Seth Jarvis has started the 2025/26 NHL season in record-breaking form, scoring four game-winning goals in the Carolina Hurricanes’ first five games.
At just 23, two of those goals came in overtime. That’s the kind of situations that usually belong to veterans with a decade of experience behind them.
Jarvis’s streak has reignited talk of the sport’s greatest closers, the players who lived for these moments and decided games.
Here are the top 10 players with the most game-winning goals in NHL history.
1. Alex Ovechkin – 136 game-winning goals
Alex Ovechkin’s chase of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record has dominated headlines, but his late-game numbers tell their own story.
Since debuting in 2005, Ovechkin has scored 136 game-winning goals — the most in NHL history — and counting. For two decades, he’s delivered decisive strikes for Washington, including playoff winners during their 2018 Stanley Cup run.
His spot on the left circle became hockey’s most predictable yet unstoppable play. Everyone knows where he’ll be. Nobody stops him.
That combination of power and precision turned Ovechkin into the league’s ultimate closer.
2. Jaromir Jagr – 135 game-winning goals
Jaromir Jagr’s career spanned 24 NHL seasons, seven teams, and nearly three decades of highlight reels.
His 135 game-winning goals came through a mix of balance, strength, and pure hockey IQ.
He debuted with Pittsburgh in 1990, winning two Stanley Cups before carrying the team during Mario Lemieux’s absences.
Later, he thrived in Washington, New York, and even at 45 years old, still produced for Florida.
Jagr played like a wall on skates, impossible to knock off the puck and impossible to hurry. His patience late in games turned pressure into control, and control into victory.
3. Gordie Howe – 121 game-winning goals
Gordie Howe defined longevity and grit, playing professional hockey across five decades. His 801 NHL goals, including 121 winners, built a career unmatched in consistency.
He was the Detroit Red Wings’ heartbeat through the 1950s and 1960s, combining scoring, toughness, and discipline in equal measure.
The phrase “Gordie Howe hat trick” — a goal, an assist, and a fight — became his legacy in one stat line.
When games tightened, Howe’s blend of skill and authority decided them. He played like a man who always knew he’d find a way.
4. Phil Esposito – 118 game-winning goals
Phil Esposito was hockey’s first great power forward, and his office was the blue paint. Across the 1970s, he made a living muscling through defenders and hammering rebounds past goalies.
He scored 717 career goals, including 76 in 1970/71, a record at the time.
More than anyone, he turned the dirty areas of the ice into the game’s most valuable real estate.
Esposito’s 118 game-winning goals came mostly in Boston, where his scoring and swagger helped the Bruins capture two Stanley Cups.
5. Brett Hull – 110 game-winning goals
Brett Hull inherited his father’s famous shot and made it louder. His one-timer from the right circle became one of the most feared weapons of the 1990s.
Hull scored 741 goals in his career, with a remarkable 86 coming in the 1990/91 season — the third-highest single-season total in NHL history.
He spent his prime in St. Louis, where his precision and timing made him a nightly threat, before lifting the Stanley Cup with Dallas and Detroit.
6. Teemu Selanne – 110 game-winning goals
Teemu Selanne burst into the NHL with 76 goals as a rookie in 1992/93, a record that still stands.
Across 21 seasons with Winnipeg, Anaheim, San Jose, and Colorado, he scored 684 goals and 1,457 points.
Selanne’s 110 game-winners came from explosive speed and a release that beat goalies before they moved.
He was hockey’s “Finnish Flash” — fun to watch, impossible to contain, and ruthless when it mattered.
7. Brendan Shanahan – 109 game-winning goals
Brendan Shanahan mixed power and precision across 21 seasons, scoring 656 goals and logging 2,489 penalty minutes.
He won three Stanley Cups with Detroit, scoring key goals during their 1990s dynasty.
Shanahan’s 109 game-winners showed how his toughness and timing worked hand in hand.
When others tightened up, he took control and finished the job.
8. Patrick Marleau – 109 game-winning goals
Patrick Marleau built a career on quiet excellence. Across 23 seasons and 1,779 games, he became the NHL’s all-time appearance leader.
He scored 566 goals, 109 of them game-winners, most coming for San Jose.
Marleau’s speed and discipline kept him productive well into his late thirties, and his reliability made him one of the league’s true ironmen.
9. Jarome Iginla – 101 game-winning goals
Jarome Iginla led by example. The Calgary Flames captain scored 625 goals and passed 1,300 points in a 20-year career.
He topped 50 goals twice, won two Rocket Richard trophies, and delivered 101 game-winners built on power and persistence.
Iginla’s mix of skill and toughness made him the face of a franchise and one of hockey’s great leaders.
10. Bobby Hull – 98 game-winning goals / Guy Lafleur – 98 game-winning goals
Bobby Hull and Guy Lafleur shared the spotlight and now share tenth place on this list.
Hull’s slap shot redefined shooting power in the 1960s, while Lafleur’s skating and flair electrified Montreal through five Stanley Cups.
Both finished with 98 game-winners, different styles but the same result — the puck in the net when it mattered most.
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