Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is closing in on being one of the vital completed gamers in NHL historical past. The legendary ahead already has a ton of information on the NHL historical past books, however there’s yet another nonetheless to go that would put him within the pantheon of all-time greats.
With the 2024-25 season now in progress, Ovechkin is on the verge of turning into the NHL’s all-time targets chief. Ovechkin can move Wayne Gretzky’s mark (894) through the 2024-25 common season. The Capitals standout at the moment has 861 profession targets, so he would wish to rack up simply 34 extra targets this season to be able to prime Gretzky’s league file.
The 2023-24 marketing campaign proved to be a mortal one for Ovechkin, who scored 31 targets final season. Ovechkin’s 31 targets was his lowest goal-scoring whole since he netted 32 targets within the 2012-13 season. Ovechkin did have simply 24 targets in 2020-21, however that season was shortened as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.
Ovechkin scored 42 targets through the 2022-23 season, and has tallied at the very least 41 targets in 13 of his 19 NHL seasons.
Ovechkin at the moment has tallied 1,566 factors (861 targets, 705 assists) in his skilled profession. He did make much more historical past in 2023-24 when he registered an NHL file 18th 30-goal season as he handed Mike Gartner (17) for the glory.
Ovechkin scored his eighth objective of the season in a 3-2 win in opposition to the Nashville Predators on Nov. 6. That helped Ovechkin preserve the tempo he must catch Gretzky by the top of the common season. Proper now, Ovechkin is on tempo for 55 targets, which might be sufficient to surpass “The Nice One.”
Ovechkin will seemingly proceed to be a longtime drive on the Capitals’ prime power-play unit, so there can be loads of goal-scoring alternatives. He’ll look to get off to a warmer begin than he did in 2023-24 when he recorded simply 5 targets over the primary two months of the season.
CBS Sports activities will preserve observe of Ovechkin’s targets all through the 2024-25 season and preserve tabs on how shut he’s to eclipsing Gretzky’s all-time file.
