- Ovechkin sits at 1,006 career goals, 11 behind Gretzky’s combined mark of 1,016
- His 32-goal season at age 40 puts the record inside reach by early winter
- Read below for the full math on the chase and the night he hit 1,000
Alex Ovechkin already took Wayne Gretzky’s goals record. He is 11 goals from taking the other one.
Stack the regular season and the playoffs together and Gretzky finished with 1,016, built on 894 and 122. Ovechkin sits at 1,006 on a split of 929 and 77. Ten ties it. Eleven passes it.
That is a short walk for a 40-year-old who scored 32 times last season.
He reached the four-digit mark on March 22 against Colorado, a power-play one-timer from the left circle that beat Mackenzie Blackwood short side and tied the game 2-2 with 5:43 left in the third. Watch the goal that made him the second player in league history to get to 1,000:
The Capitals counted it as goal No. 923 in the regular season, the number they threw on the scoreboard and their timeline that night:
Ovechkin played all 82 games last season and finished with 32 goals and 32 assists. Hold that rate and 11 goals takes roughly 28 games, which lands in early December. One hot power-play stretch trims it well below that.
Washington re-signed him on July 2 for one more year at a $4.25 million cap hit, a deal that pays him more next season than LeBron James once the bonuses kick in. He turns 41 in September.
Everybody’s next number is 1,000 in the regular season alone, and that one is nowhere close. Ovechkin needs 71 more.
Another 30-goal year leaves him at 959 and hands him a decision about a 23rd season. He has already said he wants to finish his career with Dynamo Moscow, and we ran the math on whether 1,000 is actually reachable if you want the long version.
The combined record needs none of that. It needs 11 goals, and Washington drops the puck in October.
