- Wayne Gretzky still owns the most total NHL goals at 1,016, regular season and playoffs combined
- Alex Ovechkin opens 2026-27 at 1,006 and needs 11 to take it outright
- Read below for the night Ovechkin joined Gretzky in the 1,000 club
Wayne Gretzky has one goal record left, and Alex Ovechkin needs 11 to take it.
Ovechkin passed Gretzky on the regular-season list in April 2025 and opens his 22nd season at 929. The number nobody talks about is the combined one. Gretzky finished with 894 regular-season goals and 122 more in the playoffs, and that 1,016 is still the most anyone has scored in the NHL.
Add in 77 playoff goals and Ovechkin sits at 1,006. Goal No. 11 of 2026-27 makes it 1,017 and leaves Gretzky without a single goal-scoring record to his name.
Matt Larkin of Daily Faceoff laid out the full 2026-27 milestone board on Monday, and this one sits closer than anything else on it. Eleven goals is not a season-long chase for Ovechkin. It is October and change.
Gretzky was in the building the night Ovechkin scored No. 894, and the two of them ended up in the Capitals room holding the puck together. Take a look at the scene:
The 1,000th combined goal came on March 22 against Colorado.
Ovechkin took a Dylan Strome feed in his office at the left circle and one-timed it in at 14:17 of the third to tie the game 2-2, NHL.com noted that night. Rookie defenseman Cole Hutson picked up the secondary assist, the first of his NHL career.
Washington lost 3-2 in overtime anyway.
Catch the one-timer that got him there:
He turns 41 in September and comes back to a roster built to make noise in the spring. He has also said he wants 1,000 regular-season goals before he walks away, and that one is 71 out, or two more years at his current pace.
The combined record is the one he can own by Halloween.
