Alexander Ovechkin is the new NHL goal-scoring king. He passed Wayne Gretzky with his 895th career goal on Sunday and still has more than a full season left in his career to extend his newly-earned record into the 900s.
But once the 39-year-old is done playing in the NHL, which he's said would be after his contract with the Washington Capitals is up after the 2025-26 season, will anybody be able to do what he spent the last 20 years doing in chasing Gretzky?
To put things into perspective, the next closest active player to Ovechkin's record is Sidney Crosby with 622 career goals. The pair of rivals entered the league just a year apart and Crosby's final games have already been presumed to be set for the 2026-27 NHL season after his latest contract extension. At best, Crosby could be just over the 700 goal plateau when he hangs up his skates given he's averaging just 34 red lights over his last four seasons.
After Crosby the gap becomes even more considerable with Steven Stamkos (579), Evgeni Malkin (513), John Tavares (492) and Patrick Kane (491) rounding out the five closest active skaters. Tavares, 34, is the youngest of that group which could see the other four all retire within the next three seasons. If not them, then who else?
Which active NHL players could catch Alex Ovechkin's goal record?
Just as it felt impossible for anybody, Ovechkin included, to fathom Gretzky's record ever being caught until recently, it feels even now that nobody could ever catch "The Great Eight" when he's finally done lighting the lamp. But let's take a look anyways at who could potentially be on the path to history.
Leon Draisaitl - 399 goals (790 games played)
The 29-year-old German sensation could be the most promising of the bunch, just one tally away from 400 career goals after nearly 11 seasons in the league. For comparison, Ovechkin reached his 400th career goal in year nine. The one thing Draisaitl has going for him is that his production has remained consistent. Outside of his first four seasons, he's scored at least 30 goals every season thereafter. The only problem, he'll need to average 50 over his next 10 seasons in order to reach 900. Draisaitl signed an eight-year, $112 million extension with the Edmonton Oilers that would keep him playing through the 2033-34 season when he'd be 37 years old.
Auston Matthews - 398 goals (623 games played)
Matthews, 27, is also a promising candidate considering he's scored just about as many goals as Draisaitl in two fewer seasons. He just logged his ninth consecutive 30-goal season, something no player since Ovechkin has done. Matthews is in the same boat as Draisaitl, however, needing to average 50 goals over the next 10 years in order to reach 900 in his career. He's only reached that mark twice in his nine seasons. After this season, Matthews has three years remaining on his contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He would be 30 heading into free agency, still a likely highly-sought after asset.
David Pastrnak - 388 goals (751 games played)
Pastrnak, 28, has sort of gone under the radar as a goal scorer after 11 seasons. Besides the 2018-19 season when he shared the Rocket Richard Trophy with Ovechkin (48 goals), his scoring prowess has been largely been put in the context of the Boston Bruins going deep in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Pastrnak has scored more than 40 goals just five times in his career, with the most impressive being a 61-goal campaign in 2022-23. He would need multiple replications of that year in order to get back on pace with "The Great Eight."
Connor McDavid - 361 goals (708 games played)
Considered the greatest potential threat to Gretzky's NHL points record (2,857), McDavid's goal scoring talents are just good enough to be on the radar for this quest. At 28, he's scored more than 50 goals just once in his career (64 in 2022-23). He's made his living through feeding Draisaitl more often than not but the fact that he's even this high on the list is still remarkable. McDavid would need to pick up his pace and get more selfish with the puck more often in order to threaten Ovechkin. He has just one more season on his contract with the Oilers before he becomes likely the most coveted free agent since, ironically, Ovechkin signed his famous 13-year extension in 2008.
Of course, Ovechkin's eventual successor may not have even been born yet, let alone drafted into the league. It took 31 years for Gretzky's reign to end and it could take even longer for the Russian super star (tsar?) to see his throne taken from him.