Top NHL Goal Scorers

This page ranks the ten highest goal scorers in the NHL in every regular season since 2016-17. Goals only — the assists and points leaders are ranked separately.

The ten highest goal scorers of every NHL season since 2016-17. Click any player to highlight every season he finished in the top ten.

Season 2025-26

  1. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  2. Cole Caufield

    MTL · RW

  3. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  4. Macklin Celebrini

    SJS · C

  5. Jason Robertson

    DAL · LW

  6. Kirill Kaprizov

    MIN · LW

  7. Wyatt Johnston

    DAL · C

  8. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  9. Matt Boldy

    MIN · LW

  10. Steven Stamkos

    NSH · C

Season 2024-25

  1. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  2. William Nylander

    TOR · RW

  3. Alex Ovechkin

    WSH · LW

  4. Tage Thompson

    BUF · C

  5. David Pastrnak

    BOS · RW

  6. Brayden Point

    TBL · C

  7. Kyle Connor

    WPG · LW

  8. Jake Guentzel

    TBL · C

  9. Mark Scheifele

    WPG · C

  10. Sam Reinhart

    FLA · C

Season 2023-24

  1. Auston Matthews

    TOR · C

  2. Sam Reinhart

    FLA · C

  3. Zach Hyman

    EDM · LW

  4. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  5. Artemi Panarin

    NYR · LW

  6. Filip Forsberg

    NSH · LW

  7. David Pastrnak

    BOS · RW

  8. Kirill Kaprizov

    MIN · LW

  9. Brayden Point

    TBL · C

  10. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

Season 2022-23

  1. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  2. David Pastrnak

    BOS · RW

  3. Mikko Rantanen

    COL · RW

  4. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  5. Brayden Point

    TBL · C

  6. Tage Thompson

    BUF · C

  7. Jason Robertson

    DAL · LW

  8. Jack Hughes

    NJD · C

  9. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  10. Alex Ovechkin

    WSH · LW

Season 2021-22

  1. Auston Matthews

    TOR · C

  2. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  3. Chris Kreider

    NYR · LW

  4. Alex Ovechkin

    WSH · LW

  5. Kirill Kaprizov

    MIN · LW

  6. Kyle Connor

    WPG · LW

  7. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  8. Matt Duchene

    NSH · C

  9. Steven Stamkos

    TBL · C

  10. Matthew Tkachuk

    CGY · LW

Season 2020-21

  1. Auston Matthews

    TOR · C

  2. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  3. Alex DeBrincat

    CHI · RW

  4. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  5. Mikko Rantanen

    COL · RW

  6. Brad Marchand

    BOS · LW

  7. Tyler Toffoli

    MTL · C

  8. Kirill Kaprizov

    MIN · LW

  9. Aleksander Barkov

    FLA · C

  10. Kyle Connor

    WPG · LW

Season 2019-20

  1. David Pastrnak

    BOS · RW

  2. Alex Ovechkin

    WSH · LW

  3. Auston Matthews

    TOR · C

  4. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  5. Mika Zibanejad

    NYR · C

  6. Kyle Connor

    WPG · LW

  7. Sebastian Aho

    CAR · C

  8. Jack Eichel

    BUF · C

  9. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  10. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

Season 2018-19

  1. Alex Ovechkin

    WSH · LW

  2. Leon Draisaitl

    EDM · C

  3. John Tavares

    TOR · C

  4. Steven Stamkos

    TBL · C

  5. Patrick Kane

    CHI · RW

  6. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  7. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  8. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

  9. Brayden Point

    TBL · C

  10. Alex DeBrincat

    CHI · RW

Season 2017-18

  1. Alex Ovechkin

    WSH · LW

  2. Patrik Laine

    WPG · LW

  3. William Karlsson

    VGK · C

  4. Evgeni Malkin

    PIT · C

  5. Eric Staal

    MIN · C

  6. Connor McDavid

    EDM · C

  7. Tyler Seguin

    DAL · C

  8. Anders Lee

    NYI · LW

  9. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  10. Nathan MacKinnon

    COL · C

Season 2016-17

  1. Sidney Crosby

    PIT · C

  2. Nikita Kucherov

    TBL · RW

  3. Auston Matthews

    TOR · C

  4. Brad Marchand

    BOS · LW

  5. Vladimir Tarasenko

    STL · RW

  6. Jeff Skinner

    CAR · LW

  7. Patrik Laine

    WPG · LW

  8. Max Pacioretty

    MTL · LW

  9. Cam Atkinson

    CBJ · RW

  10. Patrick Kane

    CHI · RW

How these rankings work

Every skater in the league is eligible, defensemen included. Skaters are ranked by goals. 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, assists, forwards, defensemen, goalies, power-play goals and game-winning goals, season by season.

Questions

Who had the most goals in a single season?

Auston Matthews — 69 goals 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 7 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?

49 — 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 goals 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.