Ron Francis and Wayne Gretzky were tied for playing the most seasons with 40+ assists, with 19 seasons.

Interpreted as:

most 40 or more assist seasons by a player NHL

	NAME	SEAS	A	GP	G	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	PPA	SHG	SHA	GWG	OTG	S	S%	FOW	FO	FOW%	HIT	BKS	TKA	GVA	TOI/GP
1	Ron Francis R. Francis	19	1,123	1,417	472	1,595	+22	869	160	492	10	16	72	4	3,255	14.5	2,235	3,973	56.3	104	154	167	106	20:57
2	Wayne Gretzky W. Gretzky	19	1,926	1,439	883	2,809	+540	571	201	667	73	73	90	2	4,946	17.9
3	Gordie Howe G. Howe	18	821	1,262	617	1,438	+154	1,218	182	290	19	12	95		3,514	9.8
4	Ray Bourque R. Bourque	17	1,009	1,276	321	1,330	+506	901	125	499	14	21	46	5	5,038	6.4	0	0		113	109	78	63	26:06
5	Sidney Crosby S. Crosby	16	930	1,193	545	1,475	+162	768	163	355	2	7	85	20	3,795	14.4	13,721	26,053	52.7	1,067	587	670	984	20:42
6	Nicklas Lidstrom N. Lidstrom	16	777	1,286	226	1,003	+388	434	115	406	9	24	30	3	3,287	6.9	0	0		407	806	387	559	27:08
7	Marcel Dionne M. Dionne	16	990	1,244	693	1,683	+47	526	208	380	19	11	69	2	5,105	13.6
8	Anze Kopitar A. Kopitar	15	692	1,188	368	1,060	+138	260	113	251	11	14	67	9	2,722	13.5	11,686	21,930	53.3	1,007	846	686	735	20:43
9	Jaromir Jagr J. Jagr	15	891	1,157	579	1,470	+260	840	167	332	8	4	103	16	4,305	13.4	7	36	19.4	171	130	332	870	21:30
10	Joe Sakic J. Sakic	15	872	1,127	534	1,406	+72	490	170	359	31	15	80	7	3,859	13.8	5,584	10,574	52.8	194	223	371	350	21:22
11	Adam Oates A. Oates	15	984	1,096	306	1,290	+60	360	93	375	12	22	51	5	2,106	14.5	3,424	5,977	57.3	38	129	176	312	21:44
12	Steve Yzerman S. Yzerman	15	881	1,158	601	1,482	+161	760	173	311	49	30	71	5	3,837	15.7	1,061	1,868	56.8	67	56	58	58	21:07
13	Paul Coffey P. Coffey	15	1,015	1,080	363	1,378	+298	1,506	124	472	19	30	37	1	3,789	9.6
14	Mark Messier M. Messier	15	891	1,100	500	1,391	+219	1,351	132	304	47	66	67	6	2,952	16.9	1,043	1,879	55.5	78	47	60	126	19:14
15	Stan Mikita S. Mikita	15	763	1,045	448	1,211	+277	935	131	269	11	5	67		3,662	12.2
16	Joe Thornton J. Thornton	14	874	1,109	298	1,172	+212	853	97	326	5	6	50	8	2,160	13.8	9,515	17,882	53.2	756	362	886	1,202	20:02
17	Al MacInnis A. MacInnis	14	752	1,039	266	1,018	+323	1,180	130	465	8	18	28	2	3,870	6.9	2	2	100.0	48	99	46	97	26:45
18	Dale Hawerchuk D. Hawerchuk	14	858	1,114	501	1,359	-105	706	174	373	12	11	45	4	3,596	13.9
19	Larry Murphy L. Murphy	14	714	1,117	221	935	+184	789	87	333	9	15	26	1	2,598	8.5
20	Patrick Kane P. Kane	13	681	999	380	1,061	+22	392	106	235	0	1	59	9	3,360	11.3	317	814	38.9	256	220	589	491	20:21
21	Mats Sundin M. Sundin	13	632	1,021	431	1,063	+100	841	116	239	26	22	73	11	3,118	13.8	5,559	10,254	54.2	355	215	162	367	19:58
22	Doug Gilmour D. Gilmour	13	768	995	341	1,109	+139	974	130	280	15	21	44	2	2,005	17.0	523	976	53.6	42	37	28	54	19:50
23	Phil Housley P. Housley	13	676	1,004	252	928	-16	564	99	367	5	3	37	4	2,629	9.6	0	1	0.0	23	50	48	90	23:29
24	Bobby Clarke B. Clarke	13	785	991	316	1,101	+499	1,307	84	216	30	34	33	1	2,183	14.5
25	Phil Esposito P. Esposito	13	764	995	615	1,379	+240	758	217	279	22	12	96		4,482	13.7