Connor McDavid is on a pretty good heater right now for the Edmonton Oilers, but not for his goal scoring. It’s his ability to set up his teammates for goals. Going into his last game, the Oilers captain had a run of 21 assists over the previous nine games. (He added two in the Oilers last game of February along with the OT winner over St. Louis.) Goals are cool, but I’ve always loved the playmakers of the game. The guys who collect the apples and set up the plays.
Image courtesy of Bardown Hockey.
So we thought we would look at the games elite playmakers. The unselfish players who look to dish rather than shoot… many do both, but these are the players that put up a lot of assists during the season.
Top 100 NHL Assist Leaders 2013-2024
Here is a look at the top assist leaders in the National Hockey league since the 2013-14 NHL season through to the 2023-24 season.
| Player | Pos | GP | G | Assists | P | +/- |
| Connor McDavid | C | 623 | 324 | 617 | 941 | 134 |
| Sidney Crosby | C | 775 | 344 | 553 | 897 | 122 |
| Nathan MacKinnon | C | 768 | 318 | 537 | 855 | 128 |
| Patrick Kane | R | 761 | 314 | 527 | 841 | -14 |
| Nikita Kucherov | R | 703 | 314 | 517 | 831 | 131 |
| Claude Giroux | R | 823 | 256 | 507 | 763 | 19 |
| Erik Karlsson | D | 742 | 142 | 498 | 640 | -83 |
| Artemi Panarin | L | 649 | 249 | 491 | 740 | 143 |
| Johnny Gaudreau | L | 739 | 239 | 486 | 725 | 34 |
| Victor Hedman | D | 774 | 137 | 485 | 622 | 172 |
| Blake Wheeler | R | 800 | 228 | 483 | 711 | 25 |
| Leon Draisaitl | C | 694 | 335 | 482 | 817 | 42 |
| Anze Kopitar | C | 827 | 237 | 475 | 712 | 77 |
| Jonathan Huberdeau | C | 759 | 208 | 465 | 673 | 41 |
| Roman Josi | D | 786 | 160 | 461 | 621 | 83 |
| Nicklas Backstrom | C | 692 | 162 | 456 | 618 | -11 |
| Brad Marchand | L | 789 | 331 | 451 | 782 | 220 |
| Brent Burns | D | 827 | 179 | 450 | 629 | 10 |
| Evgeni Malkin | C | 660 | 270 | 443 | 713 | 4 |
| John Tavares | C | 793 | 332 | 437 | 769 | 4 |
| John Carlson | D | 750 | 122 | 436 | 558 | 64 |
| Mitchell Marner | R | 563 | 191 | 435 | 626 | 111 |
| Jakub Voracek | R | 691 | 144 | 433 | 577 | -41 |
| Aleksander Barkov | C | 716 | 256 | 430 | 686 | 112 |
| Mark Scheifele | C | 762 | 288 | 407 | 695 | 64 |
| Mats Zuccarello | R | 748 | 186 | 403 | 589 | 43 |
| Kris Letang | D | 675 | 119 | 399 | 518 | 61 |
| Jamie Benn | L | 827 | 289 | 399 | 688 | 72 |
| Evgeny Kuznetsov | C | 723 | 171 | 397 | 568 | 38 |
| Joe Pavelski | C | 831 | 319 | 395 | 714 | 149 |
| Ryan O’Reilly | C | 785 | 231 | 392 | 623 | 6 |
| Steven Stamkos | C | 687 | 330 | 390 | 720 | 52 |
| Phil Kessel | R | 782 | 228 | 385 | 613 | -119 |
| Torey Krug | D | 755 | 87 | 384 | 471 | 9 |
| J.T. Miller | C | 752 | 228 | 383 | 611 | 70 |
| Tyson Barrie | D | 761 | 107 | 382 | 489 | -63 |
| Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | C | 754 | 227 | 381 | 608 | -26 |
| Morgan Rielly | D | 771 | 80 | 377 | 457 | -20 |
| Tyler Seguin | C | 756 | 290 | 370 | 660 | 20 |
| Ryan Getzlaf | C | 601 | 130 | 368 | 498 | 21 |
| Drew Doughty | D | 788 | 105 | 363 | 468 | 34 |
| Alex Pietrangelo | D | 781 | 114 | 363 | 477 | 90 |
| David Pastrnak | R | 652 | 339 | 363 | 702 | 141 |
| Mika Zibanejad | C | 774 | 280 | 359 | 639 | 38 |
| Mikael Granlund | C | 766 | 150 | 358 | 508 | -6 |
| Ryan Johansen | C | 794 | 188 | 356 | 544 | -3 |
| Mark Stone | R | 636 | 212 | 355 | 567 | 120 |
| Keith Yandle | D | 696 | 50 | 352 | 402 | -124 |
| Taylor Hall | L | 661 | 201 | 351 | 552 | -22 |
| Matt Duchene | C | 768 | 257 | 350 | 607 | -46 |
| Ryan Suter | D | 832 | 63 | 345 | 408 | 69 |
| Matthew Tkachuk | L | 567 | 212 | 344 | 556 | 128 |
| Brayden Schenn | C | 805 | 233 | 341 | 574 | -25 |
| David Krejci | C | 608 | 140 | 337 | 477 | 108 |
| Mikko Rantanen | R | 549 | 250 | 337 | 587 | 60 |
| Elias Lindholm | C | 803 | 216 | 335 | 551 | 16 |
| Patrice Bergeron | C | 715 | 274 | 333 | 607 | 219 |
| John Klingberg | D | 633 | 81 | 331 | 412 | -40 |
| David Perron | L | 767 | 221 | 330 | 551 | -43 |
| Alex Ovechkin | L | 800 | 467 | 325 | 792 | -36 |
| Joe Thornton | C | 589 | 99 | 322 | 421 | 24 |
| Nazem Kadri | C | 780 | 238 | 318 | 556 | -41 |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | R | 691 | 277 | 316 | 593 | 75 |
| Josh Bailey | R | 728 | 126 | 315 | 441 | -23 |
| Mark Giordano | D | 753 | 115 | 310 | 425 | 112 |
| Jordan Eberle | R | 799 | 228 | 309 | 537 | -40 |
| Seth Jones | D | 774 | 83 | 309 | 392 | -117 |
| Dougie Hamilton | D | 729 | 137 | 308 | 445 | 64 |
| Ondrej Palat | L | 711 | 158 | 307 | 465 | 146 |
| Jonathan Toews | C | 659 | 205 | 306 | 511 | 33 |
| Vincent Trocheck | C | 696 | 192 | 305 | 497 | 1 |
| Filip Forsberg | L | 670 | 267 | 302 | 569 | 39 |
| Mathew Barzal | C | 477 | 122 | 301 | 423 | 3 |
| Logan Couture | C | 701 | 234 | 300 | 534 | -32 |
| William Nylander | R | 578 | 208 | 300 | 508 | 25 |
| Teuvo Teravainen | L | 652 | 147 | 296 | 443 | 98 |
| Jack Eichel | C | 518 | 199 | 291 | 490 | -39 |
| Duncan Keith | D | 649 | 47 | 290 | 337 | 56 |
| Sebastian Aho | C | 575 | 240 | 289 | 529 | 91 |
| Kevin Shattenkirk | D | 737 | 79 | 287 | 366 | -48 |
| Mikael Backlund | C | 796 | 174 | 285 | 459 | 85 |
| Gabriel Landeskog | L | 620 | 217 | 285 | 502 | 61 |
| Dylan Larkin | C | 636 | 204 | 284 | 488 | -97 |
| Cam Fowler | D | 756 | 79 | 283 | 362 | -58 |
| Sean Monahan | C | 738 | 236 | 283 | 519 | -62 |
| Nick Leddy | D | 810 | 60 | 282 | 342 | -44 |
| Reilly Smith | R | 773 | 207 | 281 | 488 | 126 |
| Sean Couturier | C | 653 | 174 | 279 | 453 | 70 |
| Brayden Point | C | 559 | 248 | 277 | 525 | 65 |
| Gustav Nyquist | C | 722 | 186 | 275 | 461 | -10 |
| Ryan Strome | C | 758 | 154 | 275 | 429 | -5 |
| Sam Reinhart | C | 672 | 237 | 274 | 511 | -66 |
| Quinn Hughes | D | 343 | 38 | 273 | 311 | 23 |
| Max Domi | C | 638 | 128 | 272 | 400 | -19 |
| Alex Killorn | L | 806 | 198 | 270 | 468 | 84 |
| P.K. Subban | D | 632 | 83 | 270 | 353 | -9 |
| Oliver Ekman-Larsson | D | 782 | 127 | 270 | 397 | -135 |
| Jaden Schwartz | C | 658 | 185 | 269 | 454 | 34 |
| Auston Matthews | C | 537 | 351 | 268 | 619 | 133 |
| Paul Stastny | C | 678 | 158 | 266 | 424 | 57 |
Did you think that Brent Burns who have more assists than Evgeni Malkin or John Tavares over the past ten seasons? Did you think Nik Lidstrom would be as high as he is? Who would have thought that Claude Giroux had 507 assists, good for sixth on the list, over the past ten seasons? How about Blake Wheeler being number 11th on the list, or guys like Duncan Keith and Nick Leddy being in the top 100 for NHL assists? Crazy huh?
