Wayne Gretzky had the most assists by a player in his first 8 seasons, with 977 assists.

Interpreted as:

most NHL assists by a player through 8 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	977	632	543	1,520	+514	299	116	274	50	49	58	1	2,581	21.0
2	Mario Lemieux M. Lemieux	606	517	408	1,014	+52	548	132	273	31	15	36	7	2,011	20.3
3	Peter Stastny P. Stastny	580	603	321	901	+54	546	97	222	6	5	38	1	1,619	19.8
4	Denis Savard D. Savard	550	618	301	851	+88	669	79	235	8	7	38	1	1,864	16.1
5	Connor McDavid C. McDavid	547	569	303	850	+113	219	71	218	7	9	64	15	1,948	15.6	3,124	6,602	47.3	375	223	563	494	21:45
6	Bryan Trottier B. Trottier	537	620	312	849	+370	449	105	158	8	10	52		1,471	21.2
7	Bobby Orr B. Orr	522	541	213	735	+484	801	55	194	13	28	22		2,544	8.4
8	Paul Coffey P. Coffey	512	578	224	736	+274	786	75	194	17	26	20	1	1,817	12.3
9	Dale Hawerchuk D. Hawerchuk	495	634	353	848	-82	408	114	193	11	9	27	4	2,283	15.5
10	Adam Oates A. Oates	490	551	167	657	+19	178	49	177	4	5	27	0	1,177	14.2
11	Peter Forsberg P. Forsberg	488	541	198	686	+191	514	54	184	14	16	33	3	1,359	14.6	927	1,983	46.7	194	47	198	167	20:16
12	Bobby Clarke B. Clarke	473	622	233	706	+301	758	72	136	23	9	26		1,623	14.4
13	Marcel Dionne M. Dionne	464	619	327	791	-20	176	84	184	12	5	32		2,569	12.7
14	Joe Sakic J. Sakic	461	590	285	746	-87	227	86	197	18	11	37	1	1,883	15.1
15	Guy Lafleur G. Lafleur	461	603	355	816	+388	275	92	145	3	2	70		2,030	17.5
16	Steve Yzerman S. Yzerman	458	594	342	800	-21	368	89	177	23	12	35	4	2,045	16.7
17	Mike Bossy M. Bossy	454	609	474	928	+358	163	151	157	6	0	66	1	2,181	21.7
18	Jari Kurri J. Kurri	451	600	397	848	+336	231	87	111	24	21	50	5	1,747	22.7
19	Mitch Marner M. Marner	445	576	194	639	+110	184	44	151	9	7	30	4	1,491	13.0	96	212	45.3	334	312	582	536	19:52
20	Artemi Panarin A. Panarin	445	590	216	661	+138	182	56	139	0	0	39	9	1,513	14.3	11	47	23.4	184	114	356	478	19:37
21	Ray Bourque R. Bourque	438	580	176	614	+293	454	62	195	6	13	26	1	2,107	8.4
22	Denis Potvin D. Potvin	437	572	183	620	+244	770	70	201	6	16	27		1,742	10.5
23	Jaromir Jagr J. Jagr	434	581	301	735	+146	435	76	133	7	3	56	5	1,961	15.3
24	Ron Francis R. Francis	433	567	211	644	-65	412	58	186	4	2	29	1	1,411	15.0
25	Nicklas Backstrom N. Backstrom	427	577	145	572	+79	298	47	193	2	0	20	4	1,277	11.4	4,693	9,251	50.7	487	372	446	310	19:58