Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is already one of the hottest players in NHL history. The legendary forward already has a lot of records in the NHL history books, but there are still records left that could add him to the hall of fame of all-time greats.
Ovechkin is on track to become the NHL’s all-time goals leader and could surpass Wayne Gretzky’s 894 goals during the 2024-25 regular season. The Capitals standout currently boasts 868 career goals and would need to rack up 27 more goals this season to surpass Gretzky’s record.
The 2023-24 season was a deadly season for Ovechkin. He scored 31 goals last season, his lowest total in a full season since scoring 32 in 2012-13. Ovechkin scored just 24 goals in the 2020-21 season, which was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ovechkin scored 42 goals in 2022-23 and has scored at least 41 goals in 13 of his 19 NHL seasons.
Ovechkin currently has 1,575 points (868 goals, 707 assists) in his professional career. He made more history in 2023-24 by surpassing Mike Gartner’s 17 goals for an NHL record 18 seasons with 30 goals.
Ovechkin, 39, scored two goals against the Utah Hockey Club on Nov. 18 and made another big leap forward against Gretzky. It happened one day after he scored a hat trick in a 5-2 win against the Las Vegas Golden Knights. It was Ovechkin’s first hat trick since Dec. 31, 2022. Monday’s game against Utah marked another milestone. It was his 100th career multi-goal game in a road game, which is also the most ever.
However, Ovechkin left the ice early with what appeared to be a lower-body injury. he didn’t come back.
At this season’s pace, health-wise, Ovechkin will surpass “The Great One” before the end of the regular season. He has already scored a league-high 15 goals this season and is on pace to score an astonishing 68 goals this season, which is a career high he set in the 2007-08 season, his third year in the league. That would be more than 65 goals.
Ovechkin will continue to be a fixture on the Capitals’ top power play unit, so he’ll have plenty of chances to score. He’s clearly off to a much hotter start than he was a year ago, when he scored just five goals in the first two months of the season.
CBS Sports will continue to track Ovechkin’s goals throughout the season and see how close he is to surpassing Gretzky’s all-time record.
