Who else has a shot at reaching Gordie Howe's 1,767 Games Played?

On Monday, the San Jose Sharks take on the Vegas Golden Knights in a battle of two teams on opposite sides of the standings. While it may not seem like there’s anything special on paper, any hockey fan worth their salt would know that this game will go down in history.

Patrick Marleau took the ice for his 1,768^th career NHL game on Monday, passing the legendary Gordie Howe for most all-time.

The benchmark is extremely impressive, and it came as the result of Marleau hardly ever missing a game. It had us wondering, who else stands a chance at reaching Gordie Howe’s mark of 1,767?

There are a few factors that go into this. We are looking at which players have played enough games to see the finish line, and who are also young enough to realistically be able to achieve it.

Before we dive into the list, we would just like to say… It will be a VERY hard to catch, and will take some seriously healthy seasons from aging players.

Anze Kopitar – 1,115 NHL Games, 33 years old.

The longtime Los Angeles Kings centre probably stands the best chance of reaching Gordie. The Kings have 14 games remaining on their schedule, which would leave him with 638 games to reach the mark.

If Kopitar finishes the season healthy, and then misses only 18 games total over the next seven seasons, he could reach the mark by the time he’s 40. Like we said, it’s a very tall task.

Phil Kessel – 1,111 NHL Games, 33 years old.

Marleau has been able to reach Gordie’s mark by way of an Ironman streak that has lasted 899 games. Phil Kessel is a bit of an Ironman himself, with 889 consecutive games to this point!

If Kessel gets through the rest of the year healthy, he’ll need 645 more games to reach Mr. Hockey. That means playing 8 more seasons while only missing a maximum of 11 games. For an Ironman like Phil, he won’t be missing any games, right?!

Despite Kessel’s durability, he’ll need to play until he’s at least 41 years old.

Joe Thornton – 1,669 NHL Games, 41 years old.

Jumbo Joe is currently 98 games shy of the mark, and the Leafs have 11 remaining games on the schedule. That leave Joe 87 games short of the season which, frustratingly, means he would need JUUUUUST a little more than one full, healthy season.

On a one year contract and not looking nearly as quick as he once was, we like the odds of some of the others here a little more.

Patrick Kane – 1018 NHL Games, 32 years old.

Incredibly, it is IMMENSELY harder for Kane to break Gordie’s mark than it is to simply tie it. We’ll explain…

If Patty Kane suits up in the ‘Hawks remaining 11 games, he’ll be left with 738 games left. That works out to being EXACTLY nine 82-game seasons. If he doesn’t miss a game until the offseason of 2030 (when he’s 41 years old), he’ll tie the mark. Otherwise, he has to come back for another season.

Eric Staal – 1,280 NHL Games, 36 years old.

Eric Staal would have to channel his inner Matt Cullen and remain a serviceable centre into his 40s. Specifically, he would have to finish this season healthy, and play six more seasons while only missing 19 games total.

He would be 42 years old.

In summary…

If we were to take a guess, none of these guys are going to reach the mark set by Gordie, and now broken by Marleau. It’s just too difficult to complete full NHL seasons, particularly once you start to reach the twilight of your career.

Even a guy like 24-year-old Ivan Provorov, who hasn’t missed a game in his young NHL career, would have to play 18 more seasons to reach the mark.