Becoming an NHL franchise’s active leader in goal-scoring often takes a ton of talent, consistency, loyalty and longevity.
Of course, the bar isn’t as high for rebuilding or recently rebuilt squads. We’re seeing young talent forge a new path toward Stanley Cup contention. The same low bar goes for the newest NHL franchises, although enough time has passed for some of them that their all-time goals leader doesn’t play for the team anymore – or hasn’t been active for years.
In fact, only six NHL franchises have one of their active players leading their all-time goals list.
Here are the active goals leaders for all 32 NHL teams, ranked from the most to the fewest goals. If a player is active in the NHL but doesn’t play for that team, they don’t count. It’s no surprise who sits in first.
1. Washington Capitals
Alex Ovechkin, 897
The Capitals’ captain broke the NHL’s all-time regular-season goals record in April and scored twice more to inch closer to the 900-goal mark. Ovechkin’s just 43 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record for the most in the regular season and playoffs combined, but he has one year left on his contract.
2. Pittsburgh Penguins
Sidney Crosby, 625
Crosby’s two-year contract extension kicks in this upcoming season. The captain’s 66 goals away from the Penguins’ all-time goals record set by No. 66, Mario Lemieux. It can be done.
3. Los Angeles Kings
Anze Kopitar, 440
Kopitar is the Kings’ all-time games played leader by a long shot, with 1,454 in the regular season. He’s 110 goals behind Marcel Dionne for second place on the franchise’s goal-scoring list and 117 behind Luc Robitaille.
4. Toronto Maple Leafs
Auston Matthews, 401
Matthews averages 0.64 goals per game, which is the seventh highest in NHL history among players who scored at least 100 times in their career. Ovechkin’s rate is 0.60, but he’s also played more than double the number of seasons. Nevertheless, the chase is on for the Maple Leafs’ captain.
T5. Dallas Stars
Jamie Benn, 399
One of the NHL’s final four players who don’t wear a visor could become the 111th player in NHL history to score 400 goals in the regular season. Take away the 123 goals Mike Modano scored with the Minnesota North Stars, and Benn is only 36 goals away from passing him for the most in Dallas Stars history.
T5. Edmonton Oilers
Leon Draisaitl, 399
Draisaitl and McDavid both average 0.51 goals per game, but the former has played 78 more games. Draisaitl won the ‘Rocket’ Richard Trophy for the most goals in 2024-25, and he also scored the most important goals in the NHL during the regular season, according to Ken Campbell’s Situational Scoring model.
7. Boston Bruins
David Pastrnak, 391
The Bruins have been around for more than 100 years, and Pastrnak is only 155 goals away from passing Johnny Bucyk and leading the franchise in goal-scoring. I say “only,” because he’s just 29, and he’s scored 151 goals in the past three seasons.
8. Colorado Avalanche
Nathan MacKinnon, 367
MacKinnon can reach second place on the Nordiques-Avalanche’s all-time assists and points lists in 2025-26. He’s fifth in goal-scoring, and he trails Joe Sakic by 258. In just Avalanche history, MacKinnon is tied with Sakic for first in points with 1,015, sits first in assists 648 and trails Sakic by 24 in goals.
9. Tampa Bay Lightning
Nikita Kucherov, 357
Kucherov leads the Lightning in all-time assists, with 637, but he’s fourth in goals and needs 199 to pass Steven Stamkos for first place. At 32 years old and with a career high of 44 goals, Kucherov could have to play the rest of his NHL career in Tampa Bay to break that record.
10. Winnipeg Jets
Mark Scheifele, 336
Scheifele has the most goals in Atlanta Thrashers and Jets 2.0 history. Jets 1.0 history belongs to the inactive Arizona Coyotes, but if we were to include it here, Dale Hawerchuk would have the most goals, with 379.
11. San Jose Sharks
Logan Couture, 323
The Sharks’ captain hasn’t played since January 2024 and announced this past April that he’s stepping away from professional hockey due to injury, but he has two more years left on his contract. Aside from Couture, the next-highest all-time active scorer on the rebuilding Sharks is William Eklund, who has 35.
12. Nashville Predators
Filip Forsberg, 318
Forsberg already has 118 more goals than the man in second place on the Predators’ franchise goal-scoring list, David Legwand, who scored 210. Nashville acquired Forsberg from the Capitals in exchange for Martin Erat and Michael Latta in 2013.
13. New York Islanders
Anders Lee, 289
After the Islanders traded their longtime center, Brock Nelson, at the 2025 trade deadline, Lee became the team’s active goals leader. If the Islanders’ captain doubled his goals total, he’d have five more than the franchise’s all-time leader, Mike Bossy, and his 573.
14. Florida Panthers
Aleksander Barkov, 286
Barkov is the Panthers’ all-time leader in games played (804), goals, assists (496), points (782), power-play points (243), shorthanded points (23), game-winning goals (52) and shots (2,097). But the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion is only second in plus-minus, with Gustav Forsling’s plus-166 rating leading his plus-124.
15. Carolina Hurricanes
Sebastian Aho, 283
Aho is 100 goals away from passing Ron Francis for the most in Hartford Whalers and Hurricanes history. He’s only 28 years old. It may take three or four seasons to break the record, but expect it to happen eventually.
16. New York Rangers
Mika Zibanejad, 250
Zibanejad has many regular-season goals with the Rangers as Mark Messier. Chris Kreider scored 326 times for the Blueshirts but was traded to the Anaheim Ducks this off-season.
17. Detroit Red Wings
Dylan Larkin, 242
If Larkin tripled his goal total, he’d still trail Gordie Howe’s 786 for the most in the near-century of Red Wings history. But the Red Wings’ captain has nearly two-and-a-half times the number of goals of the player in second place on their active list, Lucas Raymond (98).
18. Montreal Canadiens
Brendan Gallagher, 239
Gallagher is tied with Bob Gainey for 15th place on the Canadiens’ all-time list. He has 101 more goals than captain Nick Suzuki.
19. Calgary Flames
Mikael Backlund, 215
Backlund has played the most seasons in Atlanta and Calgary Flames history, with 17 so far. Jarome Iginla played 16 seasons in Calgary but played 153 more games and scored 310 more goals – the Flames’ current captain played 24 NHL games across his first two seasons before making the roster full-time in his third.
20. Philadelphia Flyers
Sean Couturier, 206
The chase is on. That is, Couturier’s chase of new Flyers coach Rick Tocchet’s 232 goals for 13th place on the franchise list.
21. Vancouver Canucks
Brock Boeser, 204
When it looked like Boeser could have headed elsewhere in free agency, he signed a seven-year contract to stay with the Canucks. If he continues his career average of 0.37 goals per game, stays healthy and plays out his contract with the Canucks, he’ll pass Daniel Sedin for the most lamplighters in franchise history.
22. Columbus Blue Jackets
Boone Jenner, 199
Jenner, 32, needs 91 goals to pass Rick Nash for the most in Blue Jackets history. He has the most tipped-in (36) and backhand (19) goals in franchise history since tracking began in 2009-10.
23. Ottawa Senators
Brady Tkachuk, 191
Tkachuk turns 26 in September and is fourth in Senators all-time scoring, trailing Daniel Alfredsson by 227. Shoutout to Cy Denneny, who had 246 goals in 306 games for the original Ottawa Senators franchise that ran from the NHL’s first season in 1917-18 to 1934-35 when it folded after one year as the St. Louis Eagles.
24. Minnesota Wild
Kirill Kaprizov, 185
Among players who scored at least 100 times, Wild left winger Kaprizov ranks 13th in NHL history in goals per game, with 0.58. That’s tied with Brett Hull. Expect a big raise on his $9-million cap hit when his contract expires after this upcoming season.
25. Buffalo Sabres
Tage Thompson, 173
Thompson recorded a league-high 106 mph shot this past season. His Sabres teammate appeared to have blocked the one-timer in front of the net. Ouch.
26. New Jersey Devils
Nico Hischier, 171
Hischier is 14 goals behind the Canucks’ Elias Pettersson for the most in the 2017 NHL draft class, but the Devils’ captain scored 20 more goals than Pettersson in 2024-25.
27. St. Louis Blues
Brayden Schenn, 169
Schenn only needs 15 points to become one of the Blues’ top 10 all-time point scorers. But he needs 26 goals to make the franchise’s top 10 goal-scorers list, and he hasn’t scored that many in a season since 2017-18.
28. Vegas Golden Knights
William Karlsson, 161
One of the ‘Original Misfits’ became the active leader after the Golden Knights didn’t re-sign Jonathan Marchessault in the summer of 2024. Marchessault put up 192 goals with Vegas. As for Karlsson, he scored six goals the season before he joined the Golden Knights and scored 43 the year afterward.
29. Seattle Kraken
Jared McCann, 118
McCann is the all-time leading scorer for the Kraken, which enter their fifth season in 2025-26. Time flies.
30. Anaheim Ducks
Troy Terry, 116
Corey Perry, Rickard Rakell and Adam Henrique are still active NHLers and scored more goals for the Ducks than Terry, but of course, they’re no longer on the squad. Terry scored a career-high 37 goals in 2021-22 and surpassed 20 in the three seasons afterward.
31. Chicago Blackhawks
Connor Bedard, 45
Trust the process. Seven former Blackhawks players who remain active NHLers scored more goals in Chicago than Bedard, but the 20-year-old has plenty of time to climb the rankings and lead his rebuilding team toward success.
32. Utah Mammoth
Clayton Keller, 30
Keller led the way in Utah’s first year. Instead of a traditional relocation, the Coyotes transferred their hockey assets to Utah’s new franchise.
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