Everyone talks about the regular season. We obsess over who hits 100 points by February or who’s leading the Rocket Richard race. But honestly? The regular season is just a long, expensive rehearsal. The real legacy—the stuff that gets you a statue outside an arena—happens in April, May, and June. When we look at the nhl point leaders playoffs list, we aren't just looking at stats. We're looking at a completely different sport.
It’s harder to score in the playoffs. Much harder. You’ve got defensemen finishing every check, goalies playing like they’re possessed, and referees who suddenly decide that "holding" is just a suggestion. Yet, some guys actually get better when the stakes are terrifying.
The Great One and the Gap Nobody Talks About
If you look at the all-time list, Wayne Gretzky is sitting at the top with 382 points. To put that in perspective, Mark Messier is in second place with 295. That is an 87-point gap. In any other context, 87 points is a career year for a star player. For Gretzky, that’s just the distance between him and the next best guy in history.
It’s kinda ridiculous when you think about it. Gretzky played 208 playoff games and averaged 1.84 points per game. Most players are happy to maintain a point-per-game pace in the regular season against the bottom-feeders of the league. Gretzky did nearly double that against the best teams in the world while being targeted every single shift.
But here’s what people miss: the 80s Oilers were a statistical anomaly. Look at the top four all-time: Gretzky, Messier, Jari Kurri (233), and Glenn Anderson (214). They all played on that same dynasty team. While it’s easy to say they just rode each other's coattails, you’ve gotta realize they were doing this in an era where goaltending equipment was basically made of cardboard and "butterfly style" wasn't a thing yet.
The Modern Era: McDavid and the New Math
For a long time, we thought Gretzky’s single-season playoff record of 47 points (set in 1985) was untouchable. Then 2024 happened. Connor McDavid put up 42 points in a single run. He didn't even win the Cup that year, which is basically sports tragedy at its finest.
✨ Don't miss: Fanatics Promo Code July 2025: What Most People Get Wrong
McDavid actually broke Gretzky's record for most assists in a single postseason, racking up 34 helpers. Think about that. We are living in an era where teams actually know how to play defense, yet McDavid is finding lanes that shouldn't exist. He’s currently sitting at 150 career playoff points in just 96 games. That's a 1.56 points-per-game average.
Honestly, if he stays healthy and the Oilers keep making deep runs, he’s the only human being with a legitimate shot at 300 playoff points. He’s already passed legends like Alex Ovechkin (147 points) in nearly half the games.
Why Some Stars Disappear
We’ve all seen it. A guy scores 50 goals in the regular season and then goes "cold" in the first round. Is it choking? Maybe. But usually, it’s about the "heavy" game.
In the regular season, you get space. In the playoffs, you get a 220-pound defenseman named Radko or Nikita living in your jersey for seven games. This is why guys like Leon Draisaitl are so fascinating. Draisaitl is arguably a better playoff performer than McDavid in terms of pure efficiency. He’s got 141 points in 96 games. When he’s "limping" on one leg—like he was in 2022—he still manages to put up three points a night.
Defensive Anomalies: The Paul Coffey Factor
Most nhl point leaders playoffs are centers or wingers. Then there’s Paul Coffey.
Coffey has 196 playoff points. He’s 7th all-time. As a defenseman. Let that sink in for a second. He has more playoff points than Joe Sakic, Brett Hull, and Steve Yzerman.
Sure, he played with Gretzky, but you still have to be a freak of nature to outscore the greatest forwards in history from the blue line. Modern fans look at Cale Makar (65 points in 61 games) and think he’s the second coming—and he might be—but he’s still 131 points behind Coffey's career mark.
The Active Top 10 Race
The leaderboard is shifting fast. Sidney Crosby is currently 6th all-time with 201 points. He’s tied with Jaromir Jagr. For Sid to move into the top five, he needs to pass Jagr, which is tricky since the Penguins haven't exactly been playoff regulars lately.
Here is what the "Power Tier" of active playoff producers looks like right now:
- Sidney Crosby: 201 points (The gold standard for the 2000s)
- Evgeni Malkin: 180 points (Often overlooked, but a beast in 2009)
- Nikita Kucherov: 171 points (The reason Tampa went back-to-back-to-back Finals)
- Connor McDavid: 150 points (The fastest riser in history)
- Leon Draisaitl: 141 points (The highest PPG of the modern era)
The Myth of the "Clutch" Scorer
Is "clutch" a real thing? Analytics people say no; they say it's just a small sample size and luck. Hockey people say yes.
Look at Claude Lemieux. He wasn't a superstar in the regular season. He never even hit 90 points once. But in the playoffs? The guy was a nightmare. He’s got 158 playoff points, which puts him ahead of Adam Oates and Peter Forsberg. He won the Conn Smythe with New Jersey in '95 by basically being the most annoying, productive person on Earth.
The nhl point leaders playoffs list is littered with guys who weren't the most talented, but they were the most durable. You have to be able to play through broken ribs and "flu-like symptoms" (which is usually a code for a torn MCL).
How to Value These Stats Today
When you're comparing 1980s scoring to 2020s scoring, you have to account for the "Dead Puck Era" of the late 90s. Guys like Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman played their best years when the neutral zone was a parking lot.
If Yzerman played in the 80s, he might have had 250 playoff points. If McDavid played in 1982, he might have had 500. It's all relative. But the names at the top—Gretzky, Messier, Kurri—they stay there because they didn't just have one good year. They went to the Finals almost every season for a decade.
🔗 Read more: David Montgomery Game Log: Why the Detroit RB is Still a Fantasy Cheat Code
Practical Takeaways for the Fan
If you want to know who the real "best players" are, don't look at the December scoring race. Look at the career playoff points per game. That tells you who survives the grind.
Keep an eye on Evan Bouchard. He put up 32 points as a defenseman in the 2024 run. That’s the third-highest single-season total for a defenseman ever, trailing only Paul Coffey (37 in '85) and Brian Leetch (34 in '94). We are seeing a shift where defensemen are becoming primary engines again.
If you’re tracking the nhl point leaders playoffs this coming spring, watch the Edmonton pair. McDavid and Draisaitl are chasing ghosts now. They aren't just playing for a Cup; they are playing for the record books.
To really get a feel for the historical weight here, take a look at the game logs from the 1985 Finals or the 1991 Penguins run. You’ll see that the legends didn’t just score; they scored when their teams were down. That’s the difference between a leader and a stat-padder.
Keep your eyes on the "Points Per Game" column this postseason. Total points tell you how far a team went, but PPG tells you who actually carried the weight. If a guy is averaging over 1.3 in the modern era, you're watching a future Hall of Famer in his prime.