The Best NHL Forwards of All-Time
From legends of the NHL like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Jean Béliveau to more contemporary greats like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, the list of the best NHL forwards of all time is stacked. Making a list of the top ten, even with some honourable mentions, certainly isn’t an easy task.
Here, the focus has been on stats and individual and team honours. As well as this, there are more subjective angles incorporated, such as how they’ve influenced the game and the impact of their crowning moments that will forever hold them as NHL legends.
NHL Forwards Covered:
- [The Top 10 NHL Forwards of All Time](
- Honourable Mentions
The Top 10 NHL Forwards of All Time
Wayne Gretzky
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 2,857
- Total goals scored: 894
- Total assists: 1,963
Debates about the best NHL forward of all time are very short-lived among hockey fans as, without doubt, the title is and likely will always be held by Wayne “The Great One” Gretzky.
Upon retiring, he held 61 NHL records amassed over 20 incredible seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, and St. Louis Blues.
Among his most unbeatable records are his tallies of 2,857 career regular season points, 382 career playoffs points, and tallies of 215, 212, 208, and 205 points in single regular seasons.
It all began in the 1979/80 season, when the Oilers joined the NHL from the WHA, and from there, he won the Stanley Cup four times, earned 15 All-Star call-ups, and secured the Hart Memorial Trophy nine times.
It was a rough-and-tumble time for the sport, with physicality being emphasized. Gretzky, in his own words, had a “skinny little body” not suited to the crash-and-bang style. He owes his longevity to his “slight” 6’0’’, 185lb frame, which forced him to focus on skill.
His influence on the game goes without saying, while his collection of incredible moments features too many to count.
Mario Lemieux
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,723
- Total goals scored: 690
- Total assists: 1,033
If any one player could hold a candle to “The Great One,” it was Mario Lemieux. Standing 6’7’’ on skates, he was a truly unique blend of size and skill, with his most memorable achievements often being tied to his returns from an extended period of leave.
Unfortunately, his is a story of what could have been, even with his imperious rate of scoring and incredible play. In the career points records of the NHL, Lemieux is eighth with 1,723 points.
He stands out here as the only player to not have played at least 1,250 games in the top ten, or even the top 20 for this state. “Super Mario” played his entire career for the Pittsburgh Penguins and remains a minority owner of the team.
While his career spanned 1984 to 2005, he missed several games and whole seasons due to health problems.
The points that he did put up in the regular season had him scoring at a clip of 1.883 points per game. Gretzky's average was a not-too-distant 1.921. Even with just six 70-game seasons under his belt, Lemieux won the Stanley Cup twice – Conn Smythe Trophy on both occasions – went to the All-Star Game 12 times and won the Art Ross Trophy six times, and all while Gretzky was still active.
Gordie Howe
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,850
- Total goals scored: 801
- Total assists: 1,049
Gordie Howe more than earned the nickname “Mr Hockey” during his extensive run in the NHL. Howe was the NHL’s ultimate scorer until Gretzky came along, with his crowning moment coming in 1963, when he overtook Maurice “Rocket” Richard’s all-time goals record.
Even with his absurd tally of 1,850 points in 1,767 games, it’s Howe’s longevity that defines his career.
Having entered the NHL in 1946-47 with the Detroit Red Wings, he’d go on to play 26 consecutive seasons in red before retiring in 1971. By 1973, he was back in the sport, playing six seasons in the WHA before one last outing with the NHL’s Hartford Whalers in 1979/80. Bring together Howe’s complete stack of major hockey scoring, and he’s up to 975 goals and 2,358 points in 2,186 regular-season games.
The goals tally beats Gretzky and Alex Ovechkin, but he’d fall 499 points short of that Gretzky record. In this time, he hoisted the Stanley Cup four times and collected six Hart and six Art Ross Trophies.
Jaromír Jágr
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,921
- Total goals scored: 766
- Total assists: 1,155
Similar to Howe, much of the legacy of Jaromír Jágr’s legacy as one of the best NHL forwards of all-time is down to his longevity. The skilful workhorse on the wing became a fan-favourite with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1990s, sporting an unmistakable mullet and some of the deftest hands on the ice.
As a rookie in the 1990/91 season, he burst onto the scene with 27 goals and 57 points.
By the end of his NHL career in 2017/18, although he’s not officially retired and featured for his team Rytíři Kladno, he had amassed 766 goals and 1,921 points in 1,733 games. Good for second in the all-time points rankings.
With his off-wing play and colossal set of moves ready to draw from, Jágr was hailed by coach Scotty Bowman. Combining his longevity, stats, and incredible skill shown across the nine NHL teams, Jágr stands as the epitome of European skaters in the NHL.
Steve Yzerman
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,755
- Total goals scored: 692
- Total assists: 1,063
Yet another Detroit Red Wings legend makes the ranks of the top ten best NHL forwards of all-time with Steve Yzerman.
From the age of 21, he was Detroit’s captain, eventually retiring as the longest-serving captain of any major league sports team in North America.
He more than earned the “C” both with his leadership skills and his lead-by-example playmaking ability. From 1983/84 to 1985/86, before getting the patch, he put up 218 points in 211 games. In 1987/88, he eclipsed 100 points for the first time, doing so again for the next five seasons, including a 155-point outing in 1988/89.
Across Yzerman’s glittering career, he won the Stanley Cup three times and was the first 18-year-old to go to the NHL All-Star Game in 1984. After his 22-year career, he remained with the Red Wings and currently serves as their executive vice president and general manager. The Red Wings are certainly not expected to win in the NHL Championship odds, but Yzerman is certainly an icon of Detroit sports and the NHL.
Sidney Crosby
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,695
- Total goals scored: 629
- Total assists: 1,066
With three Stanley Cups, two of which came back-to-back, and consistently rated as the, if not one of the greatest active players of the NHL’s salary cap era, Sidney Crosby has already earned his place here.
While this is the top ten best NHL forwards of all-time, perhaps his greatest moment came away from the league.
Crosby’s been a superb representative for Canada over the decades, being pivotal in each of the two Olympic gold medals and the World Cup winners’ medal he boasts. His “Golden Goal” scored in the final of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver won Canada the tournament and against the US, no less.
Hailed “The Next One,” Crosby announced himself with 102 points in his rookie season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, adding 120 more as a sophomore. Now, likely with time left in the NHL at the age of 37 with the rebuilding Pens, as the Metropolitan Division odds show, he’s got 1,687 points in 1,352 regular season games and 201 points in 180 playoff games.
Alex Ovechkin
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,628
- Total goals scored: 898
- Total assists: 730
In the midst of the 2024/25 season and an unlikely charge from his Washington Capitals to the top of the Eastern Conference, Alex Ovechkin did the seemingly impossible. Already ranked as one of the best NHL forwards of all time for his big-bodied scoring, he went and broke one of Gretzky’s once-unbeatable records.
With 44 goals across his 65-game season, “The Great Eight” not only improved on his last couple of seasons of scoring at 39 years old, but also moved to 897 career goals and past Gretzky’s former record of 894. The elite-tier sniper is also just 19 points away from getting into the top ten for all-time career points on 1,623 to date.
Over the years, Ovi has collected a vast haul of accolades, with the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy being his favourite. He’s led the league in scoring nine times, has the record for the most 40-goal seasons, and was named the Conn Smythe Trophy winner when he guided the Caps to their first-ever Stanley Cup in 2018. Even as long shots in the Stanley Cup odds, Ovechkin could add even more trophies to his cabinet next season.
Jean Béliveau
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,219
- Total goals scored: 507
- Total assists: 712
Hailed as “one of the game’s greatest ambassadors”, Jean Béliveau spent his entire NHL career with the Montréal Canadiens. After a cameo showing in 1950/51, Béliveau had to perfect his craft for two seasons before breaking into the vaunted Habs ranks properly in 1953/54. From there, his incredible ability on the puck shone for years.
Over the next 19 seasons, Béliveau earned 13 All-Star Game call-ups, two Hart Memorial Trophies, the Art Ross once, and was pivotal in helping the Habs to ten Stanley Cups. In 1964/65, his sixth Cup win. Béliveau was also named the series MVP and landed the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Such were his efforts and continued high standards that he was the first player to have the customary wait period for Hall of Fame induction to be waived, seeing him inducted the year after he hung up his skates. The Québec native continued to be a fine representative of the NHL, turning executive for the Canadiens, to now have his name on the Stanley Cup 17 times.
Phil Esposito
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,590
- Total goals scored: 717
- Total assists: 873
Even with the rate of scoring in the NHL bubbling up throughout the 1960s, it took a very special talent to finally break the century mark. That talent was Phil Esposito, center for the Boston Bruins in the 1968-69 season. Not only did he eclipse 100 points, but he made it to 126 points in what was his sixth NHL campaign.
While he only made it to 99 points in the following season, that was followed by an onslaught of scoring. He’d notch tallies of 152, 133, 130, 145, and 127 points over the next five seasons. Perhaps most impressively was that this spell also set him as the first player to score 50 goals in a season five times in a row.
Playing for the Chicago Black Hawks, Boston Bruins, and New York Rangers, Esposito paved the way as the league’s first premier scorer of this new era, doing it from the center position rather than the usual goalscorer slot on the wing. He’d utilize his unmovable frame to dominate in the slot and score more than his fair share of goals. It was this approach that won him the Art Ross Trophy five times and the Stanley Cup twice.
Mark Messier
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,887
- Total goals scored: 694
- Total assists: 1,193
Captain of the dynastic Edmonton Oilers team and a mighty presence on the ice, Mark Messier more than earned his place among the fellow best NHL forwards of all-time who also made up those lines. Not only did he take the game by the scruff of the neck, but when in sight of goal, his skill would often catch defensemen and goalies off guard.
Messier’s defining moment came in Game 3 of the 1984 Finals. The one-man army picked up the puck and rushed all the way up the ice to score what would be a series-changing goal, galvanizing an effort that’d put them 2-1 up in the series.
By the end of his career, the center had scored 694 goals and 1,887 points to join Gretzky above Howe in the record books. In the playoffs, he remains second of all-time with 295 points in 236 games. Throw in 16 All-Star call-ups, two Hart Memorial Trophies, and a haul of six Stanley Cups, and Messier holds as one of the NHL’s best forwards of all time.
Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy Odds
Honourable Mentions
As mentioned at the top, the list of the best NHL forwards of all time could be exceedingly long. Boiling it down to ten picks certainly wasn’t easy.
So, here are a few of the honourable mentions who very nearly made the cut or, as it stands, will certainly contend for a place in the future.
Mike Bossy
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,126
- Total goals scored: 573
- Total assists: 553
Breaking out with a Calder Trophy-winning season, in which he set a record for rookie season goals with 53, Mike Bossy would go on to define the New York Islanders’ dynasty. Despite only playing for ten years, Bossy put up 658 goals and 1,286 points across the regular season and playoffs and secured all four Stanley Cups between 1980 and 1983.
Brett Hull
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,391
- Total goals scored: 741
- Total assists: 650
Still a firm fifth in the all-time goals records of the NHL, Brett Hull was an ever-reliable sniper even as the rate of scoring faded through towards and through the turn of the millennium. His 72, 86, and 70-goal efforts for the St. Louis Blues to open the 1990s remain legendary, but it wouldn’t be until he joined the Dallas Stars and later the Detroit Red Wings that Hull would hoist the Stanley Cup.
Connor McDavid
Key Career Stats:
- Total career points: 1,090
- Total goals scored: 362
- Total assists: 728
Connor McDavid is a modern-day phenomenon. Already, the Oilers center has eight 100-point seasons to his name, with his other two ending 48 points in 45 games and 97 points in 64 games.
Even as the team around him has steadily progressed towards Cup contention, he’s always been able to collect an unruly points tally. But, despite two Stanley Cup Finals disappointments in the books, now in his prime, there’s time enough to add to what’s already being hailed as a legendary career by modern hockey standards.