Wayne Gretzky made the most assists by a player in his first 17 seasons, with 1,771 assists.

Interpreted as:

most NHL assists by a player through 17 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	1,771	1,253	837	2,608	+542	507	189	610	73	75	82	2	4,469	18.7
2	Paul Coffey P. Coffey	1,063	1,211	381	1,444	+314	1,674	127	487	20	31	39	1	4,012	9.5
3	Mario Lemieux M. Lemieux	1,033	915	690	1,723	+114	834	236	465	49	22	74	11	3,633	19.0	1,414	2,865	49.4	52	45	70	122	22:40
4	Adam Oates A. Oates	1,027	1,210	330	1,357	+34	391	98	385	12	23	53	5	2,293	14.4	3,424	5,977	57.3	38	129	176	312	21:44
5	Marcel Dionne M. Dionne	1,024	1,311	724	1,748	+33	580	230	402	19	11	73	2	5,289	13.7
6	Ron Francis R. Francis	1,006	1,247	428	1,434	+16	831	137	425	11	18	61	2	2,931	14.6
7	Ray Bourque R. Bourque	970	1,228	343	1,313	+520	935	133	472	13	20	51	5	4,977	6.9
8	Jaromir Jagr J. Jagr	953	1,273	646	1,599	+275	907	181	345	11	4	112	15	4,596	14.1	7	34	20.6	167	121	296	811	21:49
9	Steve Yzerman S. Yzerman	935	1,256	627	1,562	+145	816	180	341	49	30	75	5	4,103	15.3	1,061	1,868	56.8	67	56	58	58	21:07
10	Mark Messier M. Messier	929	1,201	539	1,468	+261	1,510	131	308	48	62	63	6	3,206	16.8
11	Joe Sakic J. Sakic	915	1,237	574	1,489	+38	542	184	379	32	17	81	6	4,193	13.7	5,548	10,565	52.5	188	207	344	286	21:33
12	Joe Thornton J. Thornton	901	1,285	358	1,259	+174	1,051	121	330	6	6	55	9	2,557	14.0	10,932	20,606	53.1	921	356	930	1,181	20:25
13	Sidney Crosby S. Crosby	892	1,108	517	1,409	+202	731	153	357	4	7	78	20	3,539	14.6	12,580	24,137	52.1	942	539	611	897	20:46
14	Dale Hawerchuk D. Hawerchuk	891	1,188	518	1,409	-98	740	182	386	12	11	49	4	3,754	13.8
15	Bryan Trottier B. Trottier	890	1,238	520	1,410	+461	876	161	262	19	19	69	1	2,796	18.6
16	Doug Gilmour D. Gilmour	883	1,271	422	1,305	+139	1,147	141	311	18	26	54	3	2,580	16.4	523	976	53.6	42	37	28	54	19:50
17	Denis Savard D. Savard	865	1,196	473	1,338	+103	1,336	127	361	20	13	56	1	3,142	15.1
18	Phil Esposito P. Esposito	860	1,241	710	1,570	+267	890	243	300	23	12	118		5,075	14.0
19	Bobby Clarke B. Clarke	852	1,144	358	1,210	+507	1,453	99	234	32	35	38	1	2,582	13.9
20	Henrik Sedin H. Sedin	830	1,330	240	1,070	+165	680	61	308	7	2	38	6	1,856	12.9	9,887	20,256	48.8	383	267	499	658	17:30
21	Gilbert Perreault G. Perreault	814	1,191	512	1,326	+41	500	134	298	8	4	81	0	3,077	16.6
22	Patrick Kane P. Kane	813	1,230	471	1,284	+16	442	126	291	0	1	75	12	4,058	11.6	323	833	38.8	316	275	706	637	20:11
23	Jari Kurri J. Kurri	797	1,251	601	1,398	+304	545	155	240	39	43	72	7	3,149	19.1
24	Larry Murphy L. Murphy	797	1,315	255	1,052	+143	948	100	384	7	15	31	3	3,080	8.3
25	Guy Lafleur G. Lafleur	793	1,126	560	1,353	+446	399	154	266	3	2	98	0	3,516	15.9