After scoring his 895th goal against the New York Islanders on Sunday, Alex Ovechkin is now officially the greatest goal-scorer in NHL history. Ovechkin’s pursuit of Gretzky took 20 years, and he has piled up some eye-popping career numbers along the way.
For a long time, Gretzky’s all-time goals record was considered to be somewhat untouchable. Then, Ovechkin entered the league and started scoring at a rapid pace, posting 52 goals as a rookie in 2005-06. Then he just kept doing it for two decades.
Ovechkin’s longevity and consistency has been astonishing. As a result, he has put up some incredible numbers over the years, passing Gretzky in more than one or two areas. Ovechkin has made his name on the power play, in clutch situations and on the road.
Becoming the NHL’s new all-time goals leader was a long journey for Ovechkin, so we’re going to break down how he got there with the help of some interesting numbers from the CBS Sports research team.
Alex Ovechkin passes Wayne Gretzky: LeBron James, Michael Jordan congratulate Capitals star for goals record
Robby Kalland
Let’s dive into how Ovechkin scored his 895 goals, as well as when, where and against whom they were scored.
1,487 games
For years, many in and around the hockey world thought Gretzky’s all-time goals record would be beaten. Not only did Ovechkin do just that, but he surpassed Gretzky in the same amount of games. Gretzky notched 894 goals in 1,487 career games. With the physical toll hockey takes on players, just getting to 1,486 games is a feat all its own, let alone breaking the all-time goals record.
565 even-strength goals
Ovechkin is heralded as the greatest power play weapon ever (because he is), but let’s not dismiss his 565 career even-strength goals. That’s just one behind Gordie Howe for the second-most in NHL history, but Gretzky still has Ovechkin in this category with 617. Give it a couple more years, and Ovechkin could be at the top of this list too.
325 power play goals
One of the clearest signs of an all-time great competitor is that his or her opponents know what’s coming and still can’t stop it. That’s been Ovechkin on the power play for his entire career. Everyone in the arena knows the puck is going to the left circle for a patented Ovechkin one-timer, but no one has ever figured out how to stop it. Either that, or no one wanted to step in front of it, including goalies. Appropriately, the goal Ovechkin scored to break the record was the 325th power play tally of his career.
65 empty-net goals
There will be much made about Ovechkin’s record 65 empty-net goals. To be clear, that should not factor into this discussion at all. For starters, Gretzky played during some of the highest-scoring seasons in NHL history. If Ovechkin has a few more empty-net goals, it’s a wash since goaltending has gotten much better since Gretzky’s era. Besides, in order to get all those empty-net opportunities, Ovechkin’s teams have had to do a lot of winning. To his credit, Ovechkin made sure goal No. 895 would not be an empty-netter.
5 shorthanded goals
If you had given me an over/under of five shorthanded goals in Ovechkin’s career, I probably would have gone under. I’m shocked this goal total is even this high because Ovechkin isn’t exactly known for his defensive prowess. Maybe he should have been getting more shorthanded ice-time all along. Then again, maybe not. His last shorthanded tally was all the way back in 2021-22.
2 penalty shot goals
This total is lower than I thought it would be, but it is double the penalty shot goals Gretzky scored in his career. To think that the two greatest scorers in NHL history combined for just three penalty shot tallies is almost hard to believe.
136 game-winning goals
This is another record for Ovechkin, which he just broke on his 894th career goal. Ovechkin how has sole possession of the most game-winning goals ever, passing Jaromir Jagr in the process. This is one area where Ovechkin has an advantage over Gretzky as he’s feasted in the 3-on-3 overtime era. That doesn’t make this number any less impressive because Ovechkin has managed to make a big play in the big moment over and over again throughout his career.
32 hat tricks
Where Gretzky’s goals came in bunches, both in terms of single-game and season totals, Ovechkin has just been plugging along steadily throughout his career. Even with his 32 career hat tricks, Ovechkin is still 18 behind Gretzky for the all-time record in that category. This is just the first of a few numbers that really highlight exactly how consistent Ovechkin has been throughout his almost 1,500 career games.
65-goal season
The most goals Ovechkin has ever scored in a single season is 65. That only ties him for 24th in NHL history, and Gretzky has four seasons above it. Those include the two highest scoring seasons ever, in which “The Great One” totaled 92 and 87 goals. Ovechkin has never come close to reaching those heights in an 82-game campaign, but it hasn’t mattered thanks to his durability and his reliability. He’s never gone too long without finding the back of the net.
14 40-goal seasons
The goal that brought Ovechkin within one of Gretzky, his 893rd, also marked the 14th 40-goal season of his career. Ovechkin already held the record for the most 40-goal seasons in league history, but he extended his lead on Gretzky by adding another one. Yet again, Ovechkin is simply automatic. No matter his age, you can pretty safely bank on Ovechkin hitting the 40 goals year in and year out.
14-game goal drought
Speaking of which, Ovechkin has never experienced a goal drought of more than 14 games, and those didn’t happen often. Due in large part to his status as a power-play machine, Ovechkin has avoided too many lengthy droughts in his career. Gretzky, on the other hand, had a career long goal drought of 21 games. Just more evidence that Ovechkin is a Russian machine built to score goals.
456 road goals
For whatever reason, maybe it’s the soft pillows or room service, Ovechkin has always loved scoring on the road. His 456 road goals are an NHL record. The fans in D.C. have seen him score plenty of times, but opposing fans have been terrorized up close hundreds of times.
57 goals vs. single opponent
No opposing fan base has seen Ovechkin haunt them more than fans of the Atlanta Thrashers/Winnipeg Jets. When the Jets were still the Thrashers, they played in the same division as Ovechkin, and he simply lit them up. That’s why that number still stands today even though the Jets and Capitals haven’t been in the same conference for over a decade.
Also, in a fun statistical quirk, Gretzky scored most of his goals against a Jets franchise too, just not the same one. He scored 79 goals against the original Jets franchise, which moved to Arizona and became the Coyotes before relocating to Utah for the start of the 2024-25 season.
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