Players with the most full schedules played

[seventieslord]

As opposed to the usual "consecutive games streak" definition of an ironman, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the players who may have fallen short of such streaks but had a history of playing full seasons without missing a game.

I think it's rather easy to track this - using hockey-reference you can simply look at the number of times a player was "top-10" in games played. In all seasons the top-10 would either be a very large tie for 1st among all the players who played the full or schedule, and a few other times it would be 1-2 players who were traded midseason and played more than a full schedule, followed by a large tie for 2nd or 3rd among the rest who stayed healthy all season.

Here are a few that I found with 10 or more:

Gordie Howe - 18
Dale Hunter - 12
Doug Jarvis - 12
Alex Delvecchio - 12
Henrik Sedin - 11
Mark Recchi - 11
Murray Murdoch - 11
Garry Unger - 11
Jarome Iginla - 11
Steve Larmer - 11
Tim Horton - 11
Trevor Linden - 10
Patrick Marleau - 10
Harry Howell - 10

it's actually pretty rare to have 10 or more. Who else is there?

Click to read more...

 

[Michael Farkas]

Andrew Cogliano immediately comes to mind. He came into the league in like 2007 and hasn't missed a game since...

Jay Bouwmeester probably has about 9 or 10 of those as well...

 

[seventieslord]

Andrew Cogliano immediately comes to mind. He came into the league in like 2007 and hasn't missed a game since...

Jay Bouwmeester probably has about 9 or 10 of those as well...

J-Bo has 9, Cogliano is currently working on a 10th.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Here's my list (starting from 1926-27):

17 times - Gordie Howe
12 times - Dale Hunter, Doug Jarvis, Vincent Damphousse
11 times - Murray Murdoch, Marcel Dionne, Tim Horton, Billy Harris, Mark Recchi, Garry Unger, Steve Larmer, Alex Delvecchio, Jarome Iginla, Henrik Sedin
10 times - Bryan Hextall, Trevor Linden, Andy Bathgate

Here are players who had 7+ seasons appearing in every game:

11 times - Doug Jarvis, Garry Unger, Steve Larmer
10 times - Murray Murdoch
9 times - Craig Ramsay
8 times - Andrew Cogliano, Andy Hebenton, Cecil Dillon, Henrik Sedin, Johnny Wilson, Keith Yandle
7 times - Alex Delvecchio, Billy Harris, Bryan Hextall, Glenn Hall, Jay Bouwmeester, Mark Recchi, Normie Himes, Patrick Marleau, Paul Thompson,

 

[seventieslord]

Here's my list (starting from 1926-27):

17 times - Gordie Howe
12 times - Dale Hunter, Doug Jarvis, Vincent Damphousse
11 times - Murray Murdoch, Marcel Dionne, Tim Horton, Billy Harris, Mark Recchi, Garry Unger, Steve Larmer, Alex Delvecchio, Jarome Iginla, Henrik Sedin
10 times - Bryan Hextall, Trevor Linden, Andy Bathgate

Here are players who had 7+ seasons appearing in every game:

11 times - Doug Jarvis, Garry Unger, Steve Larmer
10 times - Murray Murdoch
9 times - Craig Ramsay
8 times - Andrew Cogliano, Andy Hebenton, Cecil Dillon, Henrik Sedin, Johnny Wilson, Keith Yandle
7 times - Alex Delvecchio, Billy Harris, Bryan Hextall, Glenn Hall, Jay Bouwmeester, Mark Recchi, Normie Himes, Patrick Marleau, Paul Thompson,

wow, it really is rare. I missed Damphousse, Dionne, Hextall, and Bathgate. You're missing Howell.

Also, it appears you added Billy "Hinky" Harris' three, to Billy Harris of the 70s eight, for a total of 11.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

wow, it really is rare. I missed Damphousse, Dionne, Hextall, and Bathgate. You're missing Howell.

Also, it appears you added Billy "Hinky" Harris' three, to Billy Harris of the 70s eight, for a total of 11.

I only count nine seasons for Howell - 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1966 and 1967.

Good catch with Harris. Both of them have identical names in my database so their results were added together. The Islanders' Harris had seven consecutive seasons (plus, after an injury-plagued year where he missed two full games, one more season with "full attendance"). So he was correctly included in my second list, but should be removed from the first one.

 

[seventieslord]

I only count nine seasons for Howell - 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1966 and 1967.

Good catch with Harris. Both of them have identical names in my database so their results were added together. The Islanders' Harris had seven consecutive seasons (plus, after an injury-plagued year where he missed two full games, one more season with "full attendance"). So he was correctly included in my second list, but should be removed from the first one.

1968 is the 10th one for Howell.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

Good catch. I realized that I had the wrong season length for 1968. I went back and double-checked everything.

Here's my revised list (starting from 1926-27):

18 times - Gordie Howe
12 times - Dale Hunter, Doug Jarvis, Vincent Damphousse, Alex Delvecchio
11 times - Murray Murdoch, Marcel Dionne, Tim Horton, Mark Recchi, Garry Unger, Steve Larmer, Jarome Iginla, Henrik Sedin, Andy Bathgate
10 times - Bryan Hextall, Trevor Linden, Harry Howell

Here are players who had 7+ seasons appearing in every game:

11 times - Doug Jarvis, Garry Unger, Steve Larmer
10 times - Murray Murdoch
9 times - Craig Ramsay
8 times - Andrew Cogliano, Andy Hebenton, Cecil Dillon, Henrik Sedin, Johnny Wilson
7 times - Alex Delvecchio, Bryan Hextall, Glenn Hall, Jay Bouwmeester, Mark Recchi, Normie Himes, Patrick Marleau, Paul Thompson, Keith Yandle

 

[Regal]

A couple to add to the 8 seasons list: Wayne Gretzky, Joe Sakic, Brian Campbell, Olli Jokinen, Adam Graves, Ron Francis, Mats Sundin, Martin St. Louis, Mike Gartner, and likely Daniel Sedin and Jaromir Jagr at the end of the year.

Brian Leetch had 9. Dave Andreychuk might have 9, depending on what happened in '93. He played all the games for Buffalo, and then missed the first game for the Leafs after the trade, but I'm wondering if it was just because it was impossible for him to get there in time.

 

[reckoning]

For goalies, the highest I know of are George Hainsworth and Tiny Thompson with 9 each. Although if we include NHA, Georges Vezina would have 15.

 

[The Panther]

It's not the answer to the thread-question, but I think "busiest schedule"-crown has to go to Gretzky, circa autumn 1982 until spring 1988. Over those 6 NHL seasons, he played in 95% of regular season games and 100% of playoffs games.

Over 6 playoffs, his teams made 5 runs to the Finals. He played every All-Star game, and the two 'Rendezvous' games in 1987. He appeared in two Canada Cup tournaments. On every one of these teams (NHL and international), he was the leading scorer. In 5 of 6 seasons, and 5 of 6 playoffs, and 2 of 2 Canada Cups, he was the League's/tournament's leading scorer.

Disregarding pre-season and All-Star games, Gretzky played in 577 competitive games from autumn 1982 to spring 1988, over 96 games per year, average, for six years straight.

Of course, many Dynasty-team players are in similar boats, but I am doubting any player matches that number of 'big' games over a six-year period (not to mention no one else was leading scorer all that time).


I recently read 'Luckiest Man', a nice bio of Lou Gehrig. The Iron Horse thing is a nice record to have (Cogliano is the new one), but it's one of those things that sounds more impressive than it really is. (Even Gehrig, towards the end, had games where he played the first three innings or whatever and then took himself out.) I'm far more impressed by players who bring consistent greatness over a long period of time, even if they missed the odd game here or there.

 

[DJ Man]

It seems that Andy Hebenton's entire NHL career was nine 70-game seasons, from 1955-56 through 1963-64 inclusive, for a total of 630 games. One could argue that he never missed a game.

 

[reckoning]

It's quite surprising that Gordie Howe and Tim Horton played so many full seasons considering how physical their style of play was. You'd expect finesse players who avoided the corners to be more likely to accomplish it.