Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Wayne Gretzky set several records that would seemingly never be broken over the course of his legendary NHL career. It was somewhat fair to assume no one would ever be able to top the number of goals he scored, but all signs point to Alex Ovechkin doing exactly that within the next few weeks—and likely very close to the exact date John Buccigross predicted he’d surpassed The Great One a few years ago.
A couple of months ago, I took a look at some of the records Wayne Gretzky set during his time in the NHL that will almost certainly never be surpassed.
Those achievements highlight the unparalleled dominance of a man who played in the league for 20 seasons before hanging up his skates in 1999, and while he’s been succeeded by a number of generational talents, none of them have come close to performing at the level he did.
Gretzky netted 894 goals in the 1,487 regular season games he played, which put him 93 ahead of Gordie Howe, the man who was sitting in second place when he announced his retirement.
That’s been the mark to beat for more than 25 years, but it would appear it’s only a matter of time until Gretzky is unseated by Alex Ovechkin, the 20-year veteran who scored his 30th goal of the season against the Flames on Tuesday and is currently just 12 away from claiming the top spot.
The 39-year-old bounced back in a big way this year after an uncharacteristically quiet campaign where he only scored 31 goals in 79 games, which caused plenty of people to wonder if he had enough gas in the tank to surpass Gretzky.
The answer has been a resounding “Yes” based on how he’s looked over the past few weeks, and barring an unexpected slump or injury, it’s hard to imagine he won’t end up in sole possession of first place by the time the season ends.
Ovechkin immediately emerged as one of the most electric players in the NHL after he made his debut with the Capitals in 2005, and as Scott Van Pelt recently pointed out, ESPN’s longtime NHL reporter John Buccigross penned a column midway through his fifth season in Washington where he outlined the potential timeline for the impending achievement.
As Ovi scores another one. We had to point out how long our guy @Buccigross has been on this possibility. pic.twitter.com/O9hvnZsKAN
— Stanford Steve (@StanfordSteve82) February 26, 2025
Buccigross successfully predicted the forward’s style of play would make him vulnerable to injuries with the potential to hurt his performance, but he nonetheless projected the then-24-year-old would be able to finish his career with over 1,000 goals if he managed to play to the age of 40; if you consider the more conservative scenario he floated, Ovechkin would have had around 930 goals at this point in time.
While both of those numbers are slightly off, SVP also called attention to a tweet Buccigross sent out in 2021 where he predicted Ovechkin would unseat Gretzky on March 15, 2025. That’s unlikely due to his current pace, although it’s technically possible when you consider the Sharks will host the Capitals on that date (some point around the start of April seems a bit more feasible).
Not bad, Bucci. Not bad at all.