Alex Ovechkin Is the NHL's All Time Leader in Career Goals, and He Isn't Slowing Down...
Goal No. 895 for The Great Eight on Sunday afternoon completed his pursuit of surpassing Wayne Gretzky's record for the most goals in a single NHL career, and he isn't letting up anytime soon.
When I took my seat in row 15 of section 103 at UBS Arena in Long Island, New York, I looked around. Red, a ton of it actually. Fans that were rocking it with pride, and wearing their sweaters with honor. Because they knew, and everyone around them knew, that they were about to witness history, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
When Alexander Ovechkin scored twice and tallied his 894th career goal on Friday night in the nation’s capital in front of his home fans, the red-hot goal scorer was only destined to etch its name alone on the top of the all-time scoring list in a coming performance. Secondary markets, some tickets in the lower sections going for over a 1,000% increase in many seats per multiple ticket venders. Fans wanted their shot at history, a reason why thousands of Caps fans flooded UBS Arena for a premium price. And in the aftermath, a premium result.
After one period, it was silence from the Caps offense. A fan base, on both sides, roared with delight when No. 8 stepped foot on ice, and he got a few good chances in the opening frame. But still not lit lamp for the all-time-great.
Seven minutes into the second frame, Washington drew a penalty over center ice, setting up their first power play opportunity of the afternoon. On the ice, instinctually, is the Capitals Captain, the Great 8, the hero to so many fans across the world. And soon-after, officially, the greatest goal scorer in the history of hockey.
Not even one minute into the power play, the Caps take it over center ice, finding their right winger Tom Wilson—a 30+ goal scorer of his own—and the rest of that arena knew right where the puck was going. Ovi turned down an empty-netter the game prior, hoping to make history on a normal sniper as he had in most of his previous 894 goals.
Well, as if he scripted it, Washington’s Alternate dished it cross ice to “the office”—the same place in which Ovechkin has scored close to 44% of his career goals—Alex’s stick high, his skates gliding towards the drifting puck, and the next few seconds were history.
“The chasing days are done,” longtime Capitals play-by-play man Joe Beninati screamed into the mic. “Alex Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer in the history of the NHL.”
The thought hasn’t been an obscure one for many years. Once Ovechkin reached 600 goals in 2018, and then 700 in 2020, it’s felt almost inevitable that the face of this generation would become the goal-scoring face of any generation. It was just a matter of when.
Because of his elite, consistent status in the midst of his prime, and a system around him for many years that catered to his skillset, fans knew that the 3x Hart winner, Stanley Cup champion and Conn Smythe recipient would be on the door-step of The Great One. However, after a dip in his production in 2023-24, which included just nine goals prior to the All Star break, and a postseason sweep in which the Captain was point-less, many wondered if the historic moment would come in the latter stages in the career of a once-great, then dwindling talent still with just brisk moments of being his old-self.
Instead, Ovi—who missed out on over 100 games in his career due to the lockout in 2004-05 and part of 2012-13 and the COVID-19 season limitations in 2019-20 and 2020-21—came out of the gate to open his 20th NHL season with 15 goals in 18 games before fracturing his fibula, an injury that caused him to miss over one months worth of time.
At that point, the level Ovechkin would have to play at as a scorer to break the record in his age-39 season would have to be near an all-time rate. Not for nothing, two seasons prior, Ovechkin scored 42 goals in 73 games, but now was two years older coming off of a serious leg fracture and would have to put the bisket in the basket at least 41 times to tie Gretzky in 66 games. He did it 42 times in 61, and scored his 895th goal, one more than The Great One, in the exact same number of games. A coincidental yet historical feat from a goal-scoring legend who has beyond exceeded expectations.
What makes the feat even more impressive is that at his peak, while he was dominant for so many years, there wasn’t one individual season where he produced at a rate up there with the best of all time. His career-high in goals of 65 was back in his Hart Trophy-winning 2007-08 season. As incredible as the achievement was, it’s now just 25th among the highest goal scoring seasons of all time, and just recently Auston Mathews along with eleven others in history have scored more goals in a single season.
Gretzky scored more four times during his career, which included 92 and 87 goal seasons respectively, the two best among individual years from a goal scorer in the history of the sport. However, it’s the consistency in which Ovi still eclipsed 50 goals and won Rocket Richard trophies for most goals in a single season that allowed him to reach a mark he viewed as “impossible” back in a 2016 interview.
In seasons that weren’t considerably shortened due to a shortened NHL season as a whole, The Great Eight has scored under 40 goals just four times in his illustrious career, and only went under 30 in 2020-21 when he played just 45 games; he followed it up the next season with a 50-goal campaign. And even still near the 40-year old mark, Ovechkin has shown as much durability and stability of any star in sports, his goals per game average this year being his fifth highest mark in his entire career. And had he been able to play a full 82-games, in would project him to account for between 56 and 57 goals at a age in which Gretzky scored just nine goals during his final season in 1998-99.
Not to discredit Gretzky, because the marks he set as a goal scorer in individual seasons in the middle of his prime might actually be impossible to break, especially as the game becomes more physical. But the consistency Ovechkin is having in the latter stages of his career is unprecedented, and only all-time greats in other sports such as LeBron James and Tom Brady, and his fellow goal-scoring-great Gordie Howe can compare to that level of longevity.
So not only has Ovi set the milestone, but he isn’t slowing down anytime soon. When he choses to retire will be a huge discussion this coming offseason, now that Ovechkin is the king of goal scoring in National Hockey League history, and the fact that he has secured one or maybe two Stanley Cups depending on how this spring plays out. Nonetheless, if he wanted to chase for 1,000 goals, while his pace of play and abilities as a puck-handler see its best days in the rear-view mirror, barring a serious injury, he can still score 35+ goals for another couple of seasons if he decides to stick around.
Nearly at 40-years old, a legacy cemented, with a wife and two sons—Sergei; six, Ilya; four—it wouldn’t be shocking if Ovechkin hangs up the skates over the next year or two. But without doubt, his consistency and productivity at his age in such a physical sport will go down as perhaps his greatest accomplishment.
So folks, he’s done it. The Gr8 Chase is no longer a conservation. It is a memory. Because now, standing alone by himself, Alex Ovechkin is the game’s best goal scorer of all time, and he may be until the very day he decides to wrap up what has become one of the most potent and excellent careers in NHL history.
Gretzky—who held the record for 31 years after surpassing Howe in March of 1994 as the all time leading scorer in NHL history—put it best as he congratulated the new scoring king at center ice:
“They say records are made to be broken, but I'm not sure who's going to get more goals than that,” The Great One joked. And there is some validity to this point.
After a career riddled with successes, awards, monumental achievements and incomprehensible longevity, there is a possibility that this new record for The Great Eight might stand longer than anyone could ever imagine.
Chase Coburn
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