Wayne Greztky against the Buffalo Sabers on March 29th 1999 scored his 894th goal in his career, which was also the most regular season goals scored by a single player in NHL history. Once thought of as an unbreakable record, here came Alex Oveckin, a prodigy from Moscow, Russia. He was drafted by the Washington Capitals in 2004, as the number one pick in the NHL Draft. Now the record has something to be afraid of.
Alex Oveckin has been lighting up the league ever since he was drafted. Oveckin scored fifty two goals in his very first season with the Capitals. Oveckhin has had nine 50+ goal seasons throughout his career, with his highest scoring season being 65 goals in the 07-08 season.
With this NHL season, Alex Ovechkin has never been closer to breaking that record. Alex Ovechkin only needs eight more goals to break Wayne Greztky’s record since he currently has 887 goals. Could Alex Oveckin do it this season? Oveckin currently has thirty three goals this season but the playoffs are not that far away, starting on April seventeenth.
The record is ONLY counting regular season goals. But if they did allow play off goals, Ovechkin would have 958 and Wayne Greztky would have 1,016. So Ovechkin doesn’t have much time to finish the record this season but could have more time next season. But then a new problem shows up.
That problem is his age. Alex Ovechkin is at the ripe age of 39. He’s currently playing his twentieth NHL season. The average amount of time that a hockey player stays in the NHL for is only five years. Ovechkin has quadrupled that number. But it doesn’t mean he will stay at the same pace he was once five to 10 years ago.
However, Alex Oveckin is way stronger than other NHL players. Ovechkin has only missed 75 games in his twenty year career. That is insane considering he has played 1,478 regular season games in his career. But Wayne Gretzky has played 1,487 games meaning Oveckin is on a great pace to beat that goal record.
Overall, it is very possible that Alex Ovechkin can break the record. The real question is can he do it this season? But if he does not break it this year, he will most likely snag the record next year.
