List of NHL players with 500 goals

For ice hockey players in the National Hockey League (NHL), scoring 500 regular season goals is considered a highly significant achievement.

As of the completion of the 2009-10 season—the 92nd regular season of the National Hockey League—a total of 41 different players have scored at least 500 regular season goals in their NHL career.

A 500 goal career was first achieved in 1957–58, the 41st season of the NHL, when Maurice Richard scored his 500th goal in his 863rd game played.

Season achievements
The 2006–07 NHL season saw the largest number of players (five) achieve their 500th goal. A total of four players scored their 500th goal in the 1995–96 season.

Starting with Maurice Richard's achievement in the 1957–58 NHL season, the greatest stretch between 500 goal scorers was the eight seasons between Gordie Howe in the 1961–62 season and Bobby Hull in the 1969–70 season.

Player achievements
Of the 41 players to score 500 goals, 32 are Canadian, four are American (Joe Mullen, Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick, and Keith Tkachuk), two are Finnish (Jari Kurri and Teemu Selänne, one is Czech (Jaromír Jágr), one is Swedish (Mats Sundin), and one is Slovakian (Peter Bondra). Jari Kurri, has the honour of being the first non-Canadian to score fifty goals, as well as the first European to do so.  Of note, Stan Mikita was born in Sokolče, Slovakia, (then Czechoslovakia,) but immigrated to Canada when he was young and represented Canada internationally.

The shortest number of NHL games required to reach the mark was 575, set by Wayne Gretzky. Second quickest was Mario Lemieux, achieving the mark in his 605th game.

Of the 41 players to score at least 500 goals in their career, 17 reached the mark in fewer than 1000 career games played.

Of those on the list, Lanny McDonald came closest to 'not' achieving 500 goals—reaching the mark with only four games remaining in his final NHL season. Similarly, Joe Mullen scored his 500th goal with only ten games remaining in his final season.

Four players have scored their 500th goal on an empty net: Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy, Jari Kurri and Keith Tkachuk.

Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy is the only net minder to 'allow' more than one opponent to tally their 500th career goal: Steve Yzerman in 1996, Joe Mullen in 1997 and Brendan Shanahan in 2002. A contributing factor for this statistical coincidence will be Roy's record for the second-most games played by a goaltender, at 1029.

Mats Sundin scored his 500th goal in overtime, winning the game for the Toronto Maple Leafs. In that one goal, he finished off a hat trick, scored one of his league-leading 15 overtime goals, while his team was short handed, and earned his 500th career NHL goal.

Team achievements
A total of 20 different franchises have had a player score their 500th goal while playing for the franchise.

The Detroit Red Wings have had five different players score their 500th goal while playing for the team. The Chicago Blackhawks and Montreal Canadiens both had four players achieve the mark while with the team.

To date no team has had the coincidence of multiple players reaching 500 goals on the same team in the same season. The 2001–02 Detroit Red Wings were the first team to have three 500+ goal scorers on the roster (Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille), and would finish the season with four players in the exclusive club after Brendan Shanahan joined them at the 500-goal plateau. Yzerman, Hull, Robitaille and Shanahan are four of only eleven players with 650 or more goals in NHL history.

500-goal scorers

 * Legend:
 * Team – Team for which the player scored their 500th goal
 * Game no. – Number of career games played when 500th goal was scored
 * Date – Date of 500th goal
 * GP – Career games played
 * G – Cahreer goals.
 * Active players currently in the NHL are listed in boldface.

(Updated as of April 12, 2010 - the end of the 2009-10 Regular Season)

Active players who are close
There are no players who have a realistic chance to reach 500 goals during the 2010–11 NHL season. Sergei Fedorov who is still active but no longer playing in the NHL has scored 483 goals in 1248 games primarily with the Detroit Red Wings.

Retired players who came close
These are players who are now retired that came within 50 goals of reaching 500 for their career.


 * Legend:
 * Team – The team for which the player played the most games.
 * GP – Career games played
 * G – Career goals scored