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NHL Game-Winning Goals Leaders: Tampa Bay Lightning
2026-27All situationsThrough 11 team games
7 NHL skaters share the lead with 1 GWG for the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2026-27.
Leaders: Game-Winning Goals, Tampa Bay Lightning, 2026-27
1stJohn CarlsonTBL · 9 GP1
2ndVictor HedmanTBL · 9 GP1
3rdJake GuentzelTBL · 9 GP1
4thAnthony CirelliTBL · 9 GP1
5thBrandon HagelTBL · 9 GP1
The full ranked table, with filters, follows.
What Game-Winning Goals measures
This board ranks every NHL skater by game-winning goals, regular season only, listing players with at least one. Pick any season back to 2017-18 above the table. Goals that were the winning team's (loser's final score + 1)th goal, shootouts excluded.
Game-winning goals are goals plus timing luck: year-to-year correlation is weak (about 0.1 beyond what goals explain).
The game-winning goal is the winning team's goal that put it one ahead of the loser's final total: in a 5-2 win, the third goal. Shootout winners do not count. GWG mostly follows goals: the best scorers on the best teams pile them up. Season to season the total has almost no skill signal beyond goal scoring. In 2026-27, 7 skaters qualify for this board; the median is 1 and John Carlson leads at 1.
Game-Winning Goals leaderboard
| # | Player | Team | GWG | GP | Per game | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John CarlsonDTBL | TBL | 1 | 9 | 0.11 | 3 | 98% |
| 2 | Victor HedmanDTBL | TBL | 1 | 9 | 0.11 | 2 | 84%▼1 |
| 3 | Jake GuentzelFTBL | TBL | 1 | 9 | 0.11 | 4 | 100%▲0.5 |
| 4 | Anthony CirelliFTBL | TBL | 1 | 9 | 0.11 | 3 | 44%▼2.2 |
| 5 | Brandon HagelFTBL | TBL | 1 | 9 | 0.11 | 7 | 100% |
| 6 |  Pontus HolmbergFTBL | TBL | 1 | 9 | 0.11 | 2 | 4.0%▲3.9 |
| 7 |  Conor GeekieFTBL | TBL | 1 | 9 | 0.11 | 1 | 19%▼0.8 |
Frequently asked questions
Who leads the NHL in Game-Winning Goals in 2026-27?
John Carlson leads with 1. The median of the 7 qualified skaters is 1.
Which defenseman leads in Game-Winning Goals in 2026-27?
John Carlson leads NHL defensemen with 1; the top forward is Jake Guentzel at 1.
How is Game-Winning Goals calculated?
Goals that were the winning team's (loser's final score + 1)th goal, shootouts excluded. Regular season only, from the NHL's official game data.
How reliable is Game-Winning Goals?
Game-winning goals are goals plus timing luck: year-to-year correlation is weak (about 0.1 beyond what goals explain).