Before March 26, 1959, Ted Lindsay and Maurice Richard were tied for the most games in the regular-season and playoffs, with 1,048 games.

most career games played by a player (including playoffs) before march 26, 1959

	NAME	GP	G	A	P	PIM	PPG	PPA	SHG	SHA	GWG	OTG	TOI/GP
1	Ted Lindsay T. Lindsay	1,048	399	484	883	1,691	102	136	9	2	63	2
2	Maurice Richard M. Richard	1,048	606	447	1,053	1,441	153	119	4	2	101	6
3	Gordie Howe G. Howe	935	454	534	988	1,028	105	184	10	4	78	0
4	Dit Clapper D. Clapper	917	242	264	506	502	13	24	2	3	49	11
5	Butch Bouchard B. Bouchard	900	60	165	225	986	11	21	2	4	11	0
6	Red Kelly R. Kelly	890	172	319	491	278	54	104	13	11	28	0
7	Harry Watson H. Watson	871	252	216	468	177	48	48	1	1	42	1
8	Doug Harvey D. Harvey	865	68	364	432	1,060	21	176	3	7	14	0
9	Milt Schmidt M. Schmidt	862	253	371	624	530	34	75	4	3	39	4
10	Woody Dumart W. Dumart	862	223	234	457	122	19	23	3	1	37	2
11	Bill Quackenbush B. Quackenbush	855	64	242	306	103	9	58	2	7	11	0
12	Gus Mortson G. Mortson	851	51	160	211	1,446	9	24	4	3	7	0
13	Jimmy Thomson J. Thomson	850	21	228	249	1,055	3	73	1	7	4	0
14	Fern Flaman F. Flaman	846	34	155	189	1,288	6	11	2	5	5	0
15	Harry Lumley H. Lumley	831	0	0	0	95					0		60:04
16	Bill Gadsby B. Gadsby	818	96	305	401	966	27	105	5	8	12	0
17	Mush March M. March	807	165	246	411	589	21	51	2	4	23	6
18	Tony Leswick T. Leswick	799	178	169	347	1,003	17	19	4	3	29	1
19	Ted Kennedy T. Kennedy	774	259	361	620	464	62	95	6	8	46	1
20	Ken Mosdell K. Mosdell	771	157	182	339	521	16	20	9	5	23	2
21	Hooley Smith H. Smith	771	211	235	446	1,171	8	14	0	1	44	5
22	Syd Howe S. Howe	770	254	319	573	224	33	49	5	0	33	4
23	Bert Olmstead B. Olmstead	759	143	377	520	808	44	118	2	3	22	0
24	Cal Gardner C. Gardner	757	161	248	409	537	32	52	1	2	36	0
25	Elmer Lach E. Lach	738	234	453	687	514	63	112	2	3	47	2