Tyler Seguin of the Dallas Stars and Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators are each on the cusp of reaching 1,000 NHL games played in the 2025-26 season. (Photo by Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)
NHLI via Getty Images
Of the roughly 8,000 players who have appeared in one National Hockey League game since the league debuted in 1917, just 404 have reached 1,000 NHL games played. That’s about five percent — quite an exclusive club within the best hockey league in the world.
With the 2025-26 NHL season set to begin on Oct. 7, ten players who are currently under contract are less than 50 games away from triggering their silver stick celebrations. A handful of others could also reach the milestone before the end of the year.
Here’s a closer look at the players who are nearest to the precipice.
Adam Henrique – Edmonton Oilers
- Age: 35
- Drafted: 2008, Round 3 (82nd)
- Games played: 993
After 15 seasons with three different teams, Henrique could get to 1,000 before the end of October with the Edmonton Oilers. A trustworthy two-way center, Henrique has been to the Stanley Cup Final with the Oilers in the last two seasons. As a rookie in 2011-12, he scored the Game 6 overtime winner against the New York Rangers that advanced the New Jersey Devils to the Stanley Cup Final.
Heading into 2025-26, nine players from Henrique’s 2008 draft class have reached 1,000 games. He’s going into the final year of a two-year deal with Edmonton, which carries a cap hit of $3 million.
Tyler Seguin – Dallas Stars
- Age: 33
- Drafted: 2010, Round 1 (2nd)
- Games played: 989
Seguin leads his draft class with 809 career points and is set to become the third player from the group to hit 1,000 games, following Jeff Skinner and Cam Fowler. He could have hit the milestone sooner, but was limited to just 20 games last season after electing to undergo hip surgery that got him ready in time for the playoffs with the Dallas Stars.
A Stanley Cup winner as a rookie with the Boston Bruins in 2011, Seguin returned to the Final with the Bruins in 2013 and with the Stars in the 2020 playoff bubble. He has two years remaining on the monster extension that he signed in Dallas in 2018, which carries a cap hit of $9.85 million.
Nazem Kadri – Calgary Flames
- Age: 34
- Drafted: 2009, Round 1 (7th)
- Games played: 985
Turning 35 on Oct. 6, Kadri is set to become the ninth member of his draft class to reach 1,000 games. Among his group, he sits fifth in both goals (307) and points (710).
After 10 tumultuous years with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kadri delivered his best campaign with the Colorado Avalanche in 2021-22, posting 89 points in the regular season and finishing by hoisting the Stanley Cup.
He then signed a seven-year free-agent contract with the Calgary Flames, which carries a cap hit of $7 million per season. In 2024-25, Kadri scored a career-high 35 goals as the resurgent Flames fell one point short of reaching the playoffs.
Marcus Johansson – Minnesota Wild
- Age: 34
- Drafted: 2009, Round 1 (24th)
- Games played: 983
Sharing Kadri’s birthdate of Oct. 6, 1990, Johansson goes into the new season with two fewer games played. But the Swedish winger has played for three more teams than Kadri, and his career 517 points are nearly 200 fewer.
After spending the first nine years of his career with the Washington Capitals, Johansson was traded to the New Jersey Devils in the summer of 2017, just before the Caps broke through with their Cup win. From there, he bounced to Boston, Buffalo, Minnesota and Seattle before returning to Washington, then was dealt back to the Wild at the 2023 trade deadline.
This fall, Johansson is back in the State of Hockey on a one-year deal with a cap hit of $800,000.
Jeff Petry – Florida Panthers
- Age: 37
- Drafted: 2006, Round 2 (45th)
- Games played: 981
The latest veteran defenseman to seek a Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers on a team-friendly contract, Jeff Petry inked a one-year deal with GM Bill Zito on July 1, at this year’s league minimum of $775,000.
A native of Ann Arbor, Mich., Petry spent three seasons at Michigan State University before turning pro, and didn’t make his NHL debut with the Edmonton Oilers until a few weeks after his 23rd birthday, on Dec. 28, 2010.
Petry spent the last two seasons back in Michigan with the Detroit Red Wings, but injuries limited him to 44 games in the 2024-25 season.
Justin Faulk – St. Louis Blues
- Age: 33
- Drafted: 2010, Round 2 (37th)
- Games played: 980
With 14 NHL seasons under his belt in Carolina and St. Louis, Justin Faulk has quietly amassed an impressive career in a pair of somewhat under-the-radar markets.
Making an early NHL debut for a defenseman at age 19 after one year at the University of Minnesota – Duluth, Faulk has been steady and versatile throughout his career. He has been good for more than 22 minutes per game and over 100 shot-blocks per season as well as some offense when called upon. A coveted right shot, Faulk hit 15 goals four times in his career and topped out with 50 points with the Blues in 2022-23.
Arriving in St. Louis as a free agent just after the team’s championship in 2019, Faulk has two years remaining on that deal. It carries a cap hit of $6.5 million.
Brenden Dillon – New Jersey Devils
- Age: 34
- Undrafted
- Games played: 974
He has just 212 points in his 974 NHL games with five different teams, but Brenden Dillon’s approach to 1,000 games is a phenomenal achievement for a defenseman who was never drafted by an NHL team.
It’s not like Dillon was developing under the radar, either. He played four seasons with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds between 2007 and 2011.
As he finished up his final junior season with 59 points and 139 penalty minutes, Dillon had grown to 6-foot-3 and 209 pounds. He signed a free-agent contract with the Dallas Stars on Mar. 1, 2011, played his first NHL game just over a year later, and locked in as a full-time NHL player as soon as the league resumed play following the 2012-13 lockout.
Now standing 6-foot-4 and weighing 225 pounds, Dillon has built a reputation as a hard-hitting, shot-blocking shutdown blueliner who has remained durable despite his physical playing style. He’s set to join a very small group of undrafted defensemen born since 1960 who have eclipsed 1,000 games: Mark Giordano, Jamie Macoun, Steve Duchesne, Dan Boyle, Andy Greene and Grant Ledyard.
Dillon is currently in the second year of his most lucrative contract to date — a three-year deal with a cap hit of $4 million signed with the New Jersey Devils on July 1, 2024.
Nino Niederreiter – Winnipeg Jets
- Age: 33
- Drafted: 2010, Round 1 (5th)
- Games played: 969
The two European-born players on this list both hail from Switzerland, and they’ve played more NHL games than any other players from their homeland.
Nino Niederreiter should have a decent amount of runway ahead after he celebrates his 1,000th game this season, too. The speedy winger entered the NHL as an 18-year-old in 2011 and just celebrated his 33rd birthday on Sept. 8. He has settled in nicely with the Winnipeg Jets since being acquired as a trade-deadline acquisition in 2023, and is now going into the second season of a three-year extension that carries a cap hit of $4 million.
With 480 career points, Niederreiter never quite popped like scouts would have expected from a fifth-overall draft pick. More talented Swiss players have joined the league behind him but when he retires, it will be as one of the top fowards of his era.
Roman Josi – Nashville Predators
- Age: 35
- Drafted: 2008, Round 2 (38th)
- Games played: 962
Meanwhile, Roman Josi has set the standard as the best Swiss-born NHL player to date. With 724 career points, the Nashville Predators captain is a Norris Trophy winner, three-time finalist, and fifth in scoring from his 2008 draft class.
He’s also the all-time leader in points and games played for the Predators, as well as the points leader among Swiss-born players.
Josi would have closed in on 1,000 games last season, had he not missed the last 25 games of the year with a concussion, which was followed by a POTS diagnosis toward the end of the year. In an off-season interview with a Swiss media outlet, Josi expressed optimism that he’d be healthy for the start of this season and be able to skate in his second Olympic Games next February in Italy.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Edmonton Oilers
- Age: 32
- Drafted: 2011, Round 1 (1st)
- Games played: 959
Listed at just 171 pounds when he was drafted first overall in 2011, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins jumped straight into the NHL as an 18-year-old and never looked back. Over 14 seasons, the versatile forward added 20-plus pounds to his frame and found ways to contribute as the Edmonton Oilers morphed from also-rans to championship contenders.
In 2022-23, he exploded for 104 regular-season points, and he has been among the Oilers’ top producers during their recent back-to-back runs to the Stanley Cup final.
With a 24-game lead over Brandon Saad of the Vegas Golden Knights, Nugent-Hopkins is in the pole position to become the first player from the 2011 draft class to reach the 1,000-game milestone. It’s a testament to his durability and determination.
The Rest
Along with Saad, nine other active NHL players can get to 1,000 this season. They’ll each need 50 games or more to get there.
Forwards Alex Killorn of the Anaheim Ducks and Charlie Coyle of the Colorado Avalanche are the closest, each at 950 games played. Saad is at 935 and Minnesota Wild captain Jared Spurgeon is just behind him, at 933.
Three more players are at 930 games: forwards Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers and Evander Kane of the Vancouver Canucks, and defenseman Adam Larsson from the Seattle Kraken.
Minnesota defender Zach Bogosian sits at 929 games played, Colorado’s Brock Nelson is at 920 and Reilly Smith of Vegas rounds out the list at 919. With almost no margin of error, Smith will need to appear in 81 of his team’s 82 regular-season games in order to reach 1,000 NHL games played in 2025-26.
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