Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin is the main sniper of his generation and one of the most gifted players in hockey history. He is already the most accomplished Russian player in the history of the NHL and has dozens of achievements and broken records.
We monitor Ovechkin’s stats while he is on his journey to the Hockey Hall of Fame. On the 27th of July, he signed a new contract with the Washington Capitals, which means that he still has at least five years to catch up to Wayne Gretzky in the number of goals and break one of the greatest NHL records.
GOALS: 750
Place in history: 4
Goals left to catch Gretzky: 114
In the first 14 matches of the 2021-22 season, Ovechkin scored 12 goals and moved from sixth place in history to fourth, beating Marcel Dionne (731) and Brett Hull (741). Now only Jaromir Jagr (766), Gordie Howe (801) and Wayne Gretzky (894) are ahead of Ovechkin.
He is already the best in history among the scoring left wing players. The second best is Luc Robitaille (668).
POINTS: 1364
Place in history: 26
Ovechkin is the most accomplished Russian player in the history of the NHL, passing Sergey Fedorov (1179). He ranks second among the current players after Joe Thornton (1533).
POWER-PLAY GOALS: 273
Place in history: 2
Ovechkin scored more than a third of his goals during the power play, often from his favourite left faceoff circle, now known as “Ovechkin’s office”. The Forward of the Capitals has to score just one more power-play goal to catch Dave Andreychuk (274), the current number one in this category to officially consolidate his status as the best power-play sniper in the NHL history.
HAT TRICKS: 28
Place in history: 6
It is almost impossible to become number one in this category – in his career, Gretzky had scored at least three goals in one game 50 times. But Ovechkin can enter the top-three. Ahead of him, there are only Phil Esposito (32), Brett Hull (33), Mike Bossy (39) and Mario Lemieux (40).
ASSISTS: 508
Place in history: 25
Not only does Ovechkin score during the power-play, but also often assists his partners. He has 235 power-play assists. Among the current players, Ovechkin ranks second after Joe Thornton (546) by points scored in the power-play.
EVEN-STRENGTH GOALS: 472
Place in history: 5
Four people are ahead of Ovechkin in this category: Marcel Dionne (478), Jaromir Jagr (538), Gordie Howe (566) and Wayne Gretzky (617).
MATCH-WINNING GOALS: 118
Place in history: 3
Alexander has a chance of surpassing the current record of Jaromir Jagr for match-winning goals. He needs 17 more to pass Gordie Howe (121) and Phil Esposito (118). Gretzky ranks a modest 20th place with 91 match-winning goals.
OVERTIME GOALS: 24
Place in history: 1
Over the past three seasons, the captain of the Washington Capitals has scored only twice in overtime, but this does not prevent him from taking first place in history, ahead of Jagr by five goals (19). Sidney Crosby (18) and Ilya Kovalchuk (17) are next.
AWAY GOALS: 378
Place in history: 2
Interestingly, in the away matches, Ovechkin scores even more than at home. He is the second in the NHL in this category, only 24 goals behind Gretzky (402). In terms of goals in home matches (368), Ovechkin ranks 12th in history.
EMPTY-NET GOALS: 42
Place in history: 2
Ovechkin is often playing when Washington needs to keep the lead at the end of the match. Therefore, he has scored 42 empty-net goals. But even herehe is exceeded by Wayne Gretzky (56).
SHOTS ON GOAL: 5848
Place in history: 2
In the 2020-21 season, Ovechkin came in second place in history, beating Jagr (5637). He is less than 400 shots short of the leader of the overall standings – Ray Burke has 6,209 during his glorious career. Ovechkin makes at least 300 shots in a full season, which means that we can expect him to surpass that in a couple of years.
Ovechkin also ranks second and third in the number of shots per one season. In the 2008-09 championship, he made 528 shots, and in the 2007-08 season – 446. Only Phil Esposito, who made 550 shots on goal with the Boston Bruins (1970-71), surpassed that.
BODY CHECKS: 3168
Place in history: 4
Thanks to his incredible physical abilities, Ovechkin has an influence on the ice rink not only by scoring goals but also by terrifying the opponents. In the history of the league, only Dustin Brown (3594), Cal Clutterbuck (3429) and Matt Martin (3242) crashed into opponents more often than him.
TIME IN POWER-PLAY: 5799:09
Place in history: 2
Ovechkin exceeded only Joe Thornton, who spent 5959 minutes and 40 seconds on the ice rink during the power-play. Statistics are from the 1997-98 season.
SEASONS WITH 30+ GOALS: 15
Place in history: 2
In 16 seasons of playing in the NHL, there was only one season during which Ovechkin failed to score over 30 goals, and that was the 2020-21 season in which he played 45 matches. This benchmark was exceeded only by Mike Gartner – 17 times. Even Wayne Gretzky had fewer such seasons (14).
SEASONS WITH 40+ GOALS: 11
Place in history: 2
And in this standing Gretzky is ahead of Ovechkin, having scored at least 40 goals per season 12 times. If a Russian hockey player reaches this number of goals one more time, he will be equal to the Great One in this matter.
SEASONS WITH 50+ GOALS: 8
Place in history: 3
Very few players in the NHL manage to score 50 goals in one season. Alexander Ovechkin did it eight times and got close to this mark three more times: 46 goals in the 2006-07 season, 49 goals in 2017-18 and 48 goals in the 2019-20 championship. Only Gretzky and Mike Bossi managed to score at least 50 goals per season 9 times.
SERIES OF SEASONS WITH 20+ GOALS: 17
Place in history: 4
Ovechkin joined the NHL in 2005 and has never dropped below the 20-goal per season mark since. His current series is 17 seasons. Mats Sundin (17), Jaromir Jagr (17), Brett Hull (17) and Marcel Dionne (17) had the same number. Brendan Shanahan (19) and Gordie Howe (22) are the only athletes who have more.
SERIES OF SEASONS WITH 30+ GOALS: 15
Place in history: 1
Ovechkin shares the first place in history with Mike Gartner and Jaromir Jagr. And this series will not change now – in the 2020-21 championship, in which the captain of the Capitals played only 45 games, he scored 24 goals.
FEW-GOAL MATCHES: 153
Place in history: 4
Ovechkin scored at least two goals per game 153 times. Only three people did it more often: Mario Lemieux (154), Brett Hull (158) and Wayne Gretzky (189).
GOALS IN REGULAR SEASONS AND PLAYOFFS: 820
Place in history: 5
Goals left to catch Gretzky: 197
Here Ovechkin’s lag behind Gretzky is more significant. In 1,487 matches, the star of Edmonton, Los Angeles, St. Louis and the Rangers has hit the opponents’ goal 1,016 times. Ovechkin is currently in fifth place, after Jaromir Jagr (844), Brett Hull (844) and Gordie Howe (869).
