Mario Lemieux scored 135 points against the New Jersey Devils, more than against any other opponent. Lemieux also went his entire career without a single point against two of the teams he faced.
Lemieux played 915 regular-season games, all for Pittsburgh, and finished with 690 goals, 1,033 assists and 1,723 points.
Mario Lemieux’s points against every NHL team
Ranked by points. Teams appear under their current franchise names, with the names Lemieux actually played against in brackets where they differ. Regular season only.
| Team | GP | G | A | P | P/GP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey Devils | 74 | 47 | 88 | 135 | 1.82 |
| New York Rangers | 70 | 61 | 71 | 132 | 1.89 |
| New York Islanders | 72 | 50 | 81 | 131 | 1.82 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 71 | 51 | 73 | 124 | 1.75 |
| Washington Capitals | 61 | 51 | 50 | 101 | 1.66 |
| Carolina Hurricanes (Hartford Whalers) | 40 | 30 | 44 | 74 | 1.85 |
| Boston Bruins | 43 | 31 | 42 | 73 | 1.70 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 33 | 31 | 40 | 71 | 2.15 |
| Buffalo Sabres | 40 | 29 | 41 | 70 | 1.75 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 42 | 27 | 41 | 68 | 1.62 |
| Colorado Avalanche (Quebec Nordiques) | 33 | 30 | 36 | 66 | 2.00 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 27 | 25 | 37 | 62 | 2.30 |
| Calgary Flames | 26 | 20 | 42 | 62 | 2.38 |
| Vancouver Canucks | 28 | 26 | 35 | 61 | 2.18 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 28 | 19 | 42 | 61 | 2.18 |
| St. Louis Blues | 26 | 25 | 33 | 58 | 2.23 |
| Detroit Red Wings | 27 | 21 | 37 | 58 | 2.15 |
| Utah Mammoth (Winnipeg Jets, Phoenix Coyotes) | 26 | 19 | 34 | 53 | 2.04 |
| San Jose Sharks | 14 | 17 | 32 | 49 | 3.50 |
| Edmonton Oilers | 26 | 14 | 29 | 43 | 1.65 |
| Dallas Stars (Minnesota North Stars) | 27 | 17 | 24 | 41 | 1.52 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 18 | 11 | 28 | 39 | 2.17 |
| Ottawa Senators | 23 | 14 | 21 | 35 | 1.52 |
| Florida Panthers | 15 | 13 | 9 | 22 | 1.47 |
| Winnipeg Jets (Atlanta Thrashers) | 11 | 5 | 17 | 22 | 2.00 |
| Anaheim Ducks (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim) | 7 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 1.43 |
| Minnesota Wild | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.67 |
| Nashville Predators | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Career | 915 | 690 | 1,033 | 1,723 | 1.88 |
The four teams at the top of that table were Pittsburgh’s Patrick Division rivals for most of Lemieux’s career, and he played each of them at least 70 times.
San Jose is the exception, and it is the row worth stopping on. Lemieux scored at 3.50 points per game against the Sharks, a rate no other franchise came close to. Calgary is next at 2.38, and his own career rate was 1.88.
Lemieux’s career spanned four relocations, so each historical club is folded into the franchise that owns its record today.
This was compiled from Hockey-Reference’s career splits and cross-checked against StatMuse.
How many points did Mario Lemieux score in his NHL career?
1,723, in 915 regular-season games: 690 goals and 1,033 assists, every one of them in a Pittsburgh sweater across 17 seasons from 1984-85 to 2005-06.
The gap between that total and the rate behind it is the whole story of the career. Lemieux missed entire seasons to back surgery and to cancer treatment, and retired twice. A healthy 17-year run at the pace he actually played would have produced a number nobody has approached.
What was Mario Lemieux’s points per game?
1.88 over a full career, which is the second-highest figure in NHL history.
The per-opponent range is wider than the career number suggests. Lemieux scored at 3.50 a game against San Jose and at 0.00 against Nashville and Columbus, and 22 of the 29 franchises held him between 1.50 and 2.30.
Against the four teams Lemieux played most, 287 games in total, he scored 522 points at a rate of 1.82 per game, below his own career rate of 1.88. Those four opponents account for 31% of every game he played and 30% of every point he scored. Every one of his best rates came against a team he faced 33 times or fewer.
How do Mario Lemieux’s stats compare with Wayne Gretzky’s?
Wayne Gretzky finished with 2,857 points in 1,487 games, a rate of 1.921. Lemieux finished with 1,723 points in 915 games, a rate of 1.883. They are first and second on the all-time points-per-game list and have been since Lemieux retired. Gretzky played 572 more games, which is most of seven full seasons.
Read more: Gretzky’s own stats against every NHL team
The two careers are tied together in smaller ways as well, starting with the number on Lemieux’s back. The story behind why Lemieux wore No. 66 is not the tribute it is usually described as. And the question of where Lemieux sits in the all-time order is one Elliotte Friedman once answered to his face.
Were there any teams Mario Lemieux never scored against?
Two. Nashville and Columbus.
Lemieux played two regular-season games against each, four in total, and finished all four with an empty line: no goals, no assists. They are the only franchises on the table with a zero.
The timing explains it. Nashville entered the league in 1998-99, while Lemieux was retired. Columbus entered in 2000-01, the season he came back. He met both of them only in the comeback years, in his late thirties, rather than as the player who put 135 points on New Jersey. His smallest sample of all came against the Minnesota Wild: three games, two goals, no assists.
Which NHL teams did Mario Lemieux never play against?
Two of today’s 32: the Vegas Golden Knights, who entered the league in 2017-18, and the Seattle Kraken, who entered in 2021-22. Both arrived well after Lemieux retired for the last time in 2006.
One franchise gets added to that list by mistake. The Utah Mammoth name is new, but the club is not an expansion team. It began as the original Winnipeg Jets, became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996 and moved again in 2024. Lemieux played it 26 times and scored 53 points, all of which sit in the Utah row.
Who did Mario Lemieux score his first NHL goal against?
The Boston Bruins, and their goaltender Pete Peeters, 2:59 into his first NHL game on 11 October 1984. It came on his first shift and his first shot, after Lemieux stripped Ray Bourque and went in alone. NHL.com’s account of the night notes that Boston still won 4-3, and that Bourque scored the winner.
