The NHL can be a chaotic place and, sometimes, you just need to find a port in the storm.
Often, that port comes in the form of a player who’s seen it all in a particular place and can be relied on to calm things down a notch.
Last week on the power rankings, we did a new guy check; this time out, we’re veering to the opposite end of the spectrum and highlighting the longest-tenured player with every NHL squad.
We’ve seen some totemic players either change sweaters or depart the game entirely in the past few months, so settle in and find out who qualifies as ol’ faithful now on each of the 32 teams.
1. Boston Bruins (10-1-1) The B’s have seen some franchise icons depart in the past few years — Zdeno Chara, Tuukka Rask, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci — but captain Brad Marchand (still sounds kind of weird) is in his 14th full season with Boston.
2. Vegas Golden Knights (11-2-1) We get one of two unique expansion situations right near the top. Vegas won the Stanley Cup in its seventh NHL season and four original Golden Misfits — William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, Will Carrier and Brayden McNabb — are still in the desert, gunning for a repeat.
3. New York Rangers (9-2-1) Chris Kreider is on fire, with goals in four straight games for the humming Rangers. The big winger’s first season on Broadway was the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign. Kreider has a real shot at eclipsing Rod Gilbert’s franchise record of 406 goals. The 32-year-old is 132 back and is under contract with New York through 2026-27.
4. Los Angeles Kings (8-2-2) It was just a few weeks ago that Anze Kopitar passed Dustin Brown on L.A.’s all-time games-played list (he’s now at 1,304). Credit the Kings for believing in a Slovenian teenager at the 2005 draft when a few other teams were hesitant to select a kid from a country with zero NHL heritage.
5. Vancouver Canucks (9-2-1) The Canucks are one of the best stories of the young season and calling this a bounce-back year for Brock Boeser feels like a massive understatement. A guy who seemed like he could have been traded away from the team five times in the past couple years is now in his seventh season with Vancouver and has 10 goals in 12 games after scoring just 18 all of last season.
6. Colorado Avalanche (8-3-0) Technically, the answer here is captain Gabriel Landeskog, who looks as though he’ll go two straight regular seasons without playing a single NHL game thanks to a knee injury.
Nathan MacKinnon’s Avs career began two years after Landeskog arrived, and the top pick in the 2013 draft came within a hair of winning the 2018 Hart Trophy. At 28, in the first year of an eight-year deal that gives him the highest cap hit in the league this season ($12.6 million), MacKinnon figures to get his MVP trophy someday. Of course, all that really matters is he already got his Cup.
7. Dallas Stars (7-3-1) It’s been nearly 10 years since Jamie Benn — a lifetime Dallas Star — won the Art Ross Trophy. This is Season 15 for Benn in Dallas, and Season 14 represented a huge comeback when he recorded 78 points in 82 games. The 34-year-old has nine points in 11 games this season.
8. Carolina Hurricanes (8-5-0) How ingrained is Jordan Staal in Raleigh? He came up with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, won a Cup with the Penguins and yet you almost forget the guy spent the first six seasons of his career in Pittsburgh. Staal is in his 12th season with the Canes and just signed to play four more there in the summer. If he stays healthy, Jordan will pass brother Eric for the most games played with Carolina by a Staal (909) very early in the 2025-26 season.
9. New Jersey Devils (7-4-1) Jesper Bratt has been a huge success story for the Devils, emerging from the sixth round of the 2016 draft to become a high-end point-producer in The Show. At the other end of the spectrum, captain Nico Hischier was selected first overall in 2017 and has become every bit the two-way pivot New Jersey hoped it was getting. Both are in their seventh season with Jersey.
10. Florida Panthers (7-4-1) Aleksander Barkov just passed Jonathan Huberdeau as the all-time Cats games-played leader, with 674. He and relatively new Panther Matthew Tkachuk are the faces of hockey in South Florida.
11. Tampa Bay Lightning (6-3-4) Tampa Bay added Steven Stamkos in 2008-09 and Victor Hedman the next year. It took a while for the Stanley Cups to follow, but it’s no surprise they eventually did.
12. Toronto Maple Leafs (6-4-2) It’s Year 11 for Morgan Rielly in Toronto and some of the best hockey he’s played with the squad came six months ago, during the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
13. Winnipeg Jets (6-4-2) When Blake Wheeler was bought out in the summer, it left Mark Scheifele as the longest-tenured Jet. For a while, it was easy to wonder if Scheifele would be handing that title off to someone else soon, but he re-upped just before the season, forgoing the opportunity to become a UFA in 2024.
14. New York Islanders (5-3-3) Four guys are in at least their 10th season with the Isles: captain Anders Lee (10th); Brock Nelson and Cal Clutterbuck (11th); and the longest-tenured Isle, Casey Cizikas (12th). Now, the guy on the roster who’s actually played the most games in an Islanders uniform is Matt Martin (777).
15. Washington Capitals (5-4-2) Alex Ovechkin is just 71 goals away from becoming the NHL’s all-time goal king. That said, Ovie is stuck on two through 11 games this year and it’s starting to feel like the record won’t be broken until 2025-26.
16. Anaheim Ducks (7-5-0) Cam Fowler might feel like an old man with so many kids around, but he’s still just 31 and — in Year 14 with the Ducks — continues to log huge minutes, leading the team with 24:18 of ice per night this season.
17. Detroit Red Wings (7-5-1) It was hard to imagine Dylan Larkin would depart the Wings as a free agent, but there were moments during the tough negotiations last season when you had to wonder if the Michigan boy’s future was actually somewhere else. Now that his name is on an eight-year deal, he’s got no focus other than getting back to the playoffs for the first time since he was a 19-year-old rookie in 2015-16.
18. Buffalo Sabres (6-6-1) It’s Year 10 for Zemgus Girgensons in Buffalo and still not a single post-season game on his resume. Of course, teammate Jeff Skinner — who’s been in Buffalo six years — is slated to play his 1,000th NHL game late this season and has yet to see the playoffs. Wild, but true.
19. Arizona Coyotes (6-5-1) Lawson Crouse was traded to the Coyotes in the summer of 2016, one year after the Florida Panthers drafted him 14th overall. He played 72 games as a 19-year-old rookie in 2016-17 and, after setting a career high with 24 goals last season, is off to a nice start with seven points in 11 games this year at age 26.
20. Pittsburgh Penguins (5-6-0) By the end of this season, Sidney Crosby figures to be about 140 points shy of Mario Lemieux’s franchise record of 1,723. That means, all things being equal, Crosby will likely overtake his former landlord sometime during his age-38 season.
21. Minnesota Wild (5-5-2) Captain Jared Spurgeon — who turns 34 later this month — is expected to return soon from a pre-season injury and play his first game of 2023-24. He’s been core member of the D-crew since he debuted with the Wild on his 21st birthday, Nov. 29, 2010.
22. St. Louis Blues (5-5-1) Colton Parayko has been a big presence on the Blues since playing 79 games as a rookie in 2015-16, but fellow D-man Robert Bortuzzo barely edges him out since he was acquired at the previous season’s trade deadline from Pittsburgh.
23. Seattle Kraken (4-6-3) Most of the roster is made up of third-year Kraken, but Jordan Eberle is the overall veteran here having debuted with the Oilers in 2010-11. Let’s hope one of the most likable guys in the league returns soon after being cut by a skate blade in practice this week.
24. Ottawa Senators (5-6-0) Thomas Chabot’s seventh season in Ottawa has been a bummer as the standout D-man is shelved with a broken hand.
25. Philadelphia Flyers (5-7-1) Last week, when we did new-guy check, we cited Sean Couturier for Philly with the stretched logic that he’s been gone so long — nearly two years without an NHL game — that it was like he was a fresh face again. In reality, of course, Couturier is a long-time Flyer who, by season’s end, could be up to fourth on Philly’s all-time games-played list.
26. Montreal Canadiens (5-5-2) Brendan Gallagher — a Hab since he made the squad as a fifth-round pick and had wonderful rookie season in 2012-13 — has had a really rough go the past couple seasons with injuries. He’s off to a nice start this year, though, with four goals and seven points.
27. Columbus Blue Jackets (4-5-3) Captain Boone Jenner, in his 11th season in Ohio, is off to a great start with six goals in 12 games.
28. Nashville Predators (5-7-0) Roman Josi has been with Nashville so long that he was coached by Barry Trotz during his rookie season of 2011-12. Trotz parted ways with the organization after that season, spent a decade coaching elsewhere and has now returned as GM of Preds team that features No. 59 as its captain and north star.
29. Edmonton Oilers (2-8-1) Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, an Oiler since 2011-12, must feel as if he’s back in the bad ‘ol days, the way things have started in Edmonton.
30. Calgary Flames (4-7-1) It sure feels like change is a-comin’ in Calgary, but after inking a two-year contract extension in the off-season, new captain and 15-year Flame Mikael Backlund isn’t going anywhere.
31. Chicago Blackhawks (4-7-0) Chicago said good-bye to a pair of all-time Hawks last season in Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. That leaves Connor Murphy, who arrived via trade in the summer of 2017, as the longest-tenured player in Chicago.
32. San Jose Sharks (1-10-1) Marc-Edouard Vlasic made the All-Rookie Team as a 19-year-old in 2006-07. The only guy to dress in more games for the Sharks is the guy who’s dressed for more games than every NHLer in history, Patrick Marleau.
