The NHL, founded in 1917, is the oldest of the major North American leagues with a continuous statistical record. The league's career lists feature players from different scoring environments, and the high-scoring 1980s produced totals that later generations have found difficult to match.
Our goals and assists rankings are accompanied by articles that explain these differences and point out the players whose careers were affected by interruptions such as lockouts.
Wayne Gretzky's 1,963 career assists are so far ahead of second place that he would still be the NHL's all-time leading scorer on assists alone, without a single goal.
Alex Ovechkin passed Wayne Gretzky's long-standing goals record in April 2025, closing out one of hockey's most famous individual chases.
Career leaderboards in the NBA, MLB, NFL and NHL reward durability as much as brilliance. Here is how to read them without being misled.
Altitude, rule changes, doping-era marks and plain statistical outliers: the reasons a handful of records have gone untouched for a generation or more.