Alex Ovechkin
At the end of the day, it’s about who scores the most goals. And nobody has scored more goals for their NHL team than the active and all-time leaders listed here.
Note: For active leaders, only players who are still with the team were considered. For example, in Anaheim, Corey Perry is ahead of Ryan Getzlaf on the franchise’s goal list, but Perry no longer plays for the Ducks, so Getzlaf is credited as the team’s active leader.
Related: All-time point leaders and active point leaders for all 31 NHL teams
All-time goalie win leaders and active goalie win leaders for all 31 NHL teams
Here are the all-time goal leaders and active goal leaders for the NHL’s 31 teams:
ANAHEIM DUCKS
All-time goal leader: Teemu Selanne (457 goals)
Active goal leader: Ryan Getzlaf (275 goals)
Talk about mighty Ducks. It’s Selanne on top, followed by Corey Perry (372 goals), Paul Kariya (300 goals) and then Getzlaf. The 35-year-old captain, who’s a pending UFA, needs to re-sign if he’s going to climb any higher.
ARIZONA COYOTES
All-time goal leader: Shane Doan (402 goals)
Active goal leader: Oliver Ekman-Larsson (125 goals)
Ekman-Larsson is the only defenseman who’s the leading active goal-scorer for his team (and there’s no team with a defenseman as its leading all-time goal-scorer). And he’ll hold on to that title for a while, with Clayton Keller (60 goals) and Christian Dvorak (59 goals) his closest pursuers.
BOSTON BRUINS
All-time goal leader: Johnny Bucyk (545 goals)
Active goal leader: Patrice Bergeron (360 goals)
Bucyk scored 20-plus goals 16 times during his 21-year tenure in Boston, peaking with 51 goals as a 35-year-old in 1970-71. Bergeron is fourth on Boston’s all-time list – behind Bucyk, Phil Esposito (459 goals) and Rick Middleton (402 goals) – but 24-year-old David Pastrnak (189 goals in 401 games) is the one to watch.
BUFFALO SABRES
All-time goal leader: Gilbert Perreault (512 goals)
Active goal leader: Jack Eichel (139 goals)
Perreault, Buffalo’s first-ever draft pick at No. 1 overall in 1970, remains the Sabres’ most prolific scorer. Eichel, who ranks 19th on Buffalo’s all-time list, has his work cut out for him.
CALGARY FLAMES
All-time goal leader: Jarome Iginla (525 goals)
Active goal leader: Sean Monahan (198 goals)
Monahan has cracked Calgary’s top 10 all-time – he’s ninth, between Eric Vail (206 goals) and Hakan Loob (193 goals) – but Iginla doesn’t have anything to worry about.
CAROLINA HURRICANES
All-time goal leader: Ron Francis (382 goals)
Active goal leader: Sebastian Aho (127 goals)
Eric Staal (322 goals) and Jeff Skinner (204 goals) both had more goals for the Hurricanes than Aho’s output, but they’ve moved on and he’s still in Carolina. And he’s only 23 – if he sticks around, he’s got a shot at taking down franchise icon Francis.
CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
All-time goal leader: Bobby Hull (604 goals)
Active goal leader: Patrick Kane (399 goals)
Kane is up there with the Blackhawks legends. He’s already passed Denis Savard (377 goals) and he’s on the verge of overtaking Steve Larmer (406 goals). Catching Hull is unlikely, but Kane has a shot at second-place Stan Mikita (541 goals).
COLORADO AVALANCHE
All-time goal leader: Joe Sakic (625 goals)
Active goal leader: Gabriel Landeskog (202 goals)
Landeskog will soon hand off to Nathan MacKinnon (195 goals), but Sakic’s total seems ludicrously out of reach. Michel Goulet (456 goals), Peter Stastny (380 goals), Milan Hejduk (375 goals) and Anton Stastny (252 goals) round out Colorado/Quebec’s top five.
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
All-time goal leader: Rick Nash (289 goals)
Active goal leader: Cam Atkinson (207 goals)
Atkinson, at 31 and with four more years on his contract after this season, has a legitimate chance to pass franchise heavyweight Nash. Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno (139 goals) sits third on the team list.
DALLAS STARS
All-time goal leader: Mike Modano (557 goals)
Active goal leader: Jamie Benn (304 goals)
Modano is more than 200 goals ahead of Brian Bellows (342 goals) and Dino Ciccarelli (332 goals). In other words, Benn and Tyler Seguin (223 goals) are shooting for second place.
DETROIT RED WINGS
All-time goal leader: Gordie Howe (786 goals)
Active goal leader: Dylan Larkin (111 goals)
No player in NHL history has more goals for one franchise than the 786 that Howe had for Detroit. Also notable: Wings runner-up Steve Yzerman (692 goals) has the most goals among players who spent their entire career with the same franchise. Alex Delvecchio (456 goals), Sergei Fedorov (400 goals) and Henrik Zetterberg (337 goals) round out Detroit’s all-time top five. Larkin, if you’re wondering, sits 39th.
EDMONTON OILERS
All-time goal leader: Wayne Gretzky (583 goals)
Active goal leader: Leon Draisaitl & Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (178 goals)
The only time Gretzky scored fewer than 51 goals for the Oilers was during his ninth and final season in Edmonton, when he scored 40 in 64 games. So, like, no wonder they traded him, right? It’s a logjam for the active lead with Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins less than a hat trick ahead of Connor McDavid (176 goals).
FLORIDA PANTHERS
All-time goal leader: Olli Jokinen (188 goals)
Active goal leader: Aleksander Barkov (163 goals)
Enjoy the top spot while you can, Olli, because Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau (156 goals) are coming up fast.
LOS ANGELES KINGS
All-time goal leader: Luc Robitaille (557 goals)
Active goal leader: Anze Kopitar (337 goals)
Robitaille had three separate stints with the Kings, and he scored 15 times in his final season to bump Marcel Dionne (550 goals) for the top spot. Kopitar has a shot at passing Dave Taylor (431 goals) for third place on L.A.’s list.
MINNESOTA WILD
All-time goal leader: Marian Gaborik (219 goals)
Active goal leader: Zach Parise (195 goals)
Gaborik outscored longtime Wild captain Mikko Koivu (205 goals) despite playing less than half as many games – Gaborik suited up 502 times for Minnesota compared to 1,028 appearances for Koivu. Parise is slowing down at 36, but he still has four years left on the 13-year deal he signed in 2012.
MONTREAL CANADIENS
All-time goal leader: Maurice Richard (544 goals)
Active goal leader: Brendan Gallagher (179 goals)
There’s some poetry to the fact that Montreal has three 500-goal scorers, and the three players are Richard, Guy Lafleur (518 goals) and Jean Beliveau (507 goals). Yvan Cournoyer (428 goals) and Steve Shutt (408 goals) round out the Habs’ Hall of Fame top five. Good luck, Gallagher.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
All-time goal leader: David Legwand (210 goals)
Active goal leader: Filip Forsberg (175 goals)
Forsberg is signed through next season, which should be enough time for him to pass Legwand. Back on the blueline, Roman Josi (111 goals) is trying to catch Shea Weber (166 goals) for the ‘D’ lead.
NEW JERSEY DEVILS
All-time goal leader: Patrik Elias (408 goals)
Active goal leader: Travis Zajac (197 goals)
Zajac is back in action and can pass third-place Bobby Holik (202 goals), but Elias and John MacLean (347 goals) don’t have to look over their shoulder until Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes get going in earnest.
NEW YORK ISLANDERS
All-time goal leader: Mike Bossy (573 goals)
Active goal leader: Anders Lee (181 goals)
Bossy is joined by linemate Bryan Trottier (500 goals) on the 500-goal plateau, which is a long ways off for Lee. The current Isles captain will have to be satisfied with trying to chase down former Isles captain John Tavares (272 goals).
NEW YORK RANGERS
All-time goal leader: Rod Gilbert (406 goals)
Active goal leader: Chris Kreider (166 goals)
Gilbert’s total is the lowest to lead an Original Six team, and the Rangers have only had one other player surpass 300 goals (Jean Ratelle, 336 goals). Kreider sits 22nd on New York’s all-time list.
OTTAWA SENATORS
All-time goal leader: Daniel Alfredsson (426 goals)
Active goal leader: Ryan Dzingel (62 goals)
Alfredsson is miles ahead of runners-up Jason Spezza (251 goals) and Alexei Yashin (218 goals). Dzingel, who was reacquired by Ottawa this season, actually ranks 11th among active NHLers on the Sens’ list, but he’s the highest-scoring one who’s still in Ottawa. And really, he’s just holding the spot for Brady Tkachuk (52 goals).
PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
All-time goal leader: Bill Barber (420 goals)
Active goal leader: Claude Giroux (258 goals)
You were probably expecting to see Bobby Clarke’s name, right? If so, it might come as a surprise to find out the Flyers’ all-time point leader actually ranks fourth on the team with 358 goals, behind Barber, Brian Propp (369 goals) and Tim Kerr (363 goals). Giroux, meanwhile, is exactly 100 goals behind Clarke.
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
All-time goal leader: Mario Lemieux (690 goals)
Active goal leader: Sidney Crosby (469 goals)
Crosby should be the next NHLer to reach 500 goals, but ‘The Kid’ isn’t exactly a kid anymore, so 600 goals – not to mention Lemieux’s gaudy total – looks out of reach. Evgeni Malkin (420 goals), on the other hand, has third-place Jaromir Jagr (439 goals) in his sights.
ST. LOUIS BLUES
All-time goal leader: Brett Hull (527 goals)
Active goal leader: Vladimir Tarasenko (214 goals)
Hull’s 86-goal season in 1990-91 stands as the highest non-Gretzky total in NHL history, and third-highest all-time behind Gretzky’s 92- and 87-goal campaigns in the early ’80s. Hull is also the only player besides Gretzky to post three 70-plus goal seasons (Gretzky did it four times).
SAN JOSE SHARKS
All-time goal leader: Patrick Marleau (519 goals)
Active goal leader: Patrick Marleau (519 goals)
Hey, maybe you can go home again. Marleau’s back in San Jose for the third and, surely, final time, and he’s looking to pad his lead on previous Sharks captain Joe Pavelski (355 goals) and current captain Logan Couture (267 goals).
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
All-time goal leader: Steven Stamkos (432 goals)
Active goal leader: Steven Stamkos (432 goals)
Stamkos joins Marleau as two of four active players who lead their respective team in all-time goals. Nikita Kucherov (221 goals) holds down fourth place in Tampa Bay, trailing fellow franchise icons Stamkos, Vincent Lecavalier (383 goals) and Martin St-Louis (365 goals).
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
All-time goal leader: Mats Sundin (420 goals)
Active goal leader: Auston Matthews (176 goals)
Mats today, Matthews forever? The Leafs’ 23-year-old sniper sits 19th on the franchise list, but he’s rising fast and could take over the top spot before he’s 30.
VANCOUVER CANUCKS
All-time goal leader: Daniel Sedin (393 goals)
Active goal leader: Bo Horvat (129 goals)
Henrik the playmaker holds the Canucks’ point-scoring crown, while shooter Daniel is the team’s goal king. Horvat’s the active leader for now, but Brock Boeser (87 goals) and Elias Pettersson (63 goals) are better long-term bets.
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS
All-time goal leader: William Karlsson (87 goals)
Active goal leader: William Karlsson (87 goals)
After a six-goal season with Columbus in 2016-17, Karlsson exploded for 43 goals to set the tone for Vegas’ wildly successful expansion season in 2017-18. He hasn’t kept up the pace, but he’s scored enough to stay ahead of Jonathan Marchessault (80 goals), Reilly Smith (71 goals), Max Pacioretty (62 goals) and Alex Tuch (50 goals).
WASHINGTON CAPITALS
All-time goal leader: Alex Ovechkin (712 goals)
Active goal leader: Alex Ovechkin (712 goals)
He might not break Gretzky’s all-time goal record of 894, but Ovechkin will surely be No. 1 in Washington until the end of time. Peter Bondra (472 goals) sits second on the Caps’ list.
WINNIPEG JETS
All-time goal leader: Ilya Kovalchuk (328 goals)
Active goal leader: Blake Wheeler (220 goals)
Don’t bother looking for old photos of Kovalchuk in a Jets jersey, because they don’t exist. Nevertheless, the Atlanta Thrashers star will likely remain on top of the franchise’s goal list until Mark Scheifele (191 goals) gets a few more seasons under his belt.
