Can the Los Angeles Kings get any higher than third place in the Pacific Division? Ryan Kennedy and Mike Stephens discuss. Anze Kopitar [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MTk3NjcyNDU2NjQxNTg2NDc3/usatsi_20336962.jpg] Anze Kopitar A player remaining with an NHL franchise for years on end signifies a two-way street of confidence. It means the front office believes in their player to continue being an important part of their team, whether it's in one of the top roles of the team or as a member of the supporting cast. It also means the player has found a long-term home and believes in the greater goal and culture of their franchise. In the past year, longtime franchise faces have moved on to other teams, such as Blake Wheeler leaving the Winnipeg Jets as their all-time leader in games played. While he hangs onto that title despite moving, another player becomes Winnipeg's current active leader in games played. Here’s each Western Conference franchise’s active leader in games played and where they lie on each team’s all-time list. Keep in mind this list only features players who are still under contract for their team as of Sept. 4, 2023. Anaheim Ducks: Cam Fowler, 893 games – The 31-year-old defenseman has faced his share of trade rumors over the past few seasons as the team continues to rebuild, but Fowler continues to be Anaheim’s No. 1 defenseman. His 38 assists and 48 points were career highs as he played every match of a full 82-game season for just the second time in his 13 seasons. While Fowler has the most games played by a defenseman in Ducks all-time history, he ranks fourth among all players and sits 264 contests behind Ryan Getzlaf for first place. Arizona Coyotes: Clayton Keller, 442 games – Including the original Winnipeg Jets, Keller has the 22nd-most games played in Coyotes-Jets history. Shane Doan sits in first with 1,540 matches. In Coyotes history alone, Keller ranks 11th but can pass Mikkel Boedker, Jeremy Roenick and Radim Vrbata into eighth place if he plays at least 67 games this season. But if we solely look at the years since the Phoenix Coyotes changed to the Arizona Coyotes ahead of the 2014-15 season, Keller can pass former captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s 511 games for first place. Calgary Flames: Mikael Backlund, 908 games – The 34-year-old enters his 16th campaign with the Flames on the final season of a six-year contract worth $5.35 million annually. He’s currently without a contract extension, and he’s still looking to capture the Stanley Cup. If the Flames don’t have a significant bounce-back season and enter the Cup-contenders conversation, Backlund could be traded for the first time in his NHL career during 2023-24. If he appears in at least 42 more games for Calgary, he’ll pass Mark Giordano for the second-most matches in Flames history, but he’s nowhere near Jarome Iginla’s 1,219 appearances. Chicago Blackhawks: Connor Murphy, 373 games – If you still weren’t sure if Chicago is entering a new era, this should do the trick. Stan Mikita is the all-time leader with 1,396 games, but the next four make up the Cup-winning core of Duncan Keith (1,192), Patrick Kane (1,161), Brent Seabrook (1,114) and Jonathan Toews (1,067). Murphy ranks 67th all-time but has played almost double the number of games than Chicago’s next-most tenured Blackhawk, 23-year-old Philipp Kurashev. Colorado Avalanche: Gabriel Landeskog, 738 games – Colorado’s captain has been stuck at 738 career regular-season games since March 10, 2022, and he’s expected to stay at that number for another season. The Avalanche have already ruled him out for a second straight year as he recovers from multiple knee surgeries. Although Landeskog ranks fifth in games played in Avalanche-Nordiques history, Nathan MacKinnon only needs to play 30 games this season to overtake him for that spot. That’s as high as MacKinnon can climb, as he currently sits at 709 games and can increase that number up to 791 – Nordiques legend Michel Goulet is fourth with 813 matches, while Joe Sakic is first with 1,378 games. Dallas Stars: Jamie Benn, 1,030 games – Benn’s played 14 seasons with the Stars so far, and he has two campaigns to go on an eight-year contract. The 34-year-old resurged last season with 78 points, and don't count him out yet on replicating that performance in 2023-24. But whether it’s just Dallas Stars history or it includes the Minnesota North Stars, Benn will remain in second place all-time behind Mike Modano. The Hockey Hall of Famer played 1,459 games for the franchise and 1,142 with Dallas. Edmonton Oilers: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 801 games – Unlike Benn, Nugent-Hopkins can climb up multiple spots if he stays healthy this season. Currently ranked fifth in games played in Oilers franchise history, the 2011 No. 1 overall pick can pass Glenn Anderson (845) and Mark Messier (851) for third all-time. If he records at least 38 points, he’ll pass Hall of Fame defenseman Paul Coffey for the seventh-most career points in franchise history. The main difference is that Nugent-Hopkins has already played 269 more matches for Edmonton than Coffey. Los Angeles: Anze Kopitar, 1,292 games – Unlike the other teams mentioned up to this point, Los Angeles will almost surely see their current captain set a new all-time franchise record for most games played. It will likely happen as soon as October, since Kopitar is only four contests behind Dustin Brown’s 1,296 games played for the Kings. Circle the Oct. 21 duel at home against the Boston Bruins on your calendar, Kings fans. Beyond that, Kopitar could become the second Kings player all-time to record 1,200 points for the team if he gets to 59 this season. Minnesota Wild: Jared Spurgeon, 851 games – The Wild’s captain already has the most career goals and points by a defenseman in franchise history, with 110 and 379, respectively. Even among all Wild players, he ranks fourth in points and can pass Zach Parise for third place with another 22. But let’s say he plays 82 games for Minnesota this season and the next – even though he already ranks second for the most all-time matches played for the Wild, he’ll still be 13 games short of tying Mikko Koivu for first place. Nashville Predators: Roman Josi, 827 games – Like Spurgeon, Nashville’s captain also already has the second-most games played in franchise history, and he’ll also remain in that spot no matter how many contests he plays in 2023-24. He’s 130 appearances away from passing David Legwand for the most all-time, and winger Filip Forsberg can only climb up one spot from seventh this season with his 616 games for Nashville. Josi can, however, pass Shea Weber for the most goals by a defenseman in Preds history if he scores at least nine times. He already has the most all-time assists (443) and points (601) for Nashville by a distance. San Jose Sharks: Marc-Edouard Vlasic, 1,239 games – For the third team in a row in this list, the active leader is a defenseman who ranks second in franchise history but is nowhere near first place. Vlasic has the toughest task of the three, as he is 368 games behind Patrick Marleau’s 1,607 Sharks appearances for the most in team history. Unless Vlasic stays fully healthy with San Jose through the final three seasons of his eight-year contract and re-signs for at least two more campaigns, second place is as high as the 36-year-old will go. Marleau’s 1,779 career games split between the Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins are the most in NHL history. Seattle Kraken: Adam Larsson, 164 games – As the Kraken enter their third season in the NHL, only Larsson has played in every game of their franchise history to date. Alex Wennberg is the next closest, at 162 games, while Jordan Eberle is third with 161 matches. Outside chances to take over the top spot in the next few seasons are Yanni Gourde (155), Vince Dunn (154) and Jared McCann (153). St. Louis Blues: Colton Parayko, 577 games – Regarding active NHL players who have since moved on to other teams, Alex Pietrangelo has the fifth-most games played for the Blues in franchise history with 758, while David Perron’s 673 games rank ninth, and Vladimir Tarasenko’s 644 appearances rank 11th. Parayko ranks 18th but is in Year 2 of an eight-year contract worth $6.5 million annually. He also has a no-trade clause through 2027-28 and a 15-team no-trade list for the final two seasons. Even if Parayko appears in at least 70 games for the Blues in the final seven years of his deal, he’ll have 140 more matches than Bernie Federko’s 927 for the most in franchise history. Vancouver Canucks: Brock Boeser, 398 games – After Vancouver traded Bo Horvat to the New York Islanders midway through last season, Boeser became the new games-played leader among active Canucks. He’s only in 39th place in franchise history, while Elias Pettersson is 51st, with 325 games. Both players have varying levels of uncertainty regarding their long-term futures in Vancouver, so it’ll be a tall task for either of them to come remotely close to Henrik Sedin’s 1,330 contests for the most in Canucks history. Vegas Golden Knights: William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault, 432 games – Two of Vegas’ Original Misfits lead the way for the most games in franchise history. Marchessault has the most goals (150), assists (198) and points (348) in Golden Knights history, while Karlsson ranks third in goals (122), third in assists (185) and second in points (307). As the Golden Knights captured the Stanley Cup in 2023, Marchessault was the third player to hoist the Cup during the celebration after Mark Stone and Reilly Smith – Marchessault then passed it to his fellow co-leader in games played. Winnipeg Jets: Mark Scheifele, 723 games – Blake Wheeler has the most games played for the Jets-Thrashers franchise, with 897. He’s off to the New York Rangers after Winnipeg decided to buy out his contract, so that leaves Scheifele as the active leader among current teammates and third all-time. If Scheifele is traded or doesn’t re-sign with Winnipeg by next summer, Adam Lowry will take over that title if he remains on the team through Year 3 of his five-year contract.
