Who is the greatest goal-scorer in NHL history? It is that very question that led me to create the Era-Adjusted Goals per Game Rating. This process allows to evaluates each individual player’s goal-scoring success with reference to the NHL’s goal per game average for each of the seasons that a player was active. The result is EAGGR – NHL Goal-Scorers.
For each individual season, I took a player’s goal per game average and divided it by the goal per game average of the NHL for that same season. This gave me a percentage that represents that player’s goal per game rate as compared to the league average. After that, I took the EAGGR rating for every season in a player’s career and calculated the average amount. This percentage represents a player’s career average EAGGR.
For the purposes of this article, only data from the 1942-43 season and later are included. That means that the players eligible for this list either played during the Original Six era or in more recent times. The Original Six era went from 1942-67 when only six teams played in the NHL.
Below are the top 30 NHL players ranked in order of career average EAGGR % rating.
Minimum 500 NHL games played.
Career Average EAGGR %
| Rank | Player | EAGGR | Years Active |
| 1 | Alex Ovechkin | 21.37 % | 2005 – |
| 2 | Mario Lemieux | 20.67 % | 1984 – 2006 |
| 3 | Mike Bossy | 20.23 % | 1977 – 1987 |
| 4 | Pavel Bure | 19.81 % | 1991 – 2003 |
| 5 | Bobby Hull | 18.96 % | 1957 – 1980 |
| 6 | Steven Stamkos | 18.67 % | 2008 – |
| 7 | Maurice Richard | 17.56 % | 1942 – 1960 |
| 8 | Cam Neely | 17.35 % | 1983 – 1996 |
| 9 | Brett Hull | 16.98 % | 1986 – 2006 |
| 10 | Jarome Iginla | 16.86 % | 1996 – 2017 |
| 11 | Phil Esposito | 16.68 % | 1963 – 1981 |
| 12 | Sidney Crosby | 16.43 % | 2005 – |
| 13 | Ilya Kovalchuk | 16.38 % | 2001 – 2020 |
| 14 | Bernie Geoffrion | 16.31 % | 1950 – 1968 |
| 15 | Jean Beliveau | 16.27 % | 1950 – 1971 |
| 16 | Gordie Howe | 16.12 % | 1946 – 1980 |
| 17 | Teemu Selanne | 15.99 % | 1992 – 2014 |
| 18 | Peter Bondra | 15.61 % | 1990 – 2007 |
| 19 | Rick Martin | 15.35 % | 1971 – 1982 |
| 20 | Keith Tkachuk | 15.22 % | 1991 – 2010 |
| 21 | Jaromir Jagr | 15.06 % | 1990 – 2018 |
| 22 | Pat Lafontaine | 15.04 % | 1983 – 1998 |
| 23 | Alexander Mogilny | 14.96 % | 1989 – 2006 |
| 24 | Marcel Dionne | 14.80 % | 1971 – 1989 |
| 25 | Rick Nash | 14.75 % | 2002 – 2018 |
| 26 | Luc Robitaille | 14.56 % | 1986 – 2006 |
| 27 | Joe Sakic | 14.49 % | 1988 – 2009 |
| 28 | Wayne Gretzky | 14.43 % | 1979 – 1999 |
| 29 | Paul Kariya | 13.96 % | 1994 – 2010 |
| 30 | Brendan Shanahan | 13.93 % | 1987 – 2009 |
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The most evident aspect right off the bat is seeing Alex Ovechkin at #1. In spite of the fact that he is coming off of a career-low 24 goal season, Ovechkin maintains the top spot for a couple of reasons. First, EAGGR measures goals per game, and Ovechkin also played in a career-low 45 contests. In fact, Ovechkin has had 3 seasons with lower goals per game than his 2020-2021 campaign. Furthermore, the NHL goals-per-game dipped to a 4-year low at 2.94 G/G for the entire league. Therefore, Ovechkin won’t be dinged as hard in the EAGGR metric because it is always a percentage of the league-wide average.
As Ovechkin continues to put the puck in the net, he is solidifying himself as arguably the greatest goal-scorer the NHL has ever seen. For the rest of his career, it will be interesting to see if Ovechkin can maintain his goal-scoring prowess and retain the highest career average EAGGR. Or will he dip in his final few seasons and drop below Mario Lemieux or Mike Bossy?
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It will also be interesting to see where Steven Stamkos ultimately ends up ranked. He currently sits 6th on the career average EAGGR. Can he maintain a strong enough finish to his career in order to enter the top 5? Or will he dip further down the ranks with a less than stellar finish to his career? What about several young players who are scoring well but have not yet reached 500 games played? Where will they ultimately end up ranked? We will find out in time.
Thank you for reading EAGGR – NHL Goal-Scorers. Be sure to check out all of the great content available on Full Press Hockey.
– Kyle Senra is the managing editor for the Full Press Fantasy Sports. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @SenraSays Follow @FPC_FantasyPod and Facebook.
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