All Time NHL Stats- Where Do Your Favorite Players Rank?

All-Time NHL Stats- Where Do Your Favorite Players Rank?

Written By: Mark "The Hard Hitter" Ritter

When everything is said and done, when the snow is cleared of the ice, there are very few measures that define a players career. Heart, dedication, leadership, these factors are all subjective, but the Stats don’t lie. Let’s take a look at the NHL all-time leaders, you just might be surprised at who’s number one in a few categories.

Points-

This is an easy one, if you watched hockey in the 80’s you know which “Great” player is atop this section, who are the surprises?

Wayne Gretzky- 2857 points, nobody is ever going to even come close to catching the great one. If you averaged 100 points per season you would have to play for 28 years. In today’s stingy NHL and with all the injuries these days, 2858 is not likely to happen, ever.

Mark Messier- 1887, played the majority of his career with Gretzky, little wonder then that Messier ranks #2 overall. Mess was known as the ultimate leader and, much like Gordie Howe, a player who didn’t have to fight, not because he couldn’t, because players knew better.

Gordie Howe- 1850, we can debate weather or not Howe’s 1850 were tougher to come by than Messier’s and Gretzky’s, but since nobody has patented a time machine, hockey fans will never know. Howe is ‘Mr. Hockey”, his dedication is unparalleled, clearly one of the best players of all-time.

Surprises?

Joe Sakic is ranked 8th overall, just behind Mario Lemieux and just ahead of
Jaromir Jagr. I knew Joe was good, didn’t realise he had Lemieux-like numbers.

Raymond Bourque- Ranked number 11 overall, best point total for a defenseman. I still think it would have been Bobby Orr if not for all of his knee troubles, still, Bourque earned it.

Marcel Dionne is ranked 5th overall, how the hell did he net so many points
stuck on those crappy L.A. Kings teams? Dionne must be one of the most underrated players of all-time.

Guy Lafleur ranked #23, with all the talk of his greatness, I expected to find him further up the ladder. In fact, Lafleur is the highest ranked Montreal Canadien on the list, once again, I thought with all the success Les Canadiens had in the past that there would be a more dominant player/s from those teams on this list.
Last but not least, Doug Gilmour, ranked number 16 overall, again, I knew he was good, didn’t know he was that good. Some players Gilmour is ranked ahead of? Guy Lafleur, Jari Kurri, Brett Hull, Denis Savard, Gilbert Perreault, Nice!

Plus/Minus

Ok, this category was not counted until sometime in the early 70’s, so it’s obviously not an exact science as to who the all-time leader would be. I will go out on a limb and suggest that Bobby Orr would likely rank number one, but sadly we will never know. Here are the stats as we see them today.

Larry Robinson- are you kidding me? Robinson, number one? Huh! Robinson has a career plus/minus of +730!

Raymond Bourque- another defensemen, you feeling me on the Bobby Orr thing? Bourque is ranked numero uno for all-time points for a defenseman, so it’s no surprise finding him here. Bourque had a career plus/minus of +528!

Wayne Gretzky- With all the goals Grant Fuhr gave up third overall seems like the right spot for Gretzky. The great one had a career plus/minus of +518.

Surprises?

Robert “Bobby” Clarke- The Philadelphis Flyers ultimate pest sits at number 4 overall with a career plus/minus of 508. Ok, did anyone have him in the top 10? No...

Mark Howe sits at number nine with a career plus/minus of +400. His Dad Gordie would likely be in the top five, so this is poetic justice.

Buffalo Sabres' Craig Ramsay and William “Bill” Hajt sitting at number 19 and 20th respectively; guess Buffalo had some decent teams in the 70’s, huh?

Detroit Red Wings great Vladimir Konstantinov sits at number 56 with a career plus/minus of +185. Vladdy only played for 6 seasons, with that in mind, his plus/minus is impressive!

Game Winning Goals-

When the chips are down, who do you want out on the ice with your team tied? Game winning goals is a bit of a “fishy” stat, many of them are far less dramatic than you think, that said, it’s an important stat nonetheless.

Jaromir Jagr- 112 career game winners gives Jagr the nod as the NHL’s all-time leader. Admit it, you thought it was going to be Gretzky didn’t you? Sorry, he’s number ten overall with 91.

Brett Hull- 110 career game winners, very impressive for a guy that the Calgary Flames gave up on.

Brendan Shanahan- with 108 all-time game winners, makes it all the more puzzling why no team has offered Shanny a contract yet this season.

Surprises?

Toronto Maple Leafs great Mats Sundin, ranked number 6 overall with a total of 94 career game winners. Who says he’s not worth $10 million a year??? Jeremy Roenick, ranked at number 9 with a career game winning goal total of 92. Steve Thomas, ranked at 24th overall with 78 game winners. Dino Ciccarelli, ranked at 29th overall with 73 game winning goals, just one behind the great Mario Lemieux, who netted 74. Come on now, you thought Lemieux was in the top ten for sure...

That’s it for now, stay tuned for some of the other stats, including, Assist leaders, Short Handed Goals and Games Played.