NHL Stats API — Skater Leaders — nhl_stats_skater

Returns a skater leaderboard for a given statistic attribute from the NHL Stats REST API (https://api.nhle.com/stats/rest/{lang}/leaders/skaters/{attribute}). Distinct from the api-web skater-stats-leaders endpoint.

Usage

nhl_stats_skater_leaders(attribute, lang = "en", cayenne_exp = NULL)

Arguments

attribute: Character (required). The stat attribute to rank by. Known valid values include "points", "goals", "assists". Note that this endpoint does not accept start / limit query parameters — passing them produces a 500. Use cayenne_exp to filter.
lang: Character language code. Default "en".
cayenne_exp: Optional Cayenne filter expression string passed via the cayenneExp query parameter (e.g., "seasonId=20242025").

Value

A data frame (fastRhockey_data) of skater leaders, or NULL on failure. When ranking by "assists" the columns are:

col_name	types	description
assists	integer	Assists (the ranked attribute).
player_id	integer	Unique player identifier.
player_current_team_id	logical	Player's current team identifier.
player_first_name	character	Player first name.
player_full_name	character	Player full name.
player_last_name	character	Player last name.
player_position_code	character	Player position code.
player_sweater_number	integer	Player jersey number.
team_id	integer	Unique team identifier.
team_franchise_id	integer	Team franchise identifier.
team_full_name	character	Team full name.
team_league_id	integer	League identifier of the team.
team_logos	list	Team logo metadata.
team_raw_tricode	character	Team raw three-letter code.
team_tri_code	character	Team three-letter code.

Examples

# \donttest{
  try(nhl_stats_skater_leaders(attribute = "assists"))
#> ── NHL Stats Skater Leaders ─────────────────────────────── fastRhockey 1.0.0 ──
#> ℹ Data updated: 2026-06-13 07:21:02 UTC
#> # A tibble: 10 × 15
#>    assists player_id player_current_team_id player_first_name player_full_name
#>      <int>     <int> <lgl>                  <chr>             <chr>           
#>  1     163   8447400 NA                     Wayne             Wayne Gretzky   
#>  2     135   8447400 NA                     Wayne             Wayne Gretzky   
#>  3     125   8447400 NA                     Wayne             Wayne Gretzky   
#>  4     122   8447400 NA                     Wayne             Wayne Gretzky   
#>  5     121   8447400 NA                     Wayne             Wayne Gretzky   
#>  6     120   8447400 NA                     Wayne             Wayne Gretzky   
#>  7     118   8447400 NA                     Wayne             Wayne Gretzky   
#>  8     114   8448782 NA                     Mario             Mario Lemieux   
#>  9     114   8447400 NA                     Wayne             Wayne Gretzky   
#> 10     109   8447400 NA                     Wayne             Wayne Gretzky   
#> # ℹ 10 more variables: player_last_name <chr>, player_position_code <chr>,
#> #   player_sweater_number <int>, team_id <int>, team_franchise_id <int>,
#> #   team_full_name <chr>, team_league_id <int>, team_logos <list>,
#> #   team_raw_tricode <chr>, team_tri_code <chr>
# }