NHL Prospects Tournament: The 500 Club
A total of 27 NHL prospect alumni who have played in more the 500 NHL games since it’s inception. The NHL prospects tournament has produced 400 NHL alumni to date, but only 7 percent have broken the 500 game mark. Players likely to join the 500 club next season include David Backes (St. Louis – 494), Braydon Coburn (Atlanta – 493), Steve Eminger (Washington – 488), Valterri Filppula (Detroit – 483), Jim Slater (Atlanta – 475), Tomas Kopecky (Detroit – 465), and Jiri Hudler (Detroit – 451). The most games by an alumni goalie is 380 by Kari Lehtonen (Atlanta / 2003). The remainder of the top five among alumni goaltenders includes: Steve Mason (Columbus/ 2006) with 239 NHL games, Jimmy Howard (Detroit/ 2005 – 2006) with 234 NHL games, Ondrej Pavelec (Atlanta / 2006-2007) with 231 NHL games, and Pascal Leclaire (Columbus/ 2001) with 173 NHL games. Below is a current list of players who have 500 NHL games or more:
Prospect Team | Prospect Team | Prospect Team | Prospect Team |
1. Nashville | 1998 | David Legwand | 894 |
2. Nashville | 2000 | Scott Hartnell | 875 |
3. Chicago | 1998 | Dan Cleary | 869 |
4. Chicago | 1998 | J.P. Dumont | 822 |
5. Atlanta | 2001 | Ilya Kovalchuk | 816 |
6. Minnesota | 2001 | Nick Schultz | 811 |
7. St. Louis | 1998 | Marty Reasoner | 798 |
8. Atlanta | 2001 | Dany Heatley | 787 |
9. Detroit | 2001 | Pavel Datsyuk | 779 |
10. Nashville | 2000 – 2001 | Martin Erat | 732 |
11. Detroit | 2002 | Henrik Zetterberg | 714 |
12. Nashville | 2001 | Dan Hamhuis | 676 |
13. Columbus | 2000 | Rostislav Klesla | 634 |
14. St. Louis | 2001 – 2003 | Jay McClement | 601 |
15. Chicago | 1998 – 1999 | Kyle Calder | 590 |
16. Minnesota | 2001 – 2003 | Zbynek Michalek | 584 |
17. St. Louis | 2004 | Dennis Wideman | 581 |
18. Detroit | 1999 – 2000 | Sean Avery | 580 |
19. Minnesota | 2001 | Vern Fiddler | 580 |
20. Minnesota | 2002 | Pierre-Marc Bouchard | 565 |
21. Minnesota | 2003 | Brent Burns | 564 |
22. Atlanta | 2000 | Darcy Hordichuk | 542 |
23. Atlanta | 2000 | Mike Weaver | 530 |
24. Nashville | 2001 | Jordan Tootoo | 528 |
25. Detroit | 2003 – 2004 | Niklas Kronwall | 515 |
26. Washington | 2003 | Alexander Semin | 513 |
27. Detroit | 2001 – 2002 | Chad LaRose | 508 |