Who Is the Oldest Player in the NHL?
Images: Bildbyrån
The oldest active player in the NHL is Brent Burns of the Colorado Avalanche. In the 2025-26 season, the defenseman turned 41 on March 9, 2026, making him the undisputed senior citizen of the league. He was named to the opening-day roster, confirmed by the NHL as the oldest player on any opening-night lineup.
What makes Burns particularly compelling is not just the age number but what he is still doing on the ice. He has surpassed 990 consecutive games this season, passing Keith Yandle to become second all-time in NHL history for ironman streaks, trailing only Phil Kessel's record of 1,064 consecutive games. At 6'5" (196 cm) and around 228 pounds (103 kg), he remains a physically imposing presence on the back end, a Norris Trophy winner who stopped playing like someone with anything to prove a long time ago, and keeps proving things anyway.
Burns arrived in Colorado after being traded from the Carolina Hurricanes, his fourth NHL franchise. Originally a 20th-overall pick in the 2003 NHL Draft, he made his NHL debut for the Minnesota Wild on October 8, 2003. That date is itself a small piece of trivia: 56 players on 2025-26 opening-day rosters were born on or after that day, meaning they have never known an NHL without Brent Burns in it.
He shares the "40-year-old club" this season with Corey Perry of the Los Angeles Kings, Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, and Jonathan Quick of the New York Rangers, the only other skaters to have turned 40 and remained active this season.
Top 10 Oldest Active NHL Players in the 2025-26 Season
The list of veterans still competing in 2025-26 reads like a Hall of Fame ballot in progress. To settle any debate about the order, the ranking below is sorted strictly by birth date, oldest first.
1. Brent Burns (41) – Colorado Avalanche The oldest man in the league. See above.
2. Corey Perry (40) – Los Angeles Kings After helping Edmonton reach the 2025 Stanley Cup Final, Perry signed a one-year deal with the Kings and immediately set an NHL record for most playoff goals by any player aged 39 or older in a single postseason. Back in Los Angeles for what some expected to be a quiet finale, though Perry has a way of turning those into something more. He has over 1,400 career games and a reputation for making opponents regret underestimating him at any age.
3. Alex Ovechkin (40) – Washington Capitals Already the all-time NHL goals leader after surpassing Wayne Gretzky's record in the spring of 2025, Ovechkin has pushed his career total to 923 goals and counting. He has scored at least 20 goals in 21 consecutive seasons, second only to Gordie Howe's record of 22. This is the final year of his contract with Washington, and questions about what comes next are growing louder every week.
4. Jonathan Quick (40) – New York Rangers Quick turned 40 on January 21, 2026, becoming the fourth 40-year-old active in the NHL this season. The two-time Cup champion and Conn Smythe winner has served primarily as Igor Shesterkin's backup in New York, though injuries pushed him into a larger role at points this season. Still making saves at an age when most of his contemporaries are in the broadcast booth.
5. Evgeni Malkin (39) – Pittsburgh Penguins Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins turned 39 in the summer of 2025. The former Hart Trophy winner and two-time Cup champion has bounced back strongly this season alongside Sidney Crosby in what could be among the final years of Pittsburgh's legendary core.
6. Ryan Reaves (39) – San Jose Sharks Ryan Reaves of the San Jose Sharks turned 39 on January 20, 2026. Traded from Toronto to San Jose in the offseason, his role is clear: protect the Sharks' young stars, including Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith. He has led the league's enforcers in hits and made clear that nobody on the ice cares less about being outrun than Ryan Reaves.
7. Kris Letang (38) – Pittsburgh Penguins Kris Letang turns 39 in April 2026 and remains Pittsburgh's most reliable defenseman as the franchise navigates its transition away from the championship core. The three-time Cup champion is in the third year of a six-year extension and has no visible plans to slow down.
8. Sidney Crosby (38) – Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby turned 38 in the 2025 offseason. The three-time Stanley Cup champion recently became the Penguins' all-time leading scorer, surpassing Mario Lemieux, and has extended his contract through his age-40 season. He has been in the NHL since 2005, the same season Burns was playing his second NHL year.
9. Anze Kopitar (38) – Los Angeles Kings Anze Kopitar has announced 2025-26 as his farewell season. The first Slovenian player in NHL history has spent two full decades as the backbone of the Kings franchise, winning two Cups and earning the Selke Trophy twice. A franchise center in the truest sense, one of the most complete two-way players of his generation, going out on his own terms.
10. Brad Marchand (37) – Florida Panthers Brad Marchand of the Florida Panthers is already locked into a six-year, $31.5 million deal that runs through his age-43 season, which means he is virtually guaranteed to keep climbing this list for years to come. Traded from Boston after 2024-25, the self-styled "Little Ball of Hate" continues to produce in a top-six role with the Panthers and carries the kind of playoff pedigree that teams pay for at that price.
Who Is the Oldest Player in NHL History?
The answer to this question is not close. Gordie Howe played his last NHL game on April 11, 1980, at the age of 52 years and 11 days. His record does not merely sit at the top of the list. It stands more than four years clear of the next name on it.
Mr. Hockey made his NHL debut for the Detroit Red Wings in 1946 at 18 years old. He played 25 seasons in Detroit, retired once, came back through the WHA to play alongside his sons Mark and Marty, then rejoined the NHL as a 51-year-old when the Hartford Whalers absorbed the folded New England Whalers franchise in 1979. He played all 80 regular-season games that final year, recording 41 points. He stood 6'0" (183 cm) and 205 pounds (93 kg) in an era with no helmets and even fewer concessions to the physical cost of the game.
His final All-Star Game also happened to be Wayne Gretzky's first.
No player has competed past the age of 48 since. The gap between Howe and the rest of history is not a record. It is a different category of human entirely.
Top 10 Oldest Players in NHL History
1. Gordie Howe – 52 years, 11 days (1980) The standard that will almost certainly never be broken. Five decades of NHL hockey. 801 goals. 1,850 points. 1,767 games. The only player to compete in the NHL across five different decades.
2. Chris Chelios – 48 years, 71 days (2010) Chris Chelios retired after 26 seasons, tied with Howe for most in NHL history. The three-time Cup champion won titles with the Montréal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, and Detroit Red Wings, and holds the record for most career games played by a defenseman (1,651) and the most career playoff games in any North American professional sport (266). He still averaged over 20 minutes per game on the Detroit blueline into his mid-40s, a conditioning story almost as remarkable as his longevity.
3. Maurice "Moe" Roberts – 45 years, 345 days (1951) A career minor-leaguer who resurfaced in the NHL for the Chicago Blackhawks as an emergency substitute in 1951. Roberts holds the unlikely distinction of being the oldest goaltender in NHL history. His first NHL game had come 26 years earlier with the Boston Bruins. His career spanned four decades and totaled only 10 NHL appearances.
4. Jaromir Jagr – 45 years, 319 days (2018) Jaromir Jagr left the NHL with the Calgary Flames in 2018 as the second-leading point-scorer in league history and the oldest player to ever record an NHL hat trick. He continued playing professional hockey in the Czech Extraliga for his hometown club, which he also owns, and at 52 scored on his first shift back after his birthday, surpassing Howe as the oldest professional hockey player on the planet in any league.
5. Zdeno Chara – 45 years, 42 days (2022) Zdeno Chara finished his 24-season career back where it started, with the New York Islanders. At 6'9" (206 cm) he remains the tallest player to have competed at NHL level. The Norris Trophy winner and 2011 Stanley Cup champion spent the best years of his career with the Boston Bruins, where he was the most physically imposing presence the league had seen in a generation.
6. Johnny Bower – 45 years, 32 days (1970) The legendary Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender won four Stanley Cups and was famously evasive about his real age for much of his career, with some historians believing the official record undersells it. He played into his mid-40s in an era without the protective equipment and sports science that modern players benefit from, which makes the longevity even harder to explain.
7. Gump Worsley – 44 years, 323 days (1974) The Hall of Fame goaltender played his final season for the Minnesota North Stars at age 44. Worsley was also one of the last NHLers to play without a mask, a detail that seems increasingly improbable the further it recedes into history.
8. Doug Harvey – 44 years, 100 days (1969) One of the greatest defensemen in NHL history, Harvey won seven Norris Trophies and six Stanley Cups. His final NHL game came on March 29, 1969, at age 44 with the St. Louis Blues, 22 years after he first took the ice for the Montréal Canadiens.
9. Teemu Selanne – 43 years, 317 days (2014) Teemu Selänne scored 31 goals and 80 points at age 42, one of the most extraordinary individual seasons any player has produced past their 40th birthday. The Finnish Flash retired with 684 career goals, eighth-most in league history, having reinvented himself multiple times over a career that never really slowed until he chose to stop.
10. Igor Larionov – 43 years, 129 days (2004) Igor Larionov, The Professor, played his final NHL game at 43 for the New Jersey Devils. A three-time Cup champion with Detroit, his hockey intelligence compensated for any physical decline that came with age. He remains the standard for European players who wonder just how long elite reading of the game can carry a career.