9 NHL Players Who Could Break Alex Ovechkin's Career Goal Record in the Future

It's only a matter of time now before Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal record is broken by Alex Ovechkin.

Ovechkin is seven goals behind Gretzky's mark of 894 and barring injury or an incredibly ill-timed cold streak, he'll soon jump to the top of the list.

The Great One's record was once considered unbreakable, but the Washington Capitals star is on the verge of doing the unthinkable. But is there anyone in the NHL who can usurp Ovechkin's new record ultimately?

Believe it or not, there are more than a few players who are young enough and have had great enough seasons that maybe, just maybe, they could make a run.

We've identified nine players who could pursue the Russian's eventual goal tally. If you've thought of any others, let us know, because it's wide open for consideration.

Leon Draisaitl

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One of the easiest players to start with as a potential Ovechkin pursuer is Leon Draisaitl.

The Edmonton Oilers center leads the league in goals this season with 49, and it's not a particularly close race as second-placed William Nylander is 12 behind.

Over the past seven seasons, Draisaitl has scored 50-plus goals three times and is one away from making it four. Three other times he scored 40-plus and the "outlier" season in which he had 31 was the truncated COVID-19 campaign in which he played all 56 games that season. Had it been an 82-game year, he likely would've had at least 40.

The German has averaged a half-goal per game for his career (0.504 to be exact) and compared to Ovechkin's 0.601 goals per game mark, that gives him a puncher's chance to keep pace with him should he stay that consistent and remain healthy and want to play until he's pushing 40 and beyond.

Draisaitl is 29 years old and has 396 career goals in 786 games, and Ovechkin had 475 in 760 games through his age-29 season. Time may not be on his side, but if the goal volume can pick up even more, he could get within shouting distance of the record.

Auston Matthews

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Of anyone in the NHL right now, the player who has the best chance to chase down Ovechkin is Auston Matthews.

Throughout the Toronto Maple Leafs star's career he's been a goal-scoring machine with the kind of regularity that makes your eyebrows perk up in a cartoonish way.

The fewest goals he's had in a season is 34 and only twice in his first eight seasons has he scored fewer than 40 in a season. He's twice had 60 or more, including a league-best 69 last season.

For his career, the 27-year-old's goals-per-game pace of 0.639 is fifth best of all time trailing the likes of Mike Bossy and Mario Lemieux along with early Original Six-era skaters Cy Denneny and Babe Dye.

Matthews' pace is better than Ovechkin's, and it's hard to not think he could actually track down the new record.

There's a big "if" here, though. This season, Matthews' goal scoring has dipped as he's also missed time with upper-body injuries. In 51 games he has 24 goals (0.471 goals per game) and it's possible he won't break 30 goals this season, which would set a new career-low mark. It doesn't help that his shooting luck hasn't been up to his normal level. He's shooting 11.9 percent this year when he's averaged 15.8 for his career.

That's not great to see, but coach Craig Berube's system isn't nearly as freewheeling as Sheldon Keefe's was. Still, Matthews' history shows he can't be kept down for long, and the goals will come back.

However, if there's anyone in the NHL who is best set up to chase down Ovechkin's mark one day, it's Matthews.

David Pastrňák

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When it comes to goal scoring, few players have done so at the kind of pace David Pastrňák has.

The 28-year-old has been a goal-filling monster in Boston throughout his career, and his 0.515 goals per game rate for his career is among some of the best of all time and better than both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

The Czech sniper is up to 382 career goals through 742 career games, and Ovechkin was way ahead of him through that number of games. Although Pastrňák has been part of some deep and supremely talented Bruins teams in the past, the way the future is setting up may mean he'll never know peace again as opponents will hound him with all of their top players.

It's not an ideal setup for Pastrňák to chase down Ovechkin, but if he can sprinkle in a few more 50- or 60-goal seasons in the years to come, who's to say he can't get within shouting distance?

Connor McDavid

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You'd think, naturally, Connor McDavid would be one of the likeliest candidates to track down Ovechkin and what will most likely be a career-goal mark north of 900.

After all, the 28-year-old gets points by the truckload year in, year out and a lot of those points are goals...just not quite as many as you'd like to see from someone chasing an all-time goal record.

McDavid's goal scoring has been as steady as it gets throughout his career. He's routinely scored 30-plus goals every season and he's had 40-plus three times and has a career high of 61.

On offense, though, it's setting others up where McDavid is strongest. His unselfishness along with his supreme vision and playmaking make him the best setup man in the league. If he's going to hunt down Ovechkin's eventual record, however, he's going to have to get selfish much more often.

McDavid isn't afraid to shoot the puck, but considering how prolific of a shooter Ovechkin is and always has been, the Oilers star needs to pick up the pace.

Kyle Connor

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From a purely offensive standpoint, Kyle Connor is as prolific a player as you'll find in the NHL and he's someone who could, in theory, be someone to chase Ovechkin one day.

After eight full seasons in the NHL, the Winnipeg Jets winger has scored 30-or-more goals in all but one of them when he had 26 in 56 games during the pandemic-shortened 2021 season. Of the seven seasons with 30-plus goals, he had a career-high 47 in 2021-2022 while every other season had at least 31.

It's an outstanding level of consistency on Connor's part with the Winnipeg Jets. He's an all-around offensive threat when he's on the ice and has a wicked shot that allows him to fill the net.

That said, if he isn't consistently scoring 40 or 50 goals every season, he might have to play for an eternity at his current pace to catch up to Ovechkin.

Connor has 279 goals in 599 career games. His 0.465 goals per game rate is also excellent, but it's not at that kind of elite pace where he's stacking up even more goals every season.

It's ridiculous to say he's not scoring enough when he's third in the league in goals behind Leon Draisaitl and William Nylander, but if Connor becomes a consistent 40-to-50 goal scorer each season, that would help make a run at Ovechkin.

Brayden Point

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We know you're expecting someone with connections to the Tampa Bay Lightning to be on this list, but we're guessing you weren't thinking of it being Brayden Point.

The 29-year-old has been an outstanding point scorer since he entered the league in 2016-2017. And while he's always been great as a playmaker, he's also become an outstanding goal scorer in the past few years.

Back in 2022-2023, Point had a career-high 51 goals and followed that up the next year with 46. This season, he's got 32, which puts him into a massive pile of star players trailing Leon Draisaitl in the goal scoring race.

What makes Point an interesting candidate is that when he goes off scoring goals, they come by the truckload. But he had a span of three seasons (granted two were shortened by the pandemic) where he didn't crack the 30-goal barrier. In those other seasons, though, scoring 30 or more was a regular occurrence.

However, time is working against Point. He has only just turned 29 and would need to pile up more than a few 50-plus goal seasons to seriously get into the conversation. He has 296 goals in 641 games and his career goals per game rate of 0.462 is very good, but he needs more shots and many more goals to challenge Ovechkin.

Mikko Rantanen

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Now that Mikko Rantanen has settled down and found a new home in Dallas, he can get back to the business of piling up offense in ways that make us think he could chase down Ovechkin.

Throughout his career in Colorado, the Finn had remarkable consistency in being able to score 30-or-more goals every season. Teaming up with Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog helped make that possible, but he has found another gear in recent years.

Out of Rantanen's 291 career goals, he's scored 126 of them in the past three seasons. He put up a career-high 55 in 2022-2023 and had 42 goals last season. This year with Colorado, Carolina and Dallas he's up to 29, but moving around and trying to negotiate trades and contracts will affect that.

If Rantanen can settle into Dallas and return to his high-scoring ways playing with Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston and the litany of other offensive weapons there, he could push hard to get into the conversation.

At 28 years old (turning 29 in October), time isn't on his side. His career rate of 0.458 goals per game is good, but he's as much of a playmaker as he is a scorer. To catch Ovechkin, the assists will have to take a backseat.

Connor Bedard

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We know this season hasn't gone as smoothly as Connor Bedard might have hoped, but these things can happen to young stars. On the downside, we're still not sure what kind of goal scorer he's going to end up being in the NHL, but we do know he's got all the talent in the world to figure things out.

The 19-year-old is up to 39 career goals now in his second season and his goals per game pace of 0.29 won't get him anywhere close to catching Ovechkin.

However, we're putting the Chicago star into the conversation because he's still young, has a world of talent and has the entirety of his career in front of him. He also possesses an incredible shot and can deliver it from even the slightest of angles to score.

That Bedard's game hasn't exploded yet has some people wondering if there's something wrong with him and if he's as good as the hype said he would be. This is when we ask people to wait to see what happens when the Blackhawks get their act together to better surround him with talent to help everyone flourish.

When that happens, we'll feel a lot better about having Bedard in the conversation.

Macklin Celebrini

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Much like Connor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini is still new to the NHL and tossing him into this conversation might be a bit premature, but what we've seen from him this season is quite encouraging.

At 18 years old on a rebuilding Sharks team, it would be easy for him to struggle this season. Instead, he's found instant chemistry with fellow rookie Will Smith, and their ability to work off of each other and set themselves up for goals is a lot of fun to watch.

This season, Celebrini has 21 goals in 56 games, good for a 0.38 goals per game rate. It's a small sample size and doesn't lend us a lot of insight as to whether he'll be someone who can chase such an impossibly high record mark.

What works in his favor for the future are his incredible hands and hockey IQ. And while he's got a good shot, if he's able to hone it to a point where he becomes a dangerous shooter around the offensive zone, that's when it might get interesting for everyone.

Celebrini has his whole career in front of him and we're only just getting to know what he can do. But with the amount of talent he has, we've got to put him in the discussion.