersey, but Shanahan became a 50-goal scorer twice in St. Louis, so they probably weren’t too heartbroken. Shanahan played for multiple franchises, but almost every trade he was involved in also involved Hall of Famers. That includes names like Stevens, Paul Coffey, Chris Pronger, and Keith Primeau (who was a Hall of Fame talent who never lived up).

Shanahan was another player who could change his style based on the team he was playing for. The Hartford Whalers and Blues needed a dominant goal scorer, so that’s what he became. The Red Wings needed someone to put up clutch points around a star-studded cast, so that’s what he did for a full decade.

Shanahan could score when he absolutely wanted to. Whether it was in the Stanley Cup Final or in a random overtime in the middle of December. He could break a team’s back with the flick of his wrist.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 17 Steve Yzerman

While Brendan Shanahan made his way around the league, throughout his time with the Red Wings, Steve Yzerman was the Red Wings. Sure, this is an original six team, but Yzerman made Detroit Hockey Town back in the mid-80s. It didn’t take him long to be a prolific goal scorer at the top of his powers. He broke 60 goals twice, 50 goals five times, and had a total of 11 30-goal seasons during his 22-year career.

Yzerman has a lot of surprising stats over the course of his career. He has 22 hat tricks. That’s more than players like Jaromir Jagr. He lit the lamp in the playoffs 70 times. He would have more, but when he was at his peak of scoring goals, the team around him couldn’t advance in the postseason. Multiple times, he had three goals in four games, but that’s where the postseason ended.

Yzerman was a player who could make the greatest plays on the ice look routine. He would skate around a defenseman like he was a traffic cone. All he needed to do was flick his wrist and a defenseman was chasing. He would flick it again, and the goalie was sprawling, knowing that it was too late and a goal was coming within seconds.

He was just so good with the puck on his stick. It seems like he made the most subtle moves to give him space. Then, he needed about one inch to fit the thickness of a hockey puck through, over, or under a goalie and into the net.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 16 Johnny Bucyk

Johnny Bucyk was one of the early great scorers of the Boston Bruins. He was incredible with his shot, playing well ahead of his time. He had a better than 20% shooting percentage five times and three times led the league with the best shooting percentage. Some might say shooting percentage is a little random, but when a player is on the margins, it definitely tells a story.

Bucyk was a complete scorer. He played extremely physical at a time when the only thing protecting a player’s head was a flowing set of locks. He was completely unselfish and only scored because it was what his team needed at the time. Bucyk knew that he could score at will. He only used it when he needed it, which was proof based on his ridiculous shooting percentage.

Remember that scene of Bobby Orr flying across the ice in the Stanley Cup Final? That only happened because Bucyk scored a third-period goal that tied the game and sent it into overtime. Bucyk gets overlooked in the legacy of this game, but he shouldn’t. There’s a reason his number still sits in the rafters of TD Garden.

Usually, someone being traded for Terry Sawchuk would be considered one of the worst trades in NHL history, but Bucyk ended up putting together his own Hall of Fame career. He got a late start because the Bruins were quite bad for the first half of his career. It shows with all of his 30-goal seasons coming after the age of 32. He ended up scoring 51 goals in his age 35 season and 40 goals in his age 37 season. If he had any help, he’d be much higher in the legacy of this league. Still, he was someone who defined an era with his scoring ability.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 15 Jari Kurri

Jari Kurri is someone who didn’t need a lot of time to take the puck from his stick to the net. He was a master of the one-timer, and that is something that helped create one of the greatest players to ever live. He could direct a one-time shot like other players could do on a wrist shot with time. Kurri’s vision in that split second when the pass was coming was probably his greatest attribute. Nobody could score on that shot like him.

That’s how he ended up with north of 600 goals in a career that spanned through the 80s and 90s. Sure, he’ll get knocked for playing so long with Wayne Gretzky, but Kurri knew exactly where to be for Gretzky to make that pass. His positioning was amazing and he knew where he needed to be to make the best possible play when the puck wasn’t on his stick. Don’t let his teammate fool you; Kurri is a deserved Hall of Famer and one of the best goal scorers this sport has ever seen.

Kurri will be called overrated by some who don’t understand just what he brought to those Edmonton Oilers teams. Not only was he an incredible goal scorer, but he was one of the best defensive forwards in the league. He was able to drive turnovers to create more offense.

Kurri would have been a superstar with beer leaguers on his wing. He was usually the smartest player on the ice, and he knew exactly how to use that intelligence to lead to goals. His skating was great, his instincts were even better, and at the end of the night, he was putting in more goals than the other team. Sometimes by himself.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 14 Teemu Selanne

Teemu Selanne might be the hardest player on this entire list to rank. Could he be in the top five? One can make an argument. It’s not every day a player can score 76 goals in his rookie season and put up 40+ six other times. Could he be even lower on the list? There were times where Selanne fell off a cliff offensively, especially after signing a big one-year deal to go to the Colorado Avalanche.

Selanne is still one the best pure goal scorers in the history of the game. He was also one of the fastest skaters in the league, which brought on the nickname “The Finnish Flash.” He could skate past, through, and around you to get to the net. With the puck on his stick or without it, Selanne was able to put himself in a position to score. There weren’t many players from this era like him.

Speed is the headline for Selanne’s skillset. His shot might take a backseat, but it was amazing. His wrist shot would come with deception and a goalie who was on his heels waiting for Selanne to use his speed to deke him might not realize the puck was already going into the net. He was able to turn the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim from a Disney product to a legitimate NHL threat. His rookie goals record probably never gets touched again. Nobody is within 20 goals of that record.

He never hit the heights of others on this list, but he was still an incredible goal scorer throughout a 21-year career. His heights were beyond great. There are plenty of fast players in today’s game, but there’s nobody who could use their speed like Selanne could.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 13 Gordie Howe

Gordie Howe is a player many put onto their Mount Rushmore of greatest hockey players in the history of the game. He played NHL games all the way until he was in his 50s. He scored 15 goals at the age of 51 for the Hartford Whalers in 1980. His last 30-goal season came when he was 49 years old (which came in the WHA). Only one player in the history of the league has more goals than Gordie Howe. Honestly, most people probably think he’s a little low on this list, but Howe was so good at the all-around game that the goals just came with his excellent play.

Howe led the league in goals five times. He never broke 50 goals like many of the others on this list, but it just wasn’t normal in those days. He was dominating the 1950s and was still really good in the 1960s. He just missed the high-scoring 70s and 80s (which is probably why he held on to playing well into his 50s).

Howe was someone who could have dominated every single era. There aren’t a ton of players from that time, when smoking in the locker room was still common, who could jump into 2021 NHL hockey and dominate. Howe was different. His ability to outlast his opponents gave him an edge, and he could constantly score at the end of a shift. His strength allowed him to get in dirty areas that helped him pot some easy ones. He didn’t need to beat teams with skill even though he absolutely could.

It was all wrist shot for Howe. He never needed to put the windup behind his shot to put it in the net. He got enough speed with the flick of a wrist that goalies could not stop him. Howe is one of the best to ever put on a pair of skates, and his goal scoring was so good in that era.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 12 Pavel Bure

What an odd, odd career for a Pavel Bure. Who knew a player who spent most of his career with the Vancouver Canucks and the Florida Panthers could find himself just ahead of Gordie Howe on this list? Bure’s career was short, but it was electric. He averaged 36 goals per season despite two terrible years with the Rangers to end his career. In 12 seasons, he scored 437 goals. He only made it to 702 games played.

We talk about speed a lot with these players, but Bure’s straight-ahead speed was one of the best to hit the ice. Getting from defending the other team to a breakaway took a blink of an eye. Every time he touched the puck, fans would be on the edge of their seat. He could make something happen from anywhere on the ice, and the fans wanted to be ready to cheer the roof off the building.

How could a guy with less than 500 goals come up ahead of one with 800? Bure was pure magic on the ice. He was insane with the puck on his stick, and he was just as good getting in position without the puck. Bure ended up scoring 60 goals in his second and third seasons in the league. Only Gretzky and Mike Bossy had more goals in their first three seasons.

Then, the injuries piled up. And his off-ice issues with the Canucks continued as he believed he was owed money from the 1994-95 lockout. He ended up putting together two straight disappointing campaigns in a row, but as soon as things worked out, he was back to being one of the best goal scorers in the league.

He scored 51 goals in his final season in Vancouver before he held out for most of the next season. He was eventually traded to the Florida Panthers in 1998 and he immediately went off. Bure scored 13 goals in just 11 games before a knee injury ended his year. For the next two seasons, he led the league in goals with 58 and 59.

Bure is a player that should have had one of the best careers in the NHL. He was so natural in his stride and his ability to find the back of the net could have made him the next star of the league as Gretzky, Lemieux, and Mark Messier were coming to the end of their careers. Unfortunately, he was never able to return after the 2004-05 lockout due to chronic knee injuries. Between injuries, contract negotiations, lockouts, and defecting from Russia, one could argue Bure missed 500-600 games on his career. That could have been another 300 goals easily. Bure, when he was at his best, was pure and utter greatness.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 11 Marcel Dionne

Marcel Dionne was THE MAN in the 70s and early 80s. Before Wayne Gretzky entered the league, Dionne was considered the best player and someone the other teams did everything in their power to stop. Dionne knew what he had to do, and that was fire the puck with reckless abandon. While others in the league would not do well doing such a thing, Dionne could lead the league in shots and still come with a very good shooting percentage.

He scored 30 goals in 14 of his 18 seasons. One of the seasons he missed was his rookie year and another was the season he was traded from the Kings to the Rangers mid-season. He had some very great highs, which included six 50+ goal seasons, without hitting those lows that some others in this era hit.

Dionne started his career with the Red Wings right after Howe retired. He was good for the Wings, but his career really flourished when he went to Los Angeles. The Kings needed a scorer, and Dionne became that. He could skate right through five guys trying to stop him. As part of the Triple Crown line, he gave the Kings a star who could take all the headlines for a city still trying to grow the game.

For now, he’s still in the top five all-time in career scoring. He was able to make 50 goals an afterthought. There was no one like him until number 99 joined the league.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 10 Brett Hull

How does one live up to his father’s legacy when his father was one of the best of all time? Look across all sports. How many sons were able to follow in their father’s footsteps? There’s Peyton and Eli Manning, Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Steph Curry, and Brett Hull.

Hull’s father, Bobby Hull, is still coming on this list, but Brett was amazing himself. His peak was eye-popping. He scored 70+ goals for three straight seasons, including an 86 goal campaign in 1990-91. He was so good that year, he led the league in even-strength and power-play goals. Despite taking a league-leading 389 attempts, he shot a ridiculous 22.1 percent.

He was just so deceptive on the ice. Hiding in plain sight is how he was described in his NHL 100 profile. That is how he was able to put up 741 goals, fourth all time, in his 19 NHL seasons.

He never even fell off, scoring 25 goals in his last full season right before the 2004-05 lockout (we choose to ignore those five games with the Phoenix Coyotes). Hull, unlike his father, was able to beat players with a ton of different moves. He had a great slap shot like Bobby, but his wrister was also exceptional, his deking ability got him open for easy goals, and he was more willing to get in dirty areas to score.

Speaking of dirty areas, let’s talk about Hull’s most controversial goal. The 1999 Stanley Cup Final ended on the stick of Brett Hull. Game 6 went into three overtimes against Dominik Hasek and the Buffalo Sabres. Hull was standing in front, and he picked up a rebound and put it in the net, winning the Cup for Dallas. However, his foot was in the crease. Rules, as they were written, seemed to say that should disallow the goal, but the NHL says since he had possession before his foot went into the crease, it counts. It was easily the most controversial of his many, many goals over his career.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 9 Jaromir Jagr

Jaromir Jagr had such a funny career. He was one of the most hated players in the league for what seemed like a decade. He forced his way out of Pittsburgh, only to flame out completely in Washington. He resurrected his career in New York but left the NHL entirely at the end of his prime. Then, he returned as the prodigal son and went on a journey that saw him become one of the most popular players in the league. And the entire time, he was scoring goals.

Jagr is technically still an active professional hockey player, but his 766 goals in the NHL will probably be where his career number ends. Still, finishing third on the all-time goal scoring list probably should put him higher on this list. He was able to put together three 50+ goal seasons, including a 62-goal season in the first full year after the 1994-95 lockout.

He had a 20+ goal season for five different franchises. His best seasons will always be with the Penguins when he and Mario Lemieux were just impossible to stop. He won the Stanley Cup in his first two seasons in the NHL. This includes an 11-goal performance in the 1992 playoffs.

Jagr was someone who could go on a heater and it turned into an easy hat trick. He scored three goals in a game 16 times in his career. There were 24 years between his first hat trick with the Penguins and his last with the Devils in 2015.

Jagr was great. There were not many people in the league that could score at will like he could. He had an ego, but it drove him to be better. Now, he’s using it to keep his career going seemingly in his 50s. He will always go down as one of the best scoring forwards in history.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 8 Guy Lafleur

Guy Lafleur was a player whose peak might have been one of the best seven-year stretches in the history of hockey. Between 1974 and 1979, Lafleur broke the 50-goal plateau every season, went well north of 100 points, and won four Stanley Cup Championships. Can anyone compete with such a peak? The real issue with Lafleur’s career is it cratered for some reason, but his peak was impossible to touch.

Lafleur put up 70 goals in the 1977-78 season when including his run to the Stanley Cup. He led the league in regular-season goals and playoff goals. He won one of his two Hart Trophies that season. He also won the Pearson and Art Ross Trophies that season. Again, it’s hard to really convey how great this run of seasons was. Lafleur was unstoppable on the ice. The only other players to have a stretch of games with as many points as Lafleur were Gretzky and Lemieux, considered by far the two best players to ever skate.

Lafleur’s final season with the Canadiens was a mess. He had a falling out with his head coach, which led to his subsequent retirement at the halfway mark of the 1984-85 season at the age of 33. Lafleur would eventually forgo retirement and make his way back to the hockey rink three years later, signing with the New York Rangers. He was pretty good at 37 years old before a knee injury knocked him out. The 1988 Hall of Famer later wrapped up the final two years of his career with the Quebec Nordiques.

But let’s not focus on the end. The peak of Guy Lafleur is one of the best offensive players to ever play in this game.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 7 Bobby Hull

The slap shot wasn’t the slap shot until Bobby Hull showed us all how to properly shoot a slap shot. His was the best at that point, and it might still be the best slap shot of all time. He used the speed and ferocity of that shot to score 610 goals in his career. When Hull pulled his stick back in the air, he chose violence, and that usually made goalies, who sometimes didn’t have a mask, decide it was best to just let this one in.

Hull called the game of hockey “show business,” and he knew what that meant. Goals would keep the fans happy, so he scored them in bunches. He broke 50 goals five times in the NHL. They weren’t all on slap shots. Hull had a knack for the net. He would cheat on a teammate’s shot, and within moments, he’d be putting a rebound in the net.

Hull was so good all around the ice, but his bread and butter was that slap shot. It literally put fear into his opponents. They changed the way they played against him because of how scary that shot was. He was built like a brick house, and he used that to his advantage. There weren’t these crazy lifting programs in 1950s hockey, so a guy who lifted barrels of hay and chopped down trees since he was a child would come in with a major strength advantage.

Hull was one of the first real stars in the league. He’s a name everyone that’s remembered although he hasn’t stepped on the ice in over four decades.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 5 Mike Bossy

Mike Bossy never hit 600, 700, or 800 goals, but his proficiency to score was better than anyone who’s ever played in the league. Bossy has the greatest goals-per-game ratio of anyone who’s ever played in the NHL (with at least 200 goals). Better than Gretzky. Better than Mario. Better than Ovechkin. Nobody could score at the pace of Mike Bossy. If Bossy ended up playing as many games as Gretzky at his pace, he’d have 1,133 goals.

He was only able to play until he was 30 years old when a chronic back issue forced him to retired extremely early in 1987. At the time of his departure from the league, he had 573 goals in just 10 seasons. He failed to reach 50 goals just once in his career, the final year where he was dealing with that back injury and only played 63 games.

Bossy was given offers to return to the game, even one to play alongside Gretzky in Los Angeles, but he declined them all. The injury changed him as a player. However, that should not define him as a player. He was one of the best pure scorers to ever hit the ice. He was so proficient in scoring that he made the Islanders impossible to play against in the 80s. He helped the Islanders raise the Stanley Cup four times, leading the NHL in playoff goals in three of those four seasons.

Bossy was so good in the playoffs that he finished his career with more goals than anyone in the postseason. Again, this is a man who retired after only 10 years in the league. That number has since been passed by a few players, but everyone ahead of him played at least 200 playoff games.

Bossy only played 129. He was so good in the limited time he was able to play. He always wanted to be considered at the peak of his powers when he walked away, and his goals per game average will likely never be broken.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 4 Mario Lemieux

Now, we’re getting to the “all-time great” category. Any of these next four players can be argued as the greatest of all time. But, the real argument comes down to two players. Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky. One had a privileged existence, coming to the Edmonton Oilers through a loophole and enjoying the most prolific point-scoring career of all time. Then, there was what Mario endured.

Lemieux missed more than 500 games in his career due to health problems and injuries. He fought Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the middle of his prime, he had major back issues, and tendinitis plagued his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Despite this, he scored 690 goals over his career.

During his peak, Lemieux was unstoppable. No really, he could do anything he wanted on the ice. One time against the New Jersey Devils, he scored a goal five different ways. (Even strength, power play, shorthanded, penalty shot, and an empty-net goal for those wondering.)
The headline for Mario Lemieux on the ice was precision. His passes hit the tape from an impossible angle. When he wanted to steal the puck, there was nothing his opponent could do to stop him. And when he wanted to score, Mario scored.

Lemieux could score from every inch of the ice. No matter the angle, it seemed like he had a doctorate in geometry with how he bent the angles of the game. He needed the smallest opening from a goalie to make him pay. It seemed like he was always on a breakaway. The NHL didn’t always keep track of breakaways, but if they did, it’s like Lemieux was the leader in the clubhouse. This is how he was able to score those 690 goals in just 915 games. His ability to impact scoring in so many ways was how he led the league in goals and assists two times. Not a piece, two times he led goals and assists in the same year. Lemieux was an amazing goal scorer. There are few people on this planet who are as good as anything as Lemieux is at hockey.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 3 Wayne Gretzky

Most probably came into this list thinking the man with the record was going to be number one on our ranking of greatest goal scorers in history. Surprise!

Wayne Gretzky is one of the best goal scorers ever. He’s probably the best player in history, but when looking at it from just a goal scoring standpoint, there are some better. That’s not taking anything away from Gretzky! He scored 894 goals with pure and utter skill. Gretzky was the best athlete in sports when he was at his peak. It wasn’t Magic Johnson or Larry Bird or Lawrence Taylor or Bo Jackson. Gretzky was the best player in sports.

In terms of goal scoring, there was nothing like him at his peak. While others on this list get credit for hitting the 50-goal plateau, Gretzky regularly hit 70 goals in a season. He scored 92 goals in the 1981-82 season. That’s a record that is never going to be broken. Ever. Two years later, he came within five goals of hitting the same mark. He came at a time when players could take advantage of the rules and goalies, and Gretzky went above and beyond.

Gretzky won eight-straight Hart Memorial Trophy awards in a row. He was the greatest player in the league for almost a decade straight. It’s one of the many records he owns. Gretzky owns 61 NHL records. These are staggering numbers.

Gretzky was someone who couldn’t be touched both figuratively and quite literally. He made a living avoiding contact and getting other players out of position. That would lead to an opening that led to a goal 100 times out of 100. There were no mistakes in his game, and that led to the greatest goal scoring numbers in NHL history.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 2 Rocket Richard

So, who could actually be better than “The Great One”? How about the player they literally named the trophy after. Maurice “Rocket” Richard was a goal scoring phenom in the 40s and 50s. He was the first person to ever score 50 goals in a season, and he was the very best before goal scoring was the cool thing to do. He is the Babe Ruth of hockey.

Richard’s ability actually helped propel the league to new heights. People were paying attention because of what he specifically was doing. The league expanded the schedule, and he was able to put up gaudy numbers for the rest of his career.

There is no more perfect nickname than “Rocket” in all of sports. Richard would come with speed, strength and pure determination, very similar to a rocket. His intensity was something very few have had in the history of the league. It drove him to win on a nightly basis and to help his team win, Richard had to score. The only way players could get The Rocket to stop scoring was to literally fight him so he would get caught up in the penalty box.

His numbers aren’t like Gretzky’s on the surface, but he was able to break the 40-goal plateau four times at a time when that very rarely happened, if ever. The fact that he did this when players were trying to knock each other out while also doing so with grace (or whatever grace looked like in the 40s and 50s) gives him the slight edge over Gretzky and Lemieux.

NHL: 30 most prolific scorers of all-time: No. 1 Alexander Ovechkin

Is this recency bias? No. Alexander Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer in the history of the league. As of this writing, he has the sixth-best goals-per-game ratio in the history of hockey despite playing in an era that hasn’t exactly been full of offense. Two of the players ahead of him played in the 1800s, and another one is Pavel Bure, who he should be able to pass with a hot final stretch of the season.

Ovechkin has “his office” where he would wait for one-timers from the slot, but he is not a one-trick pony. Ovechkin can score from anywhere with any shot. His slap shot from the point is great. His wrist shot from the circle is lethal. Then, there’s his ability to position himself in front of the net. Somehow, after north of 700 goals, Ovechkin is able to find space all alone.

He was the league leader in goals in nine of his 16 seasons. He’s within striking distance to make it 10 this season. Meanwhile, Gretzky only led the league in goals five times. He played in a run-and-gun type game that led to high-scoring outings. It’s rare to see a contest in today’s game to see high-scoring games.

Ovechkin is well on his way to beating Gretzky’s goal scoring record. If he plays another five seasons, he will need to average 32 goals per season to tie the record (assuming he gets ten more goals by the end of this season). That’s extremely doable.

Ovechkin changed the game. He was the most dangerous weapon on the power play. He has 264 PP goals at this point in his career. He’s going to break the record for PP goals in a career next year most likely. In that magical run to a Stanley Cup Championship in 2018, he scored a ridiculous 15 goals and had 27 points in 24 playoff games. He scored goals in three out of four of his only Stanley Cup Final games. He’s ridiculous, and he’s the best. Alex The Great is going to be the leader in goals for a career, and he’s the best sniper in league history.