unsurprisingly, Wayne Gretzky. Took him just 424 games (scored point 1000 at age 23!!!). Of the 88 players who have done it, Mario Lemieux is 2nd fastest at 513 games (that is a huge spread from 1st to 2nd, but that’s not the main point).

It took Gretzky 433 games to get his SECOND thousand points (no one else has ever broken 2000). So in a way, Gretzky is both the fastest and second-fastest to 1000 career points.


Some other more commonly-cited but still excellent Gretzky facts:
-Wayne and his brother Brent (who played a handful of NHL games and scored just 4 points) are the highest scoring pair of brothers in NHL history, even more than dual-Hall of Fame sets like the Richards and Sedins. If you include playoffs, they have more than not just any pair but any set (even more than the six Sutter brothers). They even have more than dual-Hall of Fame father/son combos like Bobby and Brett Hull and Gordie and Mark Howe.
-Gretzky had more assists in his career than anyone else has career POINTS... so if you remove all of his goals he would still be the NHL all-time leader in points.