Wayne Gretzky made the most assists by a player in his first 20 seasons, with 1,963 assists.

Interpreted as:

most NHL assists by a player through 20 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	1,963	1,487	894	2,857	+520	577	204	686	73	76	91	2	5,088	17.6
2	Ron Francis R. Francis	1,137	1,489	487	1,624	+9	915	159	483	11	18	71	3	3,344	14.6	1,566	2,837	55.2	85	107	108	72	21:06
3	Paul Coffey P. Coffey	1,131	1,391	396	1,527	+304	1,772	135	528	20	31	43	1	4,361	9.1	0	0		18	70	21	84	22:35
4	Ray Bourque R. Bourque	1,083	1,453	385	1,468	+504	1,067	158	533	14	28	60	5	5,733	6.7
5	Adam Oates A. Oates	1,079	1,337	341	1,420	+33	415	103	410	12	23	56	5	2,392	14.3	4,526	7,892	57.3	45	149	209	371	20:00
6	Jaromir Jagr J. Jagr	1,050	1,473	705	1,755	+294	1,005	200	374	11	4	124	18	5,112	13.8	7	38	18.4	198	152	373	941	20:52
7	Mark Messier M. Messier	1,050	1,413	610	1,660	+251	1,689	150	354	57	75	76	6	3,669	16.6
8	Marcel Dionne M. Dionne	1,040	1,348	731	1,771	+27	600	234	409	19	11	73	2	5,363	13.6
9	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
10	Joe Thornton J. Thornton	1,030	1,493	397	1,427	+197	1,194	137	380	6	6	62	9	2,834	14.0	11,935	22,536	53.0	1,053	435	1,096	1,408	20:05
11	Sidney Crosby S. Crosby	1,026	1,304	600	1,626	+211	840	175	393	4	7	93	23	4,168	14.4	15,087	28,609	52.7	1,146	637	752	1,051	20:40
12	Joe Sakic J. Sakic	1,016	1,378	625	1,641	+30	614	205	426	32	17	86	7	4,621	13.5	6,687	12,735	52.5	227	268	419	405	21:09
13	Steve Yzerman S. Yzerman	1,010	1,378	660	1,670	+166	860	191	375	50	32	88	9	4,375	15.1	2,539	4,381	58.0	139	158	125	168	20:50
14	Doug Gilmour D. Gilmour	964	1,474	450	1,414	+129	1,301	153	335	18	26	56	3	2,834	15.9	1,556	3,008	51.7	140	122	103	178	18:20
15	Larry Murphy L. Murphy	910	1,558	286	1,196	+203	1,072	114	426	9	18	35	3	3,523	8.1	1	1	100.0	38	92	23	81	21:50
16	Bryan Trottier B. Trottier	901	1,279	524	1,425	+449	912	161	262	19	20	69	1	2,841	18.4
17	Mark Recchi M. Recchi	897	1,490	545	1,442	-17	964	186	353	18	13	83	5	3,536	15.4	774	1,572	49.2	733	241	300	470	19:25
18	Dale Hawerchuk D. Hawerchuk	891	1,188	518	1,409	-98	740	182	386	12	11	49	4	3,754	13.8
19	Stan Mikita S. Mikita	885	1,314	520	1,405	+324	1,218	146	300	12	6	83		4,307	12.1
20	Nicklas Lidstrom N. Lidstrom	878	1,564	264	1,142	+450	514	132	458	10	30	35	4	3,875	6.8	0	0		477	990	462	638	26:56
21	Phil Esposito P. Esposito	873	1,282	717	1,590	+252	910	246	303	23	12	118		5,166	13.9
22	Phil Housley P. Housley	871	1,437	332	1,203	-59	796	127	474	7	3	47	4	3,671	9.0	0	1	0.0	91	145	85	194	21:16
23	Denis Savard D. Savard	865	1,196	473	1,338	+103	1,336	127	361	20	13	56	1	3,142	15.1
24	Bobby Clarke B. Clarke	852	1,144	358	1,210	+507	1,453	99	234	32	35	38	1	2,582	13.9
25	Al MacInnis A. MacInnis	845	1,262	313	1,158	+347	1,392	151	510	9	22	38	3	4,618	6.8	0	0		84	145	74	141	26:19