Michael Alfred Gartner (born 29 October 1959) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who was a right winger for 19 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Washington Capitals, Minnesota North Stars, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Phoenix Coyotes. He also played one season in the World Hockey Association (WHA) for the Cincinnati Stingers.
Gartner began his career with the WHA in its final year in 1978, where he recorded 27 goals in his only season in the league as a nineteen-year old player. In 1979, he was drafted as the fourth overall pick in the draft by the Capitals. With his blazing speed and shot, Gartner became a dependable player for the then-fledging franchise, recording the first of a record fifteen consecutive 30-goal seasons in 1979; he peaked in goals with 50 in the 1984–85 season. Gartner was traded to Minnesota in the middle of the 1988–89 season; when he departed Washington, he led the franchise in goals and assists. Gartner was traded to New York in the midst of the 1989–90 season and became the sixteenth player to reach 500 goals in 1991. Late in the 1993–94 season, he was traded to Toronto, where he reached the Conference Finals for the only time that year. He concluded his career in Phoenix that saw reach 700 goals, the fifth player to do so. Internationally, Gartner won the Canada Cup twice with Team Canada. While Gartner never won a major award or reached the Stanley Cup Final as a player, he recorded over 700 goals and 600 assists in over 1,400 games, a mark achieved by only five players at the time he retired. He was named to the NHL All-Star Game seven times.
Gartner was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001 in his first year of eligibility and had his number retired by the Capitals in 2008. He became a member of the Hall of Fame Selection Committee in 2009, rising to chair of the committee in 2022. In 2017, Gartner was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in the league's 100-year history. After his 15-year tenure on the committee concluded in 2024, he was named to serve as the new chairman of the board of the Hall in July 2025.
Gartner was born in Ottawa, Ontario. The family moved to Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto when Gartner was young and moved to Barrie when he was 13 years old. His father Alf, a former amateur goalie, insisted that his son work on power skating training for three summers, which he did before he turned 10 at the Dixie Arena. He played hockey in Mississauga and midget hockey in Barrie, which saw him win a Canadian National Wrigley Midget Championship. As a youth, Gartner played in the 1972 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament with a minor ice hockey team from Toronto.
He participated in an exhibition tour in Moscow at the age of 15. He rose to Tier II and then the Niagara Falls Flyers of the OHA. He won the Emms Family Award for his play as a rookie in the 1976–77 OMJHL season. He recorded 74 combined goals in two seasons and was selected to the 1978 World Junior Championships, finishing third place. Desiring the chance to play in the pro leagues, he decided to sign a contract with the World Hockey Association at the age of 18.
Gartner was born with amblyopia in his right eye, which he played with for his entire hockey career. As stated by Gartner in 2020:
My left eye is my dominant eye, I have 20-20 vision in my left eye and 20/200 vision in my right eye. If I cover my left eye and look out of my right eye, I couldn’t even drive my car. It didn’t really come into play until I turned pro, at which point I had to take an eye test. The doctor said, ‘cover one eye, and then cover the other’ – and I said, ‘I can’t see out of that eye.’ For years, the doctors just kinda looked the other way – I would take the black thing they use to cover your eye and move it a little so I could read the eye charts. They didn’t care if I could see out of both eyes, as long as I could pass the eye test – and score goals.
Feeling that he was ready for the pro leagues but without the option to play in the National Hockey League until he was 20, Gartner signed a multi-year contract with the Cincinnati Stingers of the World Hockey Association in 1978. In the 1978–79 WHA season, he played on a line with Mark Messier and finished second to Wayne Gretzky for Rookie of the Year honors while having 27 goals. He was named to the 1979 WHA All-Star Games in January that saw him record two points in the second and third games played against Moscow Dynamo.
Gartner was drafted in the first round as the fourth overall pick by the Washington Capitals in the 1979 NHL entry draft; he was one of four Hall of Famers selected in the first round of the draft. He would play for them for the better part of ten seasons. He recorded an assist in his NHL debut on 11 October 1979, versus the Buffalo Sabres, and wore number eleven for the team. In the 1979–80 season, Gartner won the Capitals' Rookie of the Year and MVP awards and was voted by their fans as the team's Most Promising Player while leading the team with 36 goals. On 18 October of the 1980–81 season, Gartner had his first four-goal game in his career, doing so against the New York Rangers. Later in the season, he set a franchise record with a point in seventeen straight games, doing so from 26 February to 2 March with seventeen goals and seven assists.
Gartner had his first serious injury in the midst of the 1982–83 season, which saw him play 73 games with 38 goals and assists each. In the 13 February game against the Winnipeg Jets, Gartner was struck in the left eye by a wayward puck. He suffered two fractures in his cheekbone and had damage to his optic nerve. He returned to action in March and wore a protective eye shield for the rest of his career. In the 1984–85 season, Gartner had a banner year. He had a seventeen-game point streak from 13 October to 21 November on the strength of 12 goals and 16 assists to tie his own franchise record, a mark that still stands. Teamed up with Bobby Carpenter by head coach Bryan Murray, each player ended up recording 50 goals, with Gartner recording 52 assists for the Capitals. Gartner became the second Capitals player with 50 goals and 50 assists in the same season when he recorded two goals and assists each in the season finale against Pittsburgh on 7 April. It was the first and only time Gartner had a 50-goal season in his NHL career.
The 1985–86 season saw him miss time near the end of the year due to undergoing arthroscopic surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee. He recorded 35 goals in 74 games. He returned two weeks later in time for the playoff run, recording two goals and a career-high ten assists in nine games. In the 1986–87 season, Gartner had a nine-game goal-scoring streak, doing so from 17 January to 1 February 1987 to tie Alan Haworth for the longest goal-scoring streak in franchise history, a mark that still stands. He had his second and last four-goal game as a professional on 20 February against the Vancouver Canucks.
Gartner was traded to the Minnesota North Stars on 7 March 1989, with Larry Murphy for Dino Ciccarelli and Bob Rouse; team general manager David Poile stated that the move for Ciccarelli was one where a "change would be better for the upcoming stretch drive and playoffs", stating the general similarities between him and Gartner with the potential upside in power play opportunities with Ciccarelli. He left the Capitals as the team's all-time leader in career goals, assists and points.
Gartner only lasted one season with Minnesota and was traded to the New York Rangers (who were looking for more speed and scoring) on 6 March 1990 for Ulf Dahlén, a draft pick, and future considerations. He scored two goals in his debut with the Rangers versus the Philadelphia Flyers. He scored eleven goals and sixteen points in the remaining twelve regular-season games the Rangers played that year. In 1991–92, he became the first player in NHL history to score his 500th goal, 500th assist, 1000th point and play in his 1000th game all in the same season. On 14 October 1991, he recorded his 500th career goal, becoming the first player to reach the milestone as a Ranger. The next season, Gartner became the first Ranger to score at least 40 goals in three consecutive seasons. He also scored four goals in the NHL All-Star Game and earned the All-Star Game MVP award. In 84 games, he had 45 goals with 23 assist. It was his 14th 30-goal season for his career, which tied him with Marcel Dionne and Gordie Howe for the most in that category.