It finally happened. Alex Ovechkin passed Wayne Gretzky for the most goals in NHL history. "The GR8 Chase," as it was dubbed for multiple seasons, is officially over.
The Washington Capitals captain ripped a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle, also known as his "office," past New York Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin for a classic power-play score, his 895th career goal.
A sight we’ve seen 894 times before this and each and every single time has been in a Capitals sweater.
— x - Washington Capitals (@Capitals) April 6, 2025
Thank you, O!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/NgDK9EZopG
Ovechkin's record-breaking tally occurred in career game No. 1,487, the same number of contests it took Gretzky to score 894 goals. He and the Eastern Conference-leading Capitals still have five games remaining in the regular season before the Stanley Cup Playoffs get underway on April 19. After that, he has one last year on his contract before he's said he's likely to hang up his skates in the NHL.
That's plenty of time to extend his record and truly make it unbreakable, as Gretzky's mark was once considered. But how high will the new goals king extend his record before his NHL career comes to a close? Let's break it down as best we can.
How many goals will Alex Ovechkin finish his career with?
With exactly 87 regular-season games presumably left in Ovechkin's career, the past is a good indicator that he'll be soaring past goal No. 895 and writing whole new pages of the NHL record books.
He's tallied 42 goals so far this season (even after missing 16 games with a broken leg) and reached at least 30 in 19 of his 20 seasons in the NHL. Assuming he stays healthier than he did this season, the ceiling could be another 50-goal campaign. If there's any kind of drop-off in his play, the floor could be roughly 30 red lights.
So, doing the math for Ovechkin's best-case and worst-case scenarios, he could be anywhere between 925 and 945 career goals by the time he's finished with the league (assuming he's done scoring this year). He would be the first-ever player to surpass the 900-goal mark and seriously set the table for whatever prospect that comes down the road to chase him and potentially aim for 1,000 goals.