Wayne Gretzky had the most assists by a player in his first 16 seasons, with 1,692 assists.

Interpreted as:

most NHL assists by a player through 16 season

	NAME	A	GP	G	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	PPA	SHG	SHA	GWG	OTG	S	S%	FOW	FO	FOW%	HIT	BKS	TKA	GVA	TOI/GP
1	Wayne Gretzky W. Gretzky	1,692	1,173	814	2,506	+555	473	183	569	72	75	79	2	4,274	19.0
2	Paul Coffey P. Coffey	1,038	1,154	372	1,410	+303	1,636	126	479	19	31	37	1	3,902	9.5
3	Mario Lemieux M. Lemieux	1,018	889	683	1,701	+130	818	233	453	49	22	74	11	3,556	19.2	1,161	2,408	48.2	44	39	60	92	23:16
4	Marcel Dionne M. Dionne	990	1,244	693	1,683	+47	526	208	380	19	11	69	2	5,105	13.6
5	Adam Oates A. Oates	963	1,130	316	1,279	+38	363	95	359	12	23	52	5	2,191	14.4	2,316	4,012	57.7	35	94	123	220	21:40
6	Ron Francis R. Francis	944	1,166	403	1,347	+4	811	130	400	11	18	56	2	2,742	14.7
7	Ray Bourque R. Bourque	908	1,146	323	1,231	+489	877	124	443	11	20	49	5	4,587	7.0
8	Jaromir Jagr J. Jagr	907	1,191	621	1,528	+267	849	174	323	11	4	107	15	4,347	14.3	6	31	19.4	140	105	256	742	22:02
9	Steve Yzerman S. Yzerman	891	1,178	592	1,483	+117	782	165	327	47	28	69	5	3,869	15.3
10	Dale Hawerchuk D. Hawerchuk	891	1,188	518	1,409	-98	740	182	386	12	11	49	4	3,754	13.8
11	Mark Messier M. Messier	877	1,127	492	1,369	+232	1,388	117	285	47	59	58	5	2,965	16.6
12	Bryan Trottier B. Trottier	872	1,175	509	1,381	+472	822	158	258	18	19	69	1	2,694	18.9
13	Joe Sakic J. Sakic	860	1,155	542	1,402	+28	482	174	355	32	17	75	5	3,930	13.8	4,672	8,896	52.5	170	175	275	226	21:56
14	Joe Thornton J. Thornton	852	1,207	342	1,194	+178	1,021	117	312	6	6	55	9	2,426	14.1	10,378	19,651	52.8	882	330	870	1,090	20:34
15	Bobby Clarke B. Clarke	852	1,144	358	1,210	+507	1,453	99	234	32	35	38	1	2,582	13.9
16	Denis Savard D. Savard	847	1,132	464	1,311	+113	1,276	125	355	20	13	54	1	3,060	15.2
17	Sidney Crosby S. Crosby	839	1,039	486	1,325	+183	699	145	335	4	7	69	19	3,331	14.6	11,820	22,687	52.1	892	502	577	843	20:50
18	Doug Gilmour D. Gilmour	835	1,197	397	1,232	+148	1,084	131	298	18	26	51	1	2,467	16.1
19	Phil Esposito P. Esposito	816	1,161	676	1,492	+281	817	230	285	23	12	113		4,830	14.0
20	Gilbert Perreault G. Perreault	807	1,171	503	1,310	+43	494	133	297	8	4	80	0	3,042	16.5
21	Peter Stastny P. Stastny	789	977	450	1,239	-15	824	145	321	7	7	54	2	2,374	19.0
22	Patrick Kane P. Kane	786	1,180	451	1,237	+21	426	124	278	0	1	68	9	3,911	11.5	323	833	38.8	302	262	692	607	20:15
23	Henrik Sedin H. Sedin	783	1,248	237	1,020	+187	650	61	291	7	2	38	6	1,789	13.2	9,449	19,314	48.9	365	248	489	630	17:38
24	Jari Kurri J. Kurri	780	1,181	596	1,376	+298	533	153	235	39	42	72	7	3,088	19.3
25	Guy Lafleur G. Lafleur	777	1,067	548	1,325	+456	397	151	262	3	2	98	0	3,426	16.0