Ice Hockey · 2025 · Elmont, USA
Ovechkin Passes the Great One
In his twentieth season with the same franchise, Alex Ovechkin scores his 895th career goal and passes Wayne Gretzky as the NHL's all-time leading goal-scorer.
895th (new NHL record)
Goal number
6 April 2025
Date
20 (Washington Capitals)
Seasons with one franchise
Wayne Gretzky's career total of 894 goals had stood since his retirement in 1999 as the record most people considered the least breakable in hockey, set across an era and a style of play that was not coming back. Alex Ovechkin, drafted first overall by the Washington Capitals in 2004 and never anywhere else, spent his late NHL seasons steadily closing the gap.
On 6 April 2025, against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena, Ovechkin took a cross-ice pass from his longtime teammate Tom Wilson and beat the goaltender Ilya Sorokin for goal number 895, then dived onto the ice in celebration while an arena full of travelling Capitals fans chanted his nickname. Gretzky attended in person to congratulate him afterward.
The record fell in Ovechkin's twentieth NHL season, all of it with one franchise, a level of longevity about as remarkable as the goal total. A whole league had spent a year counting it down goal by goal.
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