The Gordie Howe Hat Trick: Hockey's Toughest Feat

In every other sport, a hat trick means one thing: three goals, three touchdowns, three home runs. But hockey, as always, insists on being different. Hockey has the regular hat trick, of course -- three goals in one game. But it also has something no other sport would even think to invent: the Gordie Howe hat trick.

A goal. An assist. And a fight. All in the same game.

It is the only statistical achievement in professional sports that requires a player to demonstrate both elite skill and a willingness to punch another man in the face. It is absurd and magnificent and completely, irreducibly hockey. And it is named after the greatest player who ever embodied both sides of the game.

What Is a Gordie Howe Hat Trick?

The definition is straightforward. To record a Gordie Howe hat trick, a player must accomplish three things in a single game:

• Score a goal -- proving he can finish
• Record an assist -- proving he can create
• Get in a fight -- proving he can protect

Unlike a regular hat trick, which is purely an offensive achievement, the Gordie Howe hat trick demands versatility in the truest sense. It asks a player to be the complete package: scorer, playmaker, and enforcer. In a sport that has always valued toughness alongside talent, it is the ultimate expression of what it means to be a hockey player.

The term was coined by a New York sportswriter in the 1950s and named after Gordie Howe, the Detroit Red Wings legend who played 26 NHL seasons and embodied the combination of offensive brilliance and physical dominance better than anyone before or since. Howe could score 40 goals and break your nose in the same shift. He was, in every way, the complete player the hat trick celebrates.

The Great Irony: Gordie Howe's Own Record

Here is the part that makes hockey fans smile every time: Gordie Howe himself -- the man whose name defines this achievement -- only recorded the Gordie Howe hat trick twice in a career spanning 2,421 professional games across five decades.

Both instances came against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the early 1950s. The first was on October 11, 1953, when Howe scored a goal, assisted on a Red Kelly goal, and fought the Leafs' Fernie Flaman. But after that, opportunities dried up -- not because Howe lost his scoring touch, but because nobody wanted to fight him.

The reason was a single, legendary incident. On February 1, 1959, at Madison Square Garden, New York Rangers enforcer Lou Fontinato challenged Howe to a fight. Fontinato was considered the toughest man in hockey at the time. Howe destroyed him so thoroughly -- breaking Fontinato's nose and rearranging his face -- that the photographs were published in Life magazine. After that night, challenging Gordie Howe to a fight was considered roughly equivalent to volunteering for a hospital visit.

As his son Marty once joked: "The Gordie Howe hat trick should really be a goal, an assist, and a cross-check to the face. That might be more accurate."

The irony is perfect. The feat is named after Howe because he was the ultimate embodiment of skill and toughness, yet his very toughness made the fighting component nearly impossible. When you are so dangerous that nobody will drop the gloves with you, completing a Gordie Howe hat trick becomes a paradox.

The All-Time Leaders

If Gordie Howe could not pile up his own hat trick, plenty of other players were happy to do it for him. The all-time leaderboard reads like a who's who of hockey's most complete power forwards -- players who could beat you with their hands in every sense of the phrase.

Rick Tocchet: The All-Time King (18)

Rick Tocchet stands alone at the top with an astonishing 18 Gordie Howe hat tricks over an NHL career that spanned from 1984 to 2002. Tocchet was the quintessential power forward: 440 goals and 952 points in 1,144 games, combined with a relentless willingness to fight anyone in the league.

Nine of his 18 came while wearing the Philadelphia Flyers sweater, including three during the 1986-87 season alone -- two in January. His record is a testament to the rare combination of consistent offensive production and consistent physical aggression sustained over nearly two decades. Nobody has come close to matching it, and given the decline of fighting in modern hockey, nobody likely ever will.

Brendan Shanahan: The Hall of Famer (17)

One behind Tocchet sits Brendan Shanahan, who recorded 17 Gordie Howe hat tricks during a Hall of Fame career. Shanahan scored 656 goals -- ninth all-time when he retired -- while accumulating 2,489 penalty minutes. He later became the NHL's chief disciplinarian, which carries its own irony: the man who once fought and scored in the same game was now deciding punishments for fighting.

The Rest of the Top Ten

The complete all-time leaderboard tells a story about the kind of player who achieves this feat:

• Rick Tocchet -- 18
• Brendan Shanahan -- 17
• Brian Sutter -- 16
• Tiger Williams -- 15
• Wilf Paiement -- 15
• Cam Neely -- 12
• Jarome Iginla -- 11
• Keith Tkachuk -- 10
• Gerard Gallant -- 10
• Al Secord -- 10

Beyond the top ten, Paul Coffey had 9, Bobby Orr had 8, Wendel Clark had 7, and Lanny McDonald recorded 6. What unites nearly every name on this list is the power forward profile: big, skilled, and absolutely willing to fight. These were not goons who happened to score. They were scorers who happened to be terrifying.

Notable is the presence of defencemen Paul Coffey and Bobby Orr on the list. Both were offensive wizards from the blue line who were also genuinely tough -- a reminder that the Gordie Howe hat trick is not limited to forwards, though forwards dominate the leaderboard.

The Most Memorable Gordie Howe Hat Tricks

Tyler Lewington: All Three as Career Firsts (2018)

On December 29, 2018, something happened that had never occurred before in NHL history and almost certainly never will again.

Tyler Lewington of the Washington Capitals was playing in just his second career NHL game, called up from the minor leagues to face the Ottawa Senators. In the first period, he recorded an assist on a Tom Wilson goal. Then he scored a goal of his own. Then, as the game got physical, he dropped the gloves with Zack Smith.

Goal. Assist. Fight. All three were NHL career firsts.

Lewington became the only player in history to complete a Gordie Howe hat trick in which every component was a career first. Three other players -- Steve Pinizzotto, Shane O'Brien, and one other -- had recorded Gordie Howe hat tricks that included their first NHL goal, but only Lewington had all three elements be debut moments simultaneously.

"I don't think I've ever been a first star throughout Juniors or the American League," Lewington said afterward, in what may be the most modest reaction to a historic achievement in hockey history. He finished the night with a goal, an assist, five penalty minutes, and a plus-2 rating in Washington's 3-2 victory. It was the first Gordie Howe hat trick by a Capital in more than seven years.

Tereza Vanisova: The First Woman (2025)

On February 20, 2025, the Gordie Howe hat trick crossed a historic threshold when Tereza Vanisova of the Ottawa Charge became the first woman to record one in the Professional Women's Hockey League.

The game against the Boston Fleet was already eventful when Vanisova got into an altercation with Boston's Jill Saulnier in the third period -- the first fight in PWHL history. Saulnier had hit Vanisova in the corner, and after continued pushing, the two dropped the gloves. Both received roughing minors.

When Vanisova emerged from the penalty box, she scored with just three seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime. Combined with her earlier goal and assist, she had completed the Gordie Howe hat trick -- in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.

Vanisova, a Czech international and former University of Maine star, had already made PWHL history that season by recording the league's first-ever hat trick (three goals) on February 13 against the Minnesota Frost. The Gordie Howe version, achieved just a week later, cemented her as one of the most dynamic players in the young league's history.

The First One Ever: Harry Cameron (1917)

The first documented Gordie Howe hat trick -- decades before anyone called it that -- was recorded by Hockey Hall of Fame defenceman Harry Cameron of the Toronto Arenas on December 26, 1917, in a 7-5 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Cameron scored, set up a teammate, and fought, establishing the template for a feat that would not bear its famous name for another four decades.

The "Double Gordie"

The rarest variation of all is the "Double Gordie," which occurs when two players fight each other and both also record a goal and an assist in the same game -- meaning both combatants complete Gordie Howe hat tricks through the same bout.

This has happened only five times in NHL history. The most recent was on October 9, 2024, when J.T. Miller and Anthony Mantha fought each other and both completed the feat. The Double Gordie requires an extraordinary confluence of events: two skilled, physical players on opposing teams, both having productive offensive nights, who then happen to fight each other. It is the unicorn of hockey statistics.

The Cultural Significance

Why the Term Endures

Here is what is remarkable about the Gordie Howe hat trick: it matters more now than it ever did when it was common.

In the 1980s, when fighting was routine and power forwards were everywhere, a Gordie Howe hat trick was a noteworthy but not especially rare achievement. Tocchet recorded three in a single season. It was impressive but expected from the right type of player.

Today, with fighting nearly extinct, the Gordie Howe hat trick has become something closer to a cultural artifact -- a living connection to an older, rougher version of the sport. When a player achieves one in the modern era, it makes headlines precisely because it feels like a throwback, a reminder of what hockey used to be.

The term itself has entered the broader sports lexicon. People who know nothing about hockey's fighting code know what a Gordie Howe hat trick is. It appears in movies, television shows, and bar trivia nights. It is one of those phrases -- like "hat trick" itself, or "slapshot" -- that has transcended the sport that created it.

What It Says About Hockey

No other major sport has an equivalent. Baseball does not celebrate a player who hits a home run, steals a base, and charges the mound. Football has no stat for a quarterback who throws a touchdown, makes a tackle, and gets in a sideline shoving match. Only hockey has formalized the combination of skill and violence into a named achievement.

This says something fundamental about the sport. Hockey has always understood, in a way that other games do not, that toughness is not the opposite of skill -- it is its partner. The enforcer tradition, the fighting code, the bodyguard role: all of these grew from the conviction that a team needs players who can create and players who can protect, and the very best players can do both.

The Gordie Howe hat trick is the statistical expression of that conviction. It does not just honour a great player. It honours a philosophy of the game -- one that says the complete hockey player is not merely the one who scores the most goals, but the one who can score a goal, set one up, and then defend his teammates with his fists. It is brutal and beautiful and uniquely hockey.

Statistics and Trends

The Decline by the Numbers

The frequency of Gordie Howe hat tricks tracks almost perfectly with the decline of fighting in the NHL:

• 1980s: Approximately 1 fight every 2 games -- Gordie Howe hat tricks were a regular occurrence, with multiple players recording several per season
• 1990s: Fighting remained common, and power forwards like Shanahan, Iginla, and Tkachuk continued to pile up the feat
• 2000s: Post-lockout rule changes began reducing fights, and the feat became less frequent
• 2010s: Fighting dropped below 0.3 fights per game, and Gordie Howe hat tricks became rare enough to make national sports news
• 2020s: With fighting at approximately 0.18 fights per game, the feat is now a genuine rarity -- a handful per season at most

Which Positions Achieve It Most?

Forwards, particularly power forwards and wingers, dominate the all-time leaderboard. This makes intuitive sense: forwards are more likely to record goals and assists than defencemen, and power forwards are more likely to fight than pure skill players. The prototypical Gordie Howe hat trick player is a 6-foot-1 to 6-foot-3 winger weighing 200-220 pounds who plays a physical game while maintaining strong offensive numbers.

That said, defencemen are not excluded. Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey both achieved the feat multiple times, proving that the blue line can produce complete players too. Orr's eight Gordie Howe hat tricks are particularly impressive given that defencemen generally fight less often than forwards.

Will Anyone Break Tocchet's Record?

Almost certainly not. Rick Tocchet's 18 Gordie Howe hat tricks were accumulated during an era when fighting was a routine part of the game and power forwards were expected to drop the gloves regularly. In today's NHL, where a player might fight two or three times per season at most, the math simply does not work. A modern player would need to sustain elite offensive production while also fighting frequently for 15 to 20 years -- a combination that the current game no longer supports or encourages.

Tocchet's record is, in all likelihood, permanent -- a monument to an era of hockey that has passed.

Gordie Howe: The Man Behind the Name

It is worth pausing to remember why this feat bears Gordie Howe's name in the first place. It is not because he recorded the most. It is because he was the most complete player the sport had ever seen.

Howe played 26 NHL seasons, scored 801 goals, won four Stanley Cups, and was named to 23 All-Star Games. He retired at age 52, having played professional hockey in five different decades. Those numbers alone would make him one of the greatest. But what made Howe transcendent was the other side of his game.

He was, by universal agreement, the toughest player in hockey during an era when toughness was measured by your willingness to use your elbows, your stick, and your fists. He accumulated 1,685 penalty minutes over his career -- not because he was a goon, but because he would not tolerate anyone taking liberties with him or his teammates. The elbows to the face were legendary. The fights were decisive. The message was clear: you could try to play rough with Gordie Howe, but you would regret it.

That combination -- the Art Ross Trophies and the broken noses, the highlight-reel goals and the hospital-sending elbows -- is exactly what the Gordie Howe hat trick celebrates. It does not honour a scorer. It does not honour a fighter. It honours the player who is both, simultaneously, without compromise.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Gordie Howe hat trick?

A Gordie Howe hat trick is achieved when a hockey player records a goal, an assist, and a fight all in the same game. It is named after Hall of Famer Gordie Howe, the Detroit Red Wings legend who embodied the combination of offensive brilliance and physical toughness better than anyone in hockey history.

How many Gordie Howe hat tricks did Gordie Howe actually have?

Just two, both against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the early 1950s. The irony is that Howe was so tough that virtually nobody would fight him, making the fighting component nearly impossible to achieve. After he demolished Lou Fontinato at Madison Square Garden in 1959, challenging Howe to a fight became an act of self-destruction.

Who has the most Gordie Howe hat tricks in NHL history?

Rick Tocchet holds the all-time record with 18, followed by Brendan Shanahan with 17, Brian Sutter with 16, and Tiger Williams and Wilf Paiement each with 15. The record is considered essentially unbreakable given the decline of fighting in modern hockey.

How rare is a Gordie Howe hat trick in today's NHL?

Extremely rare. With fighting at historic lows -- roughly 0.18 fights per game in the 2020s compared to one fight every two games in the 1980s -- the feat now occurs only a handful of times per season across the entire league. When one does happen, it generates significant media coverage and social media attention.

What is a "Double Gordie" in hockey?

A "Double Gordie" occurs when two players fight each other and both also record a goal and an assist in the same game, meaning both complete Gordie Howe hat tricks through the same fight. This has happened only five times in NHL history, most recently on October 9, 2024, when J.T. Miller and Anthony Mantha accomplished the feat.

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• Gordie Howe: Mr. Hockey
• The Art of Hockey Fights
• Tiger Williams: The Penalty King
• How Enforcers Have Evolved in Hockey
• Bob Probert: Hockey's Toughest Man
• The Hockey Fighting Code