Every NHL player to score 60 or more goals in a season

Bobby Clarke is the foremost Flyers legend of the 1970s. Bill Barber is the team’s franchise leader in goals. Leach, though, has a couple things going for him. One, he is one of a handful of players to win the Conn Smythe for a team that didn’t win the Cup, which he did in the 1975-76 season, when he managed 19 goals in 16 playoff games. Two, that same season he became the second player to have a 60-goal campaign. Leach had 61, which is a franchise record for the Flyers.

Canadiens legend Maurice Richard was the first player to have 50 goals in a season, but he never hit 60. To be fair, seasons were shorter in his heyday. Shutt did hit 60 goals for the Habs, though. The Hall of Famer had 60 goals exactly in the 1976-77 season, including nine game winners.

When Shutt had 60 goals, Lafleur had 80 assists and 136 points, both of which led the NHL. The next season, 1977-78, Lafleur joined the 60-goal club himself. His 132 points helped him win his third Art Ross in a row, and his second Hart.

This list is full of icons, and a couple notable names below that level. Then, there’s Maruk. If nothing else, he’s the only former Cleveland Baron on this list. Playing for the Capitals in the 1981-82 season, Maruk had 60 goals to go with 76 assists. Scoring was awfully high back then, though, so the Cap only finished third in goals (and fourth in points).

McDonald stuck around long enough to win a Cup and hit 500 goals exactly. He owes a lot of that number to the 1982-83 season. Playing for the Flames, the Hall of Famer wasn’t exactly sharing the wealth. He only had 32 assists, but his 66 goals were quite impressive.

Nicholls retired with 475 goals and 1,209 points. He was a great player, though he isn’t in the Hall of Fame. Even so, his 1988-89 season with the Kings is one of the all-time, “Wait, what?” campaigns. Nicholls didn’t just hit the 60-goal mark, but the 70-goal mark. Only eight players have ever done that.

Want to make an impression as a rookie? How about you step into the NHL and score 76 goals? That’s what Selanne did in the 1992-93 season. Playing for the Jets, the Finn put the NHL on notice with a whopping 76 tallies. Obviously, he won the Calder.

Robitaille won himself the Calder once as well, and he was regularly a 50-goal guy. Once, though, he hit 60. In 1992-93, the Kings icon had 63 goals, and he added 62 assists for good measure. A certain notable NHL legend was playing with Los Angeles by that point, which probably helped.

Selanne’s 76 goals? They only left him tied for the league lead on that front. Yes, three different NHLers had their sole 60-goal seasons in 1992-93. Guess what? We aren’t done with this year! Mogilny is not in the Hall, but he did notch 76 goals for the Sabres, 11 of them game winners.

Jagr is a legend. He is fourth in career goals and fourth in points. Five times, he won the Art Ross. However, Jagr never led the NHL in goals, and he only had more than 60 once. His totals are built on, well, excellence, but also the fact he played 24 seasons in the NHL. Jagr had 62 goals in the 1995-96 season, which was peak neutral-zone trap, so maybe we should be more impressed.

Based on the era in which he’s played, Ovechkin has a strong argument as the greatest goal scorer in NHL history. The Russian seems determined to finish with the most goals ever; he’s currently second, and if he succeeds, there will be no argument. Ovi has hit 50 goals a whopping nine times, including 65 in the 2007-08 season. It was the first time anybody had scored 60 or more goals in over a decade.

Stamkos has captained the Lightning to two Cups and led the NHL in goals two times. That includes when he had 60 goals in the 2011-12 season. Alas, by dint of spending his career in the shadow of Sidney Crosby and Ovechkin, he’s been overlooked. The Hall of Fame awaits the best player in Tampa history eventually.

“Pasta” has been a 30-goal scorer time and time again. He’s headed toward the Hall, and in recent years he’s started to get his due. Pastrnak led the NHL in goals with a mere 48 in 2019-20, but the Bruin also had 61 goals in the 2022-23 season, though he didn’t lead the NHL that time around.

Pasta’s problem? McDavid decided he wanted to really rack some goals up. The Oiler has lived up to his pre-draft hype, and then some. Truly, he is a generational talent. Five times he’s led the league in points, and he has three Harts already and he’s not even 30 yet. The 2022-23 season is also the one time he led the league in goals, scoring a whopping 64.

We move onto the guys who have done the 60-goal thing twice. Kurri, who retired with 601 goals, pulled it off in back-to-back seasons with the Oilers. The Finn had 71 goals in 1984-85 and 68 in 1985-86. Scoring was not at a premium, but that’s still impressive. Of course, Kurri had help from a certain center who we’ll get to when this list comes to a close.

“The Captain,” as he is forever known in Detroit, became a defensive dynamo. He would even win a Selke during the days of Detroit being a perennial Cup contender. Before then, though, Yzerman was racking up points and goals as he took the team out of their “Dead Things” era. He too had back-to-back seasons with over 60 goals, notching 65 in 1988-89 and 62 in 1989-90. Wow, spanning two decades!

Bure’s career was hindered by injury, but he made the Hall because when he was healthy, he was incredible. “The Russian Rocket” returns up to the 1992-93 season, when he had 60 goals for the Canucks. He did the same thing the next season. Bure came oh-so-close to moving up this list. He had 58 and 59 goals for the Panthers in his last two healthy seasons.

Matthews is the most-recent two-time 60-goal scorer, and we wouldn't be against him doing it again. The Maple Leaf center is the heir apparent to Ovechkin as the best goal scorer of his generation (though only the second or third best player). Matthews has led the NHL in goals a few times already, and just had the best goal-scoring season of the modern era. He finished the 2023-24 season with 69 goals, falling just short of entering the rarified 70-goal club.

The sole member of the three-timers club! Hull did not settle for a mere 60 goals. In 1989-90, 1990-91, and 1991-92, he had over 70 goals each time. Actually, in that middle season with the Blues, Hull had 86 goals. Only one player had ever had more goals in a year. You know who he is, yet we’ll keep beating around the bush.

The four-timers club opens with the first player to ever have 60 goals in a season. In 1970-71, Esposito had 76 goals, and the next year the Bruin had 66. After “only” 55 goals the next season, he had 68 and then 61 goals. That ended a six-season run of leading the NHL in goals.

Did Lemieux have over 60 goals in the 1992-93 season? Of course he did! In fact, the Penguins icon had 69 goals…in only 60 games. In 1995-96 he had 69 goals in only 70 contests. For his other two seasons, we have to go back to the ‘80s. During the 1987-88 season “Super Mario” had 70 goals, and then the next year he had 85.

At this point, the goal-scoring prowess of Bossy is well-known, having found his incredible success reiterated upon by hockey historians (and lists like this). And yet, somehow maybe Bossy is still underrated? He’s one of two players with over 60 goals five times. Bossy had 69 goals in 1978-79, 68, 64, and 60 in the seasons between 1980-81 and 1982-83, and capped it off with 61 in 1985-86. This was his final healthy season. It is part of the narrative, but Bossy retired at 30 after only 10 seasons. He still scored 573 goals in his career. Even given five more seasons of health, Bossy easily could have joined the 800-goal club.

This is the only guy to end a list of this sort with. Until Ovechkin catches him, and we should probably still say “if” on that front, Gretzky is the all-time leading goal scorer in NHL history. For four seasons in a row, 1981-82 through 1984-85, he had over 70 goals. That includes an 87-goal season and a 92-goal season, a single-year record that will never be beaten. In 1985-86, Gretzky had a mere 52 goals, as he decided to go ahead and set records with 163 assists and 215 points. Then, “The Great One” would hit 62 goals the next year. Nobody has ever lit the lamp quite like Gretzky.