No. 9 is now No. 3.
Or, well, it would be. Soon enough – maybe Monday night when Detroit Red Wings VISIT THE WASHINGTON CAPITALS – Alex Ovechkin will score for the 801st and 802nd and Gordie Howe is second on the NHL’s all-time goals list.
Ovechkin actually moved Mr. Hockey up to one big roster earlier this season; His second-half goal on November 5 against the Arizona Coyotes was the 787th in an 18-season tenure with the Caps, one more goal than Hoy scored in his 25 seasons with the Wings, to set the NHL record for goals by one franchise. .
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Now he trails Howe for second in career goals, and of course Wayne Gretzky for first, last. (We’ve got a few years to go before Ovi picks up The Great One — at least, we think we do.)
But before Ovechkin completely rewrites the record book, let’s take a look at how he doesn’t quite match up with the NHL’s top scorers. (At least not yet….)
One goal to rule them all
Before we get there, we should turn to the NHL’s career in scoring leaders over the years, throughout the Original Six and into, uh, the “In-between Eight” — back when the NHL had the Original Six we know and (mostly) love , as well as second franchises in Montreal (the Maroons) and New York (the Americans). (Don’t worry – there was only one four Leaders for the past 85 years.)
On February 16, 1937, Nels Stewart played for these Americans, Goal #272 was scored in the second period against the Canadiens To pass Howie Morenz of the Habs for the number one spot on the NHL list, who, to be fair, was only about 20 years old at the time. Stewart added 52 more goals over three more seasons to finish with 324 goals—the final score to come on March 16, 1940, more than two months after the 323—a record that would stand until November 8, 1952 in Montreal. (See, we’re already back in the original six era!)
It was the day Morris “Rocket” put the Canadiens on a hole-back goal against Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Al Rollins—goal #325—in a 6-4 victory. Oh, but Richard didn’t end there; He scored 219 more goals over the next seven seasons, including a score in his finale on March 20, 1960, to end up with 544. There’s a reason the NHL’s annual scoring award is named after Richard; When he retired, he was 179 goals ahead of the #3 career scorer in the league (Ted Lindsay) and with 98 he was second all-time.
That would be, of course, an amateur; Mr. Hockey had 446 regular season goals at the time of Richard’s retirement. Howe, 31, had just finished his 14th season in the NHL. It took him three more full seasons to get into Richard’s hitting range. He tied him in six games in the 1963-1964 season, against Montreal (of course) at Olympia Stadium in Detroit. After that, it took five more agonizing games (hampered by a gash on his ankle he suffered a month earlier) before he lit the lamp again, finally scoring #545 against Montreal (again, of course) in Detroit on November 10, 1963.
He hit a low shot that “got no more than an inch off the ice” when it slipped between Habs goalkeeper Charley Hodge late in the second half. Howe’s post-match reaction was not entirely euphoric, however: “Now I can start enjoying life again,” he told reporters gathered in the locker room for his response. “This should have been in.” Why? “Because I’m about 10 points behind where I should be.”
Howe went scoreless over his next 7 games, but the touch eventually returned and scored 241 more goals over 7 more seasons to finish with 786 goals as a Red Wing; His final result came as he donned the winged wheel on April 3, 1971 in the second period against the Blackhawks. At the time, Howe had a 232-goal lead over the No. 2 all-time hitter, Bobby Hull. (The Long Black Hawk would play one more season in the NHL, scoring 604 goals before dropping out to the rival World Hockey Association…but we’ll get to it soon.)
That lead was big enough to hold for another 7 1/2 years, until October 13, 1979, when he scored the 787th goal of…well…whoa. His retirement wasn’t entirely peaceful, even at age 42, and when the Houston Aeros of the WHA offered him the chance to play with his sons Mark and Marty, he took off on the skates and played six more seasons with the Aeros and New England Whalers. Ultimately, the Whalers were one of four WHA teams accepted as expansion teams for the 1979-80 season, returning Mr. Hockey to the NHL. Howe scored in his second game—against Pittsburgh at the age of 51 years, 196 days—and added 14 more times wearing the green, blue, and white.
Goal #801 (after an 18-game drought) came on April 6, 1980 in Hartford, Connecticut, in the Wheelers’ season finale against the Red Wings. Howe retired for the second time, 91 goals behind No. 2 Phil Esposito. (Hull also returned to the NHL in the 1979-80 season; he scored seven goals in 27 games with Hartford and Winnipeg to finish at 610.)
Esposito only has one season left, with just seven goals. But the NHL’s all-time future goal-leading leader was already in the league; Gretzky scored 51 goals in his first NHL season and the Edmonton Oilers (another WHA refugee). This was the first of 12 consecutive NHL seasons with at least 40 goals, including a stretch of four straight goals with at least 70 goals. It only took Gretzky 14 seasons to go from zero goals in the NHL to passing an amateur with a power play score of 802 14:47 in the second period of the Los Angeles Kings’ 6-4 loss to Vancouver on March 23, 1994. Gretzky and the NHL were already slowing down; The 1993-94 season would be his last with more than 30 goals, and the following season would see the New Jersey Devils sweep the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals with their defensive system that brought down their scoring totals (and fans outside of New Jersey). more than a decade.
Gretzky’s final goal in a New York-Rangers, not Americans-jacket came against New York-Islanders, not Americans-on March 29, 1999. When he retired, only four other players had reached 700 NHL goals: Esposito, Howe, and Mike Gargner (708) and Marcel Dion (731). Ovechkin was still a few months away from turning 14 years old.
other professional league
That’s where we sit, with only 95 goals in The Ovi One catching up to The Great One, right? Well sort of.
As Freep noted in his summary of Gretzky’s final goal in 1999, the score gave him the 1,072 goals of his career during the regular season and games–in the NHL And the WHA. That’s a more paltry goal than Howe had, though Where Freep used 20 words out of a 73-word brief – 27.3% – for reference: “Gretsky’s mark is not considered a record by the National Hockey Association, because it includes goals scored in the World Hockey League.”
(No matter how small the space, there is always room trivial at Freep.)
Indeed, Gretzky had 46 WHA regular season goals (with the Oilers and Indianapolis Racers), 10 WHA goals and 122 NHL playoff goals with 894 regular season goals. Howe was most prolific during his six seasons in the WHA, scoring 174 regular season goals (16th-most in league history) and 28 playoff goals with 68 going into the NHL playoffs – 1,071 goals in total.
Even if we add Ovechkin’s 72 NHL playoff goals, that puts him at 872 professional goals — nearly 200 behind Howe. Oh, and so is Hal (you may remember Wing Brett Hull’s ex-father). Hull the Elder was really good in the WHA, scoring 303 goals in the regular season and 43 in the playoffs, along with 62 in the NHL playoffs, for a total of 1,018 career goals, 146 more than Ovechkin.
Is this quality may be exaggerated wha. After all, only four of the league’s top 50 scorers—Hull, Gordy, Mark Howe, and former Wing Vaclav Nedomanski—have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame (and they’ve made it, arguably, for playing out of the WHA). Even if we give Ovechkin credit for his season in the Russian KHL during the 2012-13 NHL lockout, that would bring him to 891 goals, still far behind Hull, Howe, and Gretzky. (And if we give Ovi KHL credit, there’s an argument for Jaromir Jagr, who had 766 goals in the NHL regular season, 78 more in the playoffs and 66 more in the KHL between his two NHL stints for a total of 910 goals. At least until his return from the national team. The Czech Republic he currently owns and plays for.
So who’s next?
All that uncertified NHL scoring aside, Ovechkin is a virtual lock of Howe’s passing this month on the leaderboard we really care about: NHL goalscorers. As for Gretzky? Well, if Ovechkin keeps up the pace he set in his 30s — 0.596 goals a game — then we’d say you should expect him to come closer to Thanksgiving 2024.
Who will inherit the title from Ovi? It’s probably too early to tell – remember Gretzky was 750 behind Howe when the latter retired – but it’s probably safe to bet on someone just starting out. Ovechkin put up an astonishing 366 goals ahead of active #2 player Sidney Crosby. Even 25-year-old Auston Matthews of Toronto and 27-year-old Leon Dryisitl of Edmonton, the leaders among the league’s active 20-goal crowd with 275, will need another goal. 16 seasons with at least 40 goals for Gretzky’s 894th.
Then again, someone might just be playing forever. After all, Ovechkin holds the record in 50 goals (nine, tied with Gretzky and Mike Bossy) and 40-goal season (12, tied with Gretzky) and is second in 30 goals (16, one behind Mike Gartner’s 17.), though Ovi only needs 10 more goals this season compared to 30). But 20 seasons? Well, that’s another class he has a ways to go to catch Mr. Hooky; Ovechkin has 18 of those, one less than Jagr, Brendan Shanahan and Dave Andreychuk, 2 fewer than Ron Francis and four fewer than Howe. And no, that doesn’t include any of the WHA seasons either.
Four more seasons? See you in 2026, Ovi!