Gretzky's record isn't Ovechkin's only goal. What other achievements can he beat?

With a great start to the season, Alexander Ovechkin has burst into the top 5 in NHL history and is about to push Brett Hull out of fourth. By the way, he can take another step on the way to records in the morning (3:00 Moscow time) on Tuesday 9 November, when his Washington will play with Buffalo.

Career goals – regular season

Wayne Gretzky – 894
Gordie Howe – 801
Jaromir Jagr – 766
Brett Hull – 741
Alexander Ovechkin – 740

Wayne Gretzky's 154 goals remain before Wayne Gretzky's record – with that will have to wait at least three more seasons. But there are many other records that Ovi has either already updated or is about to do so.

Washers in overtime

Alexander Ovechkin – 24
Jaromir Jagr – 19
Sydney Crosby – 18
Ilya Kovalchuk – 17
Brad Marschand – 16

Around Ovechkin's sniper achievements, there is often angry talk that most of his goals fall on weak opponents in matches, when everything is already clear. Like, Ovi's main rival Sidney Crosby scores less often, but at much more needed moments.

Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin / Photo: © Joe Sargent / Contributor / National Hockey League / Gettyimages.ru

There is some truth in this – Sid is far behind on the sniper list with 486 goals, but he is in third place for goals in overtime. True, the first one is still the same Ovechkin, and with a giant margin. Alexander scores in a variety of situations – including when the team needs his accurate shot the most.

Victory pucks

Jaromir Jagr – 135
Gordie Howe – 121
Phil Esposito – 118
Alexander Ovechkin – 116
Brett Hull, Teemu Selanne – 110

Another statistic showing how often Ovi throws at the right time. Almost every sixth goal of Alexander put the Capitals ahead, after which the capital did not give the advantage any more. Here are the next goals – Howe and Esposito, their captain, “Washington” should be already in this championship.

Jaromir Jagr / Photo: © Patrick Smith / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Getty Images

Record holder Jaromir Jagr still has about three seasons at an average pace

Washers left forwards

Alexander Ovechkin – 740
Luke Robitaille – 668
Brendan Shanahan – 656
Dave Andreychuk – 640
Bobby Hull – 610

In terms of the total number of goals in the regular season, there are four more before Ovi, but they all played in different positions. Gordy Howe, Jaromir Jagr and Brett Hull worked on the right flank, while Wayne Gretzky was in the center. If we talk about the left flank, Ovechkin has no equal for a long time – he passed Luc Robitaille several years ago, and the gap between the leader and everyone else will only increase in the near future.

Number of successful seasons

Gordie Howe – 22
Ron Francis – 20
Brendan Shanahan, Dave Andreychuk, Jaromir Jagr – 19
…ten. Wayne Gretzky – 17
… 15. Alexander Ovechkin – 16

This summer, Ovechkin signed a new five-year deal with Washington. Alexander is serious about breaking all imaginable and unimaginable sniper records, which means he must score at least 30 goals for each regular season. If that happens, Ovi will come close to Gordie Howe for the number of seasons with 20 or more goals.

Gordie Howe / Photo: © Focus On Sport / Contributor / Focus on Sport / Gettyimages.ru

So far, there are many who have this figure higher, but almost certainly in a couple of years they will be behind – including the great Gretzky.

Mike Gartner – 17
Alexander Ovechkin, Jaromir Jagr – 15
Marcel Dionne, Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe – 14

But in seasons with 30 or more pucks, the captain of “Washington” has already bypassed almost everyone – only Mike Gartner is ahead with 17 coolest championships against Ovechkin's 15 so far.

Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky – 9
Alexander Ovechkin – 8
Guy Lafleur, Mario Lemieux, Marcel Dionne – 6

Another question is whether Ovi will catch up with Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky in the regular season with 50 or more goals. They have 9 each, Alexander is missing only one. When, if not this season, to knock out the decisive fifty dollars? Especially with such a great start.

Career goals including playoffs

Wayne Gretzky – 1016
Gordie Howe – 869
Brett Hull, Jaromir Jagr – 844
Alexander Ovechkin – 811

Speaking about the sniper record, which Ovechkin swung, we must not forget that we are talking exclusively about regular season matches. The playoffs are a completely different planet, and statistics for these matches are usually kept separately. Here Gretzky and his “Edmonton” for a long time had no equal, so there is nothing surprising in his space separation in the amount of pucks.

Considering how difficult it became to fight for the Stanley Cup and how they learned to turn off the leaders in decisive matches, it will be even more difficult to catch up with Wayne by this indicator. But Howe, Jagr and Hull are still within reach.

Average number of goals per match

Mario Lemieux, Si Dennany, Babe Dye – 0.75
Pavel Bure – 0.62
Alexander Ovechkin – 0.61
Wayne Gretzky – 0.60
Auston Matthews – 0.59

The only rating in which with each next match you can both improve and worsen statistics. There are three players here, to which it is unrealistic to reach even if Ovi will throw 50 goals per season. This is a unique Lemieux and two players from an era when there were much fewer matches in the season.

But then it gets hot: Ovi can pass the Bure, or, on the contrary, fall below Gretzky. And Auston Matthews is also very close – a rare situation when one of the current players is next to Alexander. However, with the increase in the number of matches played, the statistics tend to deteriorate, so the 24-year-old striker is not at all sure that he will stay in the top.

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