Top NHL Playmakers

This page ranks the ten NHL players with the most assists in every regular season since 2016-17. Assists only — the goal and points leaders are ranked separately.

The ten players with the most assists in every NHL season since 2016-17. Click any player to highlight every season he finished in the top ten.

Season 2025-26

  1. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  2. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  3. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  4. Evan Bouchard

    EDM · D

  5. Nick Suzuki

    MTL · C

  6. David Pastrnak

    BOS · RW

  7. Macklin Celebrini

    SJS · C

  8. Quinn Hughes

    VAN / MIN · D

  9. Mark Scheifele

    WPG · C

  10. Lane Hutson

    MTL · D

Season 2024-25

  1. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  2. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  3. Mitch Marner

    TOR · RW

  4. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  5. Jesper Bratt

    NJD · LW

  6. Jack Eichel

    VGK · C

  7. David Pastrnak

    BOS · RW

  8. Cale Makar

    COL · D

  9. Clayton Keller

    UTA · RW

  10. Robert Thomas

    STL · C

Season 2023-24

  1. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  2. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  3. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  4. Quinn Hughes

    VAN · D

  5. Artemi Panarin

    NYR · LW

  6. Cale Makar

    COL · D

  7. J.T. Miller

    VAN · C

  8. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  9. Evan Bouchard

    EDM · D

  10. David Pastrnak

    BOS · RW

Season 2022-23

  1. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  2. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  3. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  4. Erik Karlsson

    SJS · D

  5. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  6. Matthew Tkachuk

    FLA · LW

  7. Mitch Marner

    TOR · RW

  8. Quinn Hughes

    VAN · D

  9. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

    EDM · C

  10. Jason Robertson

    DAL · LW

Season 2021-22

  1. Jonathan Huberdeau

    FLA · LW

  2. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  3. Johnny Gaudreau

    CGY · LW

  4. Artemi Panarin

    NYR · LW

  5. Roman Josi

    NSH · D

  6. J.T. Miller

    VAN · C

  7. Patrick Kane

    CHI · RW

  8. Victor Hedman

    TBL · D

  9. Steven Stamkos

    TBL · C

  10. Adam Fox

    NYR · D

Season 2020-21

  1. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  2. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  3. Patrick Kane

    CHI · RW

  4. Mitch Marner

    TOR · RW

  5. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  6. Mark Scheifele

    WPG · C

  7. Adam Fox

    NYR · D

  8. Jonathan Huberdeau

    FLA · LW

  9. Artemi Panarin

    NYR · LW

  10. Brad Marchand

    BOS · LW

Season 2019-20

  1. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  2. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  3. Artemi Panarin

    NYR · LW

  4. John Carlson

    WSH · D

  5. Brad Marchand

    BOS · LW

  6. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  7. Jonathan Huberdeau

    FLA · LW

  8. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  9. Patrick Kane

    CHI · RW

  10. Mitch Marner

    TOR · RW

Season 2018-19

  1. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  2. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  3. Blake Wheeler

    WPG · RW

  4. Mitch Marner

    TOR · RW

  5. Brent Burns

    SJS · D

  6. Patrick Kane

    CHI · RW

  7. Sidney Crosby

    PIT · C

  8. Brad Marchand

    BOS · LW

  9. Johnny Gaudreau

    CGY · LW

  10. Claude Giroux

    PHI · RW

Season 2017-18

  1. Claude Giroux

    PHI · RW

  2. Blake Wheeler

    WPG · RW

  3. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  4. Jakub Voracek

    PHI · RW

  5. Mathew Barzal

    NYI · C

  6. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  7. Sidney Crosby

    PIT · C

  8. Johnny Gaudreau

    CGY · LW

  9. Steven Stamkos

    TBL · C

  10. John Klingberg

    DAL · D

Season 2016-17

  1. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  2. Nicklas Backstrom

    WSH · C

  3. Ryan Getzlaf

    ANA · C

  4. Victor Hedman

    TBL · D

  5. Patrick Kane

    CHI · RW

  6. Erik Karlsson

    OTT · D

  7. Henrik Zetterberg

    DET · C

  8. Mark Scheifele

    WPG · C

  9. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  10. Blake Wheeler

    WPG · RW

How these rankings work

Every skater in the league is eligible, defensemen included. Skaters are ranked by assists. Ties are broken by total points, then by fewer games played. Only NHL regular season games count — playoffs, preseason and all-star games are excluded. A player traded mid-season keeps his full-season total, and every team he played for that year is listed on his card.

Figures come from the NHL's public statistics API — the same source behind NHL.com — and are baked into this page when it is built, so nothing is fetched while you read it. The data shown was pulled on and covers the 10 completed regular seasons from 2016-17 to 2025-26.

This site also ranks all skaters, goals, forwards, defensemen, goalies, power-play goals and game-winning goals, season by season.

Questions

Who had the most assists in a single season?

Nikita Kucherov — 100 assists in the 2023-24 regular season, the highest single-season total on this page since 2016-17.

Which player appears most often in these top tens?

Connor McDavid, with 10 top-ten finishes in the 10 seasons from 2016-17 to 2025-26.

How many different players have finished in a top ten since 2016-17?

42 — out of 100 top-ten places across 10 seasons.

Do these totals include the playoffs?

No. Every number on this site is regular season only. Playoff assists are excluded.

Where does the data come from?

The NHL's own public statistics API (api.nhle.com), the same source that feeds NHL.com. Nothing here is estimated or projected.

How often is it updated?

Once per year, after each NHL regular season finishes. The data currently shown was pulled on 2026-08-23 and covers through the 2025-26 season.