By Jonah Casel ‘27 (Reporter)
Ever since he was drafted first overall in the 2004 National Hockey League draft, Russian hockey player Alexander “The Great 8” Ovechkin has been one of the biggest names in the sport for good reason. He is one of the most talented goal scorers that the NHL has ever seen. For twenty seasons, Ovechkin has played for the Washington Capitals, winning the Presidents’ Trophy three times and hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup once in 2018. Ovechkin has also won plenty of individual awards, but the team has always been more important to him than the individual. His team-first mentality has been key to the Capitals’ success during his career. Since 2010, Ovechkin has captained the team, making him the second-longest-tenured active captain in the NHL, behind only Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ovechkin has dominated the scoring for Washington over his entire career, leading the team in goals every single year since his debut. In addition to his excellent leadership, Ovechkin’s individual accomplishments speak for themselves. He has secured three MVPs, one scoring title, and a whopping seven goal-scoring titles in the National Hockey League. He leads the Capitals in all-time goals and points, as he does for his home country’s national team.

This season, Alexander Ovechkin is approaching a record that NHL fans thought to be unbeatable. Wayne Gretzky, deemed the greatest hockey player to ever live, scored an incredible 894 goals in his National Hockey League career. While no player will likely top his points record, the goals tally seems in reach for Alexander Ovechkin. Ovechkin entered the 2024-25 season with 853 goals in his career, just forty-two away from passing the record considered to be unbreakable. Ovechkin is approaching forty years old, but for this season, he has returned to his prime thus far. In seventeen games for the Washington Capitals, the legendary scorer has buried thirteen goals, which is tied for the league lead. This incredible streak of scoring puts him at a searing pace he has not hit since the 2019-20 season. A late career surge is essential for Ovechkin to break the record before retirement, yet even with this small sample size, the scorer has done exactly that. It is even more impressive that Ovechkin is reaching the record because he played through two shortened seasons, in 2012 and 2021 respectively. Through all the adversity, Ovechkin continues to do what he does best: put the puck in the net. For Alexander Ovechkin, the impossible is becoming possible before everyone’s eyes. Like “The Great One,” Wayne Gretzky, has said, “It's not a question of if he's going to break the record; it's a question of when is he going to break the record.”
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