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Eric Staal of the Minnesota Wild scored a goal against the Winnipeg Jets on April 15th of the 2017/18 NHL season. The last playoffs goal he had scored came 9 years before that for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Is this the longest time between 2 playoffs goals for any player in the history of the NHL? Please provide the player with this record including the dates and the teams he scored the goals

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The longest time between two consecutive NHL playoff goals for a player is 11 years, which has been done by 5 players:

  1. Craig Ludwig: 103 games apart, 4079 days

    1. 04/09/1988, Montreal @ Hartford
    2. 06/10/1999, Dallas vs Buffalo

  2. James Patrick, 72 games apart, 4027 days

    1. 04/21/1990, NY Rangers vs Washington
    2. 04/30/2001, Buffalo vs Pittsburgh

  3. Bob Goldham: 20 games apart, 4004 days

    1. 04/16/1942, Toronto at Detroit
    2. 04/02/1953, Detroit vs Boston

  4. Walt McKechnie: 1 game apart (consecutive!), 3994 days

    1. 05/03/1968, Minnesota North Stars @ St. Louis
    2. 04/10/1979, Toronto @ Atlanta Flames

  5. Mathieu Schneider, 35 games apart, 3962 days

    1. 06/05/1993, Montreal @ Los Angeles
    2. 04/10/2004, Detroit vs Nashville

10 years apart has been achieved by 14 players, 9 years by 12 players.

Source:
Looked up list of players who scored a goal in any year in the playoffs, copied all 9352 player-seasons to Excel, and then queried to see the longest time between consecutive seasons for a given player. Once I had the names, I looked them up to see the specifics on dates and games.

Here is the Hockey-Reference list of players who scored a playoff goal during any season, and which seasons it was. If you decide to double check me, beware that some players appear to have 20+ year gaps, because multiple players can have the same name (like Syl Apps!).

Here is a table of all 9+ year gaps:

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  • Just to be complete, please add the resource you used to get the list of all players who scored a goal in playoffs. I've already accepted your answer
    – alamoot
    Apr 16, 2018 at 19:48
  • Added the link! Note that Hockey-Reference only displays 200 names at a time so you'll have to keep clicking "Next Page" to view all of them
    – Pawr
    Apr 16, 2018 at 19:54

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