most career games played (including playoffs) before 2003-04

Before 2003-04, Gordie Howe had the most games in the regular-season and playoffs, with 1,924 games.

Interpreted as:

most career games played by a player (including playoffs) before 2003-04

	NAME	GP	G	A	P	+/-	PIM	PPG	PPA	SHG	SHA	GWG	OTG	S	S%	FOW	FO	FOW%	HIT	BKS	TKA	GVA	TOI/GP
1	Gordie Howe G. Howe	1,924	869	1,141	2,010	+165	1,905	226	394	28	12	132	0	4,104	10.1
2	Mark Messier M. Messier	1,916	785	1,354	2,139	+260	2,114	202	466	75	85	103	8	4,788	16.4	3,098	5,630	55.0	175	110	140	253	19:26
3	Scott Stevens S. Stevens	1,830	219	795	1,014	+436	3,165	86	261	5	21	41	3	3,651	6.0	0	0		801	658	391	341	23:41
4	Larry Murphy L. Murphy	1,830	325	1,044	1,369	+229	1,285	134	480	12	22	43	4	4,108	7.9	3	3	100.0	76	169	47	148	20:45
5	Ray Bourque R. Bourque	1,826	451	1,308	1,759	+554	1,312	188	662	16	31	64	5	7,023	6.4	1	2	50.0	349	262	188	171	27:03
6	Ron Francis R. Francis	1,810	582	1,315	1,897	+19	1,056	196	565	12	23	88	6	4,025	14.5	2,867	5,167	55.5	130	184	218	146	20:36
7	Wayne Gretzky W. Gretzky	1,695	1,016	2,223	3,239	+611	643	239	776	85	93	115	6	5,787	17.6
8	Alex Delvecchio A. Delvecchio	1,671	491	894	1,385	+21	412	124	298	15	17	81	0	3,356	9.8
9	Johnny Bucyk J. Bucyk	1,664	597	875	1,472	+22	535	175	314	4	0	95	0	3,298	16.3
10	Doug Gilmour D. Gilmour	1,656	510	1,092	1,602	+156	1,536	173	388	20	35	69	6	3,201	15.9	1,780	3,445	51.7	170	145	124	201	18:18
11	Dave Andreychuk D. Andreychuk	1,654	655	710	1,365	+52	1,211	277	305	10	3	77	6	4,678	14.0	1,850	3,420	54.1	215	227	227	147	16:02
12	Larry Robinson L. Robinson	1,611	236	866	1,102	+822	1,004	73	288	3	10	32	2	2,749	8.6
13	Paul Coffey P. Coffey	1,603	455	1,272	1,727	+351	2,066	156	595	26	33	51	1	5,005	9.1	0	0		33	89	23	97	21:50
14	Dale Hunter D. Hunter	1,593	365	773	1,138	+79	4,296	105	173	12	18	49	8	2,286	16.0
15	Al MacInnis A. MacInnis	1,590	379	1,053	1,432	+383	1,760	192	625	10	26	49	4	5,811	6.5	2	3	66.7	203	311	141	275	26:51
16	Phil Housley P. Housley	1,580	351	937	1,288	-76	858	135	513	7	4	50	5	4,021	8.7	1	2	50.0	95	148	85	201	20:45
17	Tim Horton T. Horton	1,571	126	442	568	+179	1,794	25	85	4	20	22	0	2,188	4.3
18	Steve Yzerman S. Yzerman	1,559	727	1,119	1,846	+158	940	218	422	53	39	99	10	4,931	14.7	2,918	5,014	58.2	172	181	145	190	20:53
19	Mike Gartner M. Gartner	1,554	751	677	1,428	+58	1,284	233	216	24	5	97	10	5,501	13.7
20	Stan Mikita S. Mikita	1,551	600	1,017	1,617	+321	1,433	168	348	14	7	95	1	4,978	12.1
21	Guy Carbonneau G. Carbonneau	1,549	298	458	756	+191	981	12	21	39	20	50	5	2,263	13.2	933	1,734	53.8	192	88	56	51	15:49
22	Pat Verbeek P. Verbeek	1,541	548	576	1,124	-78	3,130	201	199	4	6	72	3	3,539	15.5	4	13	30.8	418	28	70	97	13:54
23	Chris Chelios C. Chelios	1,540	206	823	1,029	+332	3,023	82	383	14	40	36	3	3,808	5.4	0	0		354	336	173	316	24:48
24	Norm Ullman N. Ullman	1,516	520	792	1,312	-15	779	126	191	9	14	62	0	3,700	12.1
25	Bryan Trottier B. Trottier	1,500	595	1,013	1,608	+480	1,189	179	303	23	24	81	2	3,313	18.0