Alex Ovechkin is officially the NHL’s Goals King with career goal #895 this afternoon vs the New York Islanders. A record many thought years ago would be impossible break, Ovechkin does it during the toughest era to score goals. 10 years ago, let alone five to six years ago, few thought this would be possible.
Now the question is how many goals does he end his career with? Ovechkin has just one year left on his contract and has expressed a desire to return to Russia. However, does the Capitals renaissance see him stick around longer?
This has truly been a remarkable season for Ovechkin who at Age 39 has 42 goals in just 61 games and gets the record with goals in five straight games, including an NHL-best 16 goals since the Four Nations Tournament. Oh yeah, the guy also broke his leg this season.
More Remarkable is just the consistency:
Age 20 – 27 | First Eight Seasons (Prime Ovechkin Years): Ovechkin scored 371 goals in his first 601 Games | 0.62 G/PG |
— During this span, in his age 25 Season Ovechkin only scored 32 goals in 79 games, followed by 38 goals in 78 games during his age 26 season.
Age 28 – 39 | Next 12 Seasons & Counting : 524 Goals in his next 886 Games | 0.59 G/PG |
— Some of the goal scoring production Ovechkin has put up post 28 years and older seasons are something else:
Those age 28-34 seasons really set the stage for today where Ovechkin put up four 50 goals seasons (51, 53, 50, 51) and Two 45+ goal seasons (49, 48 (2019-2020 Covid Season).
Now the talk is no one’s going to touch this record, especially if Ovechkin sticks around for another two seasons, where he’d be in great contention even at his age to clear 950 career goals.
| Player | Goals | All-Time Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Alex Ovechkin | 895 | (1) |
| 2. Sidney Crosby | 622 | (18) |
| 3. Steven Stamkos | 579 | (22) |
| 4. Evgeni Malkin | 513 | (42) |
| 5. John Tavares | 492 | (50) |
| 6. Patrick Kane | 491 | (52) |
| 7. Corey Perry | 445 | (69) |
| 8. Anze Kopitar | 438 | (77) |
| 9. Brad Marchand | 422 | (90) |
| 10. Leon Draisaitl | 399 | (110) |
Auston Matthews (Age 27 | 398 Career Goals in 623 Games) is the one player statically at 0.64 Goals/G in his career, who is slightly above Ovechkin’s 0.62 Goals/G through his Age 27 season. However, Matthews having the longevity of Ovechkin is quite unlikely.
Sidebar to all of this, Mario Lemieux with 690 in 915 games, averaging 0.75 Goals/G remains absolutely insane. To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
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