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You’ve found the list to settle all arguments. On this page we rank the Top 50 Centers in the history of the National Hockey League.
In this list we have the greatest centers fans have ever seen skate the ice, from the days of Howie Morenz to Connor McDavid. You’ll find all the great scorers who played in the center of the ice, spearheading the offense for their teams.
Scroll below the table to see how we used Point Shares (PS) to make these rankings of the best centers in NHL history.
| RANK | PLAYER | YEARS | PS | PS7 | PS3 | PS5C | SCORE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wayne Gretzky | 1979-99 | 251.0 | 125.8 | 57.3 | 94.0 | 967.5 |
| 2 | Sidney Crosby | 2005- | 207.6 | 87.8 | 41.5 | 58.7 | 727.8 |
| 3 | Phil Esposito | 1963-81 | 163.7 | 105.0 | 52.2 | 78.5 | 720.3 |
| 4 | Mario Lemieux | 1984-06 | 167.9 | 105.8 | 53.8 | 67.1 | 708.9 |
| 5 | Connor McDavid | 2015- | 141.4 | 101.3 | 48.2 | 72.8 | 653.9 |
| 6 | Joe Sakic | 1988-09 | 167.8 | 81.8 | 40.3 | 54.2 | 627.5 |
| 7 | Steve Yzerman | 1983-06 | 166.6 | 71.8 | 39.2 | 59.4 | 616.9 |
| 8 | Marcel Dionne | 1971-89 | 155.5 | 83.3 | 39.6 | 60.0 | 616.4 |
| 9 | Joe Thornton | 1997-22 | 163.2 | 77.4 | 37.6 | 56.5 | 612.4 |
| 10 | Nathan MacKinnon | 2013- | 132.5 | 93.0 | 45.5 | 67.9 | 609.1 |
| 11 | Evgeni Malkin | 2006- | 161.9 | 83.0 | 42.2 | 48.5 | 608.2 |
| 12 | Steven Stamkos | 2008- | 154.8 | 83.0 | 39.9 | 53.0 | 600.8 |
| 13 | Leon Draisaitl | 2014- | 123.4 | 90.4 | 41.8 | 63.2 | 573.2 |
| 14 | Mark Messier | 1979-04 | 160.5 | 67.7 | 32.5 | 41.6 | 555.1 |
| 15 | Mike Modano | 1989-11 | 144.9 | 70.8 | 31.6 | 50.9 | 547.1 |
| 16 | Jean Béliveau | 1950-71 | 138.1 | 70.9 | 34.2 | 51.0 | 536.5 |
| 17 | Stan Mikita | 1958-80 | 143.5 | 67.6 | 31.1 | 47.9 | 532.2 |
| 18 | Mats Sundin | 1990-09 | 144.4 | 68.9 | 31.8 | 45.4 | 532.0 |
| 19 | Bryan Trottier | 1975-94 | 120.2 | 75.3 | 37.7 | 56.4 | 522.6 |
| 20 | Anže Kopitar | 2006- | 142.4 | 67.2 | 30.7 | 43.0 | 519.2 |
| 21 | Ron Francis | 1981-04 | 149.3 | 61.2 | 29.0 | 42.2 | 519.1 |
| 22 | John Tavares | 2009- | 134.6 | 68.0 | 32.1 | 48.4 | 517.0 |
| 23 | Pierre Turgeon | 1987-07 | 134.3 | 68.5 | 32.0 | 46.0 | 512.6 |
| 24 | Sergei Fedorov | 1990-09 | 125.6 | 73.7 | 35.9 | 46.7 | 509.5 |
| 25 | Joe Pavelski | 2006-24 | 130.1 | 67.4 | 32.7 | 47.8 | 506.5 |
| 26 | Auston Matthews | 2016- | 102.0 | 78.7 | 39.7 | 59.8 | 501.1 |
| 27 | Patrick Marleau | 1997-21 | 133.8 | 63.9 | 30.0 | 43.0 | 495.3 |
| 28 | Jeremy Roenick | 1988-09 | 125.8 | 68.1 | 32.6 | 45.9 | 495.1 |
| 29 | Howie Morenz | 1923-37 | 100.6 | 74.5 | 37.1 | 57.3 | 483.3 |
| 30 | Jean Ratelle | 1960-81 | 118.9 | 66.4 | 32.4 | 46.4 | 479.2 |
| 31 | Eric Lindros | 1992-07 | 101.6 | 73.0 | 35.5 | 53.2 | 472.9 |
| 32 | Claude Giroux | 2007- | 119.4 | 66.2 | 32.6 | 42.5 | 472.3 |
| 33 | Pavel Datsyuk | 2001-16 | 111.2 | 61.8 | 34.6 | 53.0 | 471.1 |
| 34 | Bobby Clarke | 1969-84 | 106.1 | 68.1 | 33.2 | 51.7 | 468.0 |
| 35 | Adam Oates | 1985-04 | 117.0 | 64.3 | 32.3 | 43.7 | 466.2 |
| 36 | Eric Staal | 2003-23 | 115.3 | 64.8 | 30.7 | 45.8 | 466.2 |
| 37 | Patrice Bergeron | 2003-23 | 125.5 | 60.4 | 28.3 | 39.5 | 464.1 |
| 38 | Henrik Zetterberg | 2002-18 | 109.3 | 64.9 | 32.8 | 49.2 | 463.4 |
| 39 | Jason Spezza | 2002-22 | 109.5 | 67.2 | 32.5 | 46.8 | 462.7 |
| 40 | Henrik Sedin | 2000-18 | 108.6 | 64.8 | 32.7 | 49.1 | 461.4 |
| 41 | Peter Forsberg | 1994-11 | 98.0 | 73.5 | 35.4 | 49.8 | 459.5 |
| 42 | Gilbert Perreault | 1970-87 | 113.3 | 62.8 | 29.8 | 45.9 | 458.2 |
| 43 | Dale Hawerchuk | 1981-97 | 112.0 | 62.6 | 30.2 | 45.2 | 454.1 |
| 44 | Vincent Lecavalier | 1998-16 | 102.4 | 64.2 | 33.4 | 50.7 | 451.9 |
| 45 | Doug Gilmour | 1983-03 | 118.6 | 60.4 | 30.3 | 38.9 | 451.0 |
| 46 | Nels Stewart | 1925-40 | 101.3 | 65.0 | 33.9 | 50.1 | 450.5 |
| 47 | Joe Nieuwendyk | 1986-07 | 120.1 | 60.1 | 27.7 | 38.5 | 450.0 |
| 48 | Tyler Seguin | 2010- | 100.0 | 68.5 | 32.0 | 49.0 | 449.9 |
| 49 | Norm Ullman | 1955-75 | 118.4 | 56.7 | 28.0 | 40.3 | 444.6 |
| 50 | Ryan Getzlaf | 2005-22 | 106.5 | 62.7 | 30.9 | 42.2 | 438.1 |
| Denis Savard | 1980-97 | 105.2 | 60.9 | 29.8 | 43.4 | 433.5 | |
| Mark Scheifele | 2011- | 101.1 | 64.5 | 31.4 | 43.0 | 432.5 | |
| Nicklas Bäckström | 2007-24 | 104.9 | 62.5 | 31.3 | 40.8 | 432.2 | |
| Jonathan Toews | 2007- | 105.0 | 60.3 | 27.9 | 43.3 | 430.0 | |
| Jason Arnott | 1993-12 | 106.6 | 61.9 | 25.2 | 39.2 | 425.1 | |
| Darryl Sittler | 1970-85 | 95.9 | 62.7 | 29.9 | 46.7 | 424.9 | |
| Alex Delvecchio | 1950-74 | 123.5 | 50.2 | 23.1 | 33.4 | 424.8 | |
| Peter Šťastný | 1980-95 | 94.1 | 64.7 | 29.8 | 46.6 | 424.4 | |
| Jeff Carter | 2005-24 | 101.2 | 61.2 | 30.2 | 39.8 | 419.4 | |
| Vincent Damphousse | 1986-04 | 105.5 | 55.6 | 26.3 | 38.2 | 410.9 | |
| Bernie Nicholls | 1981-99 | 96.8 | 57.4 | 31.0 | 42.4 | 409.8 | |
| Rod Brind’Amour | 1989-10 | 105.7 | 54.5 | 25.4 | 33.6 | 399.4 | |
| Matt Duchene | 2009- | 98.0 | 55.8 | 27.0 | 35.8 | 392.2 | |
| Henri Richard | 1955-75 | 98.7 | 46.7 | 23.2 | 33.6 | 369.6 |
PS = Career Point Shares
PS7 = Point Shares in 7 Best Seasons
PS3 = Point Shares in 3 Best Seasons
PS5C = Point Shares in 5 Best Consecutive Seasons
SCORE = (2X PS) + (1.75 X PS7) + (2 X PS5C) + PS3