List of NHL players with 500 goals

For ice hockey players in the National Hockey League (NHL), scoring 500 regular season goals is considered a highly significant achievement.

As of the completion of the 2008–09 season—the 91st regular season of the National Hockey League—a total of 41 different players have scored at least 500 regular season goals in their NHL career.

A 500 goal career was first achieved in 1957–58, the 41st season of the NHL, when Maurice Richard scored his 500th goal in his 863rd lifetime game played.

Season achievements

The 2006–07 NHL season saw the largest number of players (five) achieve their 500th goal. A total of four players scored their 500th goal in the 1995–96 season.

Starting with Maurice Richard's achievement in the 1957–58 NHL season, the greatest stretch between 500 goal scorers was the eight seasons between Gordie Howe in the 1961–62 season and Bobby Hull in the 1969–70 season.

Player achievements

The shortest number of NHL games required to reach the mark was 575, set by Wayne Gretzky. Second quickest was Mario Lemieux, achieving the mark in his 605th game.

Of the 41 players to score at least 500 goals in their career, 17 reached the mark in fewer than 1000 career games played.

Of those on the list, Lanny McDonald came closest to 'not' achieving 500 goals—reaching the mark with only four games remaining in his final NHL season. Similarly, Joe Mullen scored his 500th goal with only ten games remaining in his final season.

Four players have scored their 500th goal on an empty net: Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Jari Kurri and Keith Tkachuk.

Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy is the only net minder to 'allow' more than one opponent to tally their 500th career goal: Steve Yzerman in 1996, Joe Mullen in 1997 and Brendan Shanahan in 2002. A contributing factor for this statistical coincidence will be Roy's record for second-most games played by a goaltender, at 1029.

Mats Sundin scored his 500th goal in overtime, winning the game for the Toronto Maple Leafs. In that one goal, he finished off a hat trick, scored one of his league-leading 15 overtime goals while being short-handed, and earned his 500th career NHL goal.

Team achievements

A total of 20 different franchises have had a player score their 500th goal while playing for the franchise.

The Detroit Red Wings have had five different players score their 500th goal while playing for the team. The Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens both had four players achieve the mark while with the team.

To date no team has had the coincidence of multiple players reaching 500 goals on the same team in the same season. The 2001–02 Detroit Red Wings were the first team to have three 500+ goal scorers on the roster (Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille), and would finish the season with four players in the exclusive club after Brendan Shanahan joined them at the 500-goal plateau. Yzerman, Hull, Robitaille and Shanahan are four of only eleven players with 650 or more goals in NHL history.

500-goal scorers

Legend

Team – Team for which the player scored their 500th goal

Game no. – Number of career games played when 500th goal was scored

Date – Date of 500th goal

GP – Career games played

G – Career goals.

Active players currently in the NHL are listed in boldface.

	Player	Team	Game no.	Date	Opposing goaltender	GP	G
1	Maurice Richard	Montreal Canadiens	863	October 19, 1957	Glenn Hall	978	544
2	Gordie Howe	Detroit Red Wings	1045	March 14, 1962	Gump Worsley	1767	801
3	Bobby Hull	Chicago Black Hawks	861	February 21, 1970	Ed Giacomin	1063	610
4	Jean Beliveau	Montreal Canadiens	1101	February 11, 1971	Gilles Gilbert	1125	507
5	Frank Mahovlich	Montreal Canadiens	1105	March 21, 1973	Dunc Wilson	1181	533
6	Phil Esposito	Boston Bruins	803	December 22, 1974	Jim Rutherford	1282	717
7	Johnny Bucyk	Boston Bruins	1370	October 30, 1975	Yves Belanger	1540	556
8	Stan Mikita	Chicago Black Hawks	1221	February 27, 1977	Cesare Maniago	1394	541
9	Marcel Dionne	Los Angeles Kings	887	December 14, 1982	Al Jensen	1348	731
10	Guy Lafleur	Montreal Canadiens	918	December 20, 1983	Glenn Resch	1126	560
11	Mike Bossy	New York Islanders	647	January 2, 1986	(empty net)	752	573
12	Gilbert Perreault	Buffalo Sabres	1159	March 9, 1986	Alain Chevrier	1191	512
13	Wayne Gretzky	Edmonton Oilers	575	November 22, 1986	(empty net)	1487	894
14	Lanny McDonald	Calgary Flames	1107	March 21, 1989	Mark Fitzpatrick	1111	500
15	Bryan Trottier	New York Islanders	1104	February 13, 1990	Rick Wamsley	1279	524
16	Mike Gartner	New York Rangers	936	October 14, 1991	Mike Liut	1432	708
17	Michel Goulet	Chicago Blackhawks	951	February 16, 1992	Jeff Reese	1089	548
18	Jari Kurri	Los Angeles Kings	833	October 17, 1992	(empty net)	1251	601
19	Dino Ciccarelli	Detroit Red Wings	946	January 8, 1994	Kelly Hrudey	1232	608
20	Mario Lemieux	Pittsburgh Penguins	605	October 26, 1995	Tommy Soderstrom	915	690
21	Mark Messier	New York Rangers	1141	November 6, 1995	Rick Tabaracci	1756	694
22	Steve Yzerman	Detroit Red Wings	906	January 17, 1996	Patrick Roy	1514	692
23	Dale Hawerchuk	St. Louis Blues	1103	January 31, 1996	Felix Potvin	1188	518
24	Brett Hull	St. Louis Blues	693	December 22, 1996	Stephane Fiset	1269	741
25	Joe Mullen	Pittsburgh Penguins	1052	March 14, 1997	Patrick Roy	1062	502
26	Dave Andreychuk	New Jersey Devils	1070	March 15, 1997	Bill Ranford	1639	640
27	Luc Robitaille	Los Angeles Kings	928	January 7, 1999	Dwayne Roloson	1431	668
28	Pat Verbeek	Detroit Red Wings	1285	March 22, 2000	Fred Brathwaite	1424	522
29	Ron Francis	Carolina Hurricanes	1533	January 2, 2002	Byron Dafoe	1731	549
30	Brendan Shanahan	Detroit Red Wings	1100	March 23, 2002	Patrick Roy	1524	656
31	Joe Sakic	Colorado Avalanche	1044	December 11, 2002	Dan Cloutier	1378	625
32	Joe Nieuwendyk	New Jersey Devils	1094	January 17, 2003	Kevin Weekes	1242	559
33	Jaromir Jagr	Washington Capitals	928	February 4, 2003	John Grahame	1272	646
34	Pierre Turgeon	Colorado Avalanche	1229	November 8, 2005	Vesa Toskala	1294	515
35	Mats Sundin	Toronto Maple Leafs	1162	October 14, 2006	Miikka Kiprusoff	1346	564
36	Teemu Selänne	Anaheim Ducks	982	November 22, 2006	Jose Theodore	1132	579
37	Peter Bondra	Chicago Blackhawks	1050	December 22, 2006	Jean-Sebastien Aubin	1081	503
38	Mark Recchi	Pittsburgh Penguins	1303	January 26, 2007	Marty Turco	1490	545
39	Mike Modano	Dallas Stars	1225	March 13, 2007	Antero Niittymaki	1400	549
40	Jeremy Roenick	San Jose Sharks	1267	November 10, 2007	Alex Auld	1363	513
41	Keith Tkachuk	St. Louis Blues	1055	April 6, 2008	(empty net)	1134	525

Active players who are close

There are no players who have a realistic chance to reach 500 goals during the 2009–10 NHL season.

Retired players who came close

These are players who are now retired that came within 50 goals of reaching 500 for their career. They are listed with the NHL team for which they played the most games.

Player	Team	GP	G
Glenn Anderson	Edmonton Oilers	1129	498
Jean Ratelle	New York Rangers	1281	491
Norm Ullman	Detroit Red Wings	1410	490
Brian Bellows	Minnesota North Stars	1188	485
Darryl Sittler	Toronto Maple Leafs	1096	484
Bernie Nicholls	New Jersey Devils	1127	475
Alexander Mogilny	Buffalo Sabres	990	473
Denis Savard	Chicago Blackhawks	1196	473
Pat LaFontaine	New York Islanders	865	468
Alex Delvecchio	Detroit Red Wings	1549	456
Theoren Fleury	Calgary Flames	1084	455
Doug Gilmour	Toronto Maple Leafs	1474	450
Peter Stastny	Quebec Nordiques	977	450

See also

• List of NHL statistical leaders
• List of NHL players with 1000 games played
• List of NHL players with 1000 points
• List of NHL players with 100 point seasons
• List of NHL players with 50 goal seasons
• List of NHL players with 50 goals in 50 games

References

• 2005 NHL Official Guide & Record Book ISBN 0-920445-91-8.