Wayne Gretzky made the most assists by a player in his first 18 seasons, with 1,843 assists.

Interpreted as:

most NHL assists by a player through 18 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	1,843	1,335	862	2,705	+554	535	195	635	73	76	84	2	4,755	18.1
2	Paul Coffey P. Coffey	1,090	1,268	383	1,473	+317	1,704	128	506	20	31	40	1	4,119	9.3
3	Adam Oates A. Oates	1,063	1,277	339	1,402	+33	407	102	401	12	23	55	5	2,360	14.4	4,039	7,041	57.4	40	130	191	337	21:04
4	Marcel Dionne M. Dionne	1,040	1,348	731	1,771	+27	600	234	409	19	11	73	2	5,363	13.6
5	Ron Francis R. Francis	1,037	1,329	449	1,486	+14	865	145	435	11	18	63	2	3,064	14.7
6	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
7	Ray Bourque R. Bourque	1,001	1,290	362	1,363	+509	953	141	481	14	25	54	5	5,207	7.0
8	Jaromir Jagr J. Jagr	988	1,346	665	1,653	+280	937	189	357	11	4	114	16	4,766	14.0	7	35	20.0	181	133	318	854	21:14
9	Joe Sakic J. Sakic	979	1,319	610	1,589	+40	588	200	406	32	17	85	7	4,451	13.7	6,274	11,933	52.6	209	242	382	358	21:21
10	Mark Messier M. Messier	977	1,272	575	1,552	+273	1,598	138	319	53	68	72	6	3,433	16.7
11	Steve Yzerman S. Yzerman	969	1,310	645	1,614	+149	834	185	356	49	31	82	8	4,258	15.1	1,774	3,065	57.9	105	107	88	111	21:34
12	Joe Thornton J. Thornton	964	1,367	377	1,341	+199	1,105	129	351	6	6	61	9	2,678	14.1	11,331	21,359	53.1	969	386	999	1,279	20:17
13	Sidney Crosby S. Crosby	952	1,190	550	1,502	+210	783	162	375	4	7	87	21	3,794	14.5	13,558	25,983	52.2	1,013	586	670	964	20:44
14	Doug Gilmour D. Gilmour	914	1,342	429	1,343	+142	1,217	145	322	18	26	54	3	2,671	16.1	742	1,405	52.8	93	73	57	116	18:57
15	Bryan Trottier B. Trottier	901	1,279	524	1,425	+449	912	161	262	19	20	69	1	2,841	18.4
16	Dale Hawerchuk D. Hawerchuk	891	1,188	518	1,409	-98	740	182	386	12	11	49	4	3,754	13.8
17	Phil Esposito P. Esposito	873	1,282	717	1,590	+252	910	246	303	23	12	118		5,166	13.9
18	Denis Savard D. Savard	865	1,196	473	1,338	+103	1,336	127	361	20	13	56	1	3,142	15.1
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	Larry Murphy L. Murphy	838	1,397	266	1,104	+178	985	102	396	8	17	33	3	3,209	8.3
21	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
22	Mark Recchi M. Recchi	825	1,338	508	1,333	+19	910	173	316	18	13	80	4	3,286	15.5	723	1,458	49.6	558	192	233	395	20:00
23	Patrick Kane P. Kane	820	1,253	474	1,294	+10	446	128	294	0	1	77	12	4,105	11.5	324	836	38.8	324	280	714	664	20:08
24	Phil Housley P. Housley	817	1,288	313	1,130	-41	738	119	445	7	3	41	4	3,338	9.4	0	1	0.0	23	50	48	90	23:29
25	Gilbert Perreault G. Perreault	814	1,191	512	1,326	+41	500	134	298	8	4	81	0	3,077	16.6