Continuing with our NHL in a Decade series, up next we look at the guys who score when it matters the most. The guys that score the big goals, the Game Winning Goal (GWG) leaders. Stats are based on regular season activity since the 2013-14 NHL season through to February 29, 2024. Some fun facts before we get to our list:
- There have been twenty NHL players who have scored 50 or more game winning goals over the past ten seasons
- Only four defenseman made the list of top 100 game winning goal leaders
- Players you might not think should be on this list but are include: Cam Atkinson, Brandon Saad, and Wayne Simmonds.
- There is a three-way tie for leaders on this list.
Top 100 NHL Players with Game Winning Goals
Over the past ten seasons, the following players have won more games for their teams by scoring the game winning goals than any other.
| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | P | +/- | GWG |
| Alex Ovechkin | L | 800 | 467 | 325 | 792 | -36 | 67 |
| Brad Marchand | L | 789 | 331 | 451 | 782 | 220 | 67 |
| Connor McDavid | C | 624 | 325 | 619 | 944 | 134 | 67 |
| Nathan MacKinnon | C | 768 | 318 | 537 | 855 | 128 | 62 |
| Sidney Crosby | C | 775 | 344 | 553 | 897 | 122 | 61 |
| Leon Draisaitl | C | 694 | 335 | 482 | 817 | 42 | 59 |
| David Pastrnak | R | 652 | 339 | 363 | 702 | 141 | 59 |
| Auston Matthews | C | 537 | 351 | 268 | 619 | 133 | 59 |
| Max Pacioretty | L | 631 | 260 | 244 | 504 | 63 | 58 |
| Steven Stamkos | C | 687 | 330 | 390 | 720 | 52 | 55 |
| John Tavares | C | 793 | 332 | 437 | 769 | 4 | 53 |
| Patrice Bergeron | C | 715 | 274 | 333 | 607 | 219 | 52 |
| Brayden Schenn | C | 805 | 233 | 341 | 574 | -25 | 52 |
| Brayden Point | C | 559 | 248 | 277 | 525 | 65 | 52 |
| Sebastian Aho | C | 575 | 240 | 289 | 529 | 91 | 52 |
| Anze Kopitar | C | 827 | 237 | 475 | 712 | 77 | 50 |
| Cam Atkinson | R | 696 | 233 | 215 | 448 | -15 | 50 |
| Tyler Seguin | C | 756 | 290 | 370 | 660 | 20 | 50 |
| Filip Forsberg | L | 670 | 267 | 302 | 569 | 39 | 50 |
| Sean Monahan | C | 738 | 236 | 283 | 519 | -62 | 50 |
| Kyle Connor | L | 506 | 232 | 232 | 464 | -23 | 49 |
| Patrick Kane | R | 761 | 314 | 527 | 841 | -14 | 48 |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | R | 691 | 277 | 316 | 593 | 75 | 48 |
| Nikita Kucherov | R | 703 | 314 | 517 | 831 | 131 | 48 |
| Joe Pavelski | C | 831 | 319 | 395 | 714 | 149 | 46 |
| Evgeni Malkin | C | 660 | 270 | 443 | 713 | 4 | 46 |
| Johnny Gaudreau | L | 739 | 239 | 486 | 725 | 34 | 46 |
| Mark Scheifele | C | 762 | 288 | 407 | 695 | 64 | 46 |
| Aleksander Barkov | C | 716 | 256 | 430 | 686 | 112 | 46 |
| J.T. Miller | C | 752 | 228 | 383 | 611 | 70 | 45 |
| Elias Lindholm | C | 803 | 216 | 335 | 551 | 16 | 44 |
| Jeff Carter | C | 734 | 209 | 225 | 434 | -30 | 43 |
| Artemi Panarin | L | 649 | 249 | 491 | 740 | 143 | 43 |
| Chris Kreider | L | 769 | 292 | 236 | 528 | 128 | 42 |
| Brandon Saad | L | 790 | 233 | 222 | 455 | 28 | 42 |
| Zach Parise | L | 684 | 218 | 216 | 434 | 22 | 41 |
| Mika Zibanejad | C | 774 | 280 | 359 | 639 | 38 | 41 |
| Phil Kessel | R | 782 | 228 | 385 | 613 | -119 | 40 |
| Matt Duchene | C | 768 | 257 | 350 | 607 | -46 | 40 |
| Anders Lee | L | 734 | 254 | 183 | 437 | 16 | 40 |
| Brock Nelson | C | 816 | 266 | 242 | 508 | 3 | 40 |
| Claude Giroux | R | 823 | 256 | 507 | 763 | 19 | 39 |
| Jamie Benn | L | 827 | 289 | 399 | 688 | 72 | 39 |
| Mike Hoffman | C | 729 | 226 | 256 | 482 | -67 | 39 |
| Kyle Palmieri | C | 724 | 216 | 212 | 428 | -12 | 39 |
| Tyler Toffoli | R | 780 | 250 | 253 | 503 | 79 | 39 |
| Sam Reinhart | C | 672 | 237 | 274 | 511 | -66 | 39 |
| William Nylander | R | 578 | 208 | 300 | 508 | 25 | 39 |
| Jonathan Toews | C | 659 | 205 | 306 | 511 | 33 | 38 |
| Jeff Skinner | L | 794 | 288 | 241 | 529 | -104 | 38 |
| Mark Stone | R | 636 | 212 | 355 | 567 | 120 | 38 |
| Mikko Rantanen | R | 549 | 250 | 337 | 587 | 60 | 38 |
| Blake Wheeler | R | 800 | 228 | 483 | 711 | 25 | 37 |
| Gabriel Landeskog | L | 620 | 217 | 285 | 502 | 61 | 37 |
| T.J. Oshie | R | 704 | 230 | 263 | 493 | 49 | 36 |
| Logan Couture | C | 701 | 234 | 300 | 534 | -32 | 36 |
| Nazem Kadri | C | 780 | 238 | 318 | 556 | -41 | 36 |
| Jonathan Marchessault | R | 612 | 218 | 248 | 466 | 40 | 36 |
| Paul Stastny | C | 678 | 158 | 266 | 424 | 57 | 35 |
| Tomas Hertl | C | 712 | 218 | 266 | 484 | -71 | 35 |
| Jordan Eberle | R | 799 | 228 | 309 | 537 | -40 | 34 |
| Adam Henrique | C | 770 | 228 | 222 | 450 | -29 | 34 |
| Alex Killorn | L | 806 | 198 | 270 | 468 | 84 | 33 |
| Evander Kane | L | 647 | 243 | 206 | 449 | -50 | 33 |
| Nino Niederreiter | R | 802 | 217 | 217 | 434 | 95 | 33 |
| Jack Eichel | C | 518 | 199 | 291 | 490 | -39 | 33 |
| Corey Perry | R | 711 | 204 | 228 | 432 | -4 | 32 |
| James van Riemsdyk | L | 752 | 246 | 251 | 497 | -70 | 32 |
| David Perron | L | 767 | 221 | 330 | 551 | -43 | 32 |
| Ryan O’Reilly | C | 785 | 231 | 392 | 623 | 6 | 32 |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | D | 782 | 127 | 270 | 397 | -135 | 32 |
| Tomas Tatar | L | 810 | 213 | 254 | 467 | 49 | 32 |
| Charlie Coyle | C | 808 | 160 | 265 | 425 | 63 | 32 |
| Taylor Hall | L | 661 | 201 | 351 | 552 | -22 | 32 |
| Ryan Johansen | C | 794 | 188 | 356 | 544 | -3 | 32 |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | L | 579 | 194 | 241 | 435 | 85 | 32 |
| Mikael Backlund | C | 796 | 174 | 285 | 459 | 85 | 31 |
| Tyler Johnson | C | 701 | 185 | 227 | 412 | 33 | 31 |
| Evgeny Kuznetsov | C | 723 | 171 | 397 | 568 | 38 | 31 |
| Rickard Rakell | R | 690 | 192 | 243 | 435 | -18 | 31 |
| Jake Guentzel | L | 503 | 219 | 247 | 466 | 53 | 31 |
| Jake DeBrusk | L | 443 | 132 | 121 | 253 | 58 | 31 |
| Elias Pettersson | C | 385 | 165 | 232 | 397 | 50 | 31 |
| Patrick Marleau | C | 614 | 162 | 174 | 336 | -54 | 30 |
| Ryan Getzlaf | C | 601 | 130 | 368 | 498 | 21 | 30 |
| Roman Josi | D | 786 | 160 | 461 | 621 | 83 | 30 |
| Reilly Smith | R | 773 | 207 | 281 | 488 | 126 | 30 |
| Jason Zucker | L | 649 | 186 | 168 | 354 | 1 | 30 |
| Justin Faulk | D | 778 | 113 | 265 | 378 | -45 | 30 |
| Ondrej Palat | L | 711 | 158 | 307 | 465 | 146 | 30 |
| Dougie Hamilton | D | 729 | 137 | 308 | 445 | 64 | 30 |
| Andre Burakovsky | L | 595 | 137 | 206 | 343 | 48 | 30 |
| Bo Horvat | C | 708 | 231 | 255 | 486 | -68 | 30 |
| Alex Tuch | R | 430 | 125 | 169 | 294 | 31 | 30 |
| Viktor Arvidsson | R | 532 | 173 | 176 | 349 | 43 | 30 |
| Mitchell Marner | R | 563 | 191 | 435 | 626 | 111 | 30 |
| Eric Staal | C | 675 | 187 | 249 | 436 | -54 | 29 |
| Wayne Simmonds | R | 670 | 181 | 171 | 352 | -96 | 29 |
| Craig Smith | C | 792 | 189 | 188 | 377 | 117 | 29 |
| Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | C | 754 | 227 | 381 | 608 | -26 | 29 |
It’s a pretty great list. These are the guys you on on the ice in overtime, or late in a game with the score tied. The Great 8, Connor, Sid the Kid, all of these guys are bug game players. So are players like TJ Oshie, Jordan Eberle and Corey Perry who have all scored a number of game winning goals over the past decade in the National Hockey League.
