Alex Ovechkin Breaks Wayne Gretzky's All-Time NHL Goalscoring Record with No. 895

Alex Ovechkin stands alone as the most prolific goal-scorer in NHL history.

The Washington Capitals legend passed Wayne Gretzky on the all-time scoring list with his 895th career goal in the second period of Sunday's game against the New York Islanders.

Gretzky has been the NHL's all-time leading goal-scorer when he passed Gordie Howe's record in March 1994. The Great One retired after the 1998-99 season, he amassed 894 goals.

At the time, Howe (801) was the only other player with at least 750 goals. Jaromír Jágr eventually became the third member of the 750 club.

The 800-goal club added a third member when Ovechkin hit the milestone with a hat trick against the Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 13, 2022. The Blackhawks were again witness to history when he tied Gretzky's mark with 894 goals on April 4.

Ovechkin was pegged as a potential star even before he was drafted with the No. 1 overall draft pick by the Capitals in 2004. He didn't make his NHL debut until the 2005-06 season due to the lockout that wiped out the entire 2004-05 campaign.

The Russian superstar scored 52 goals in his first season, the third-most ever by a rookie in NHL history. It also kicked off a string of five consecutive years with at least 46 goals to start his career.

Ovechkin has led the league in goals scored a record nine times. No other player has accomplished the feat more than seven times.

Even now, at the age of 39 and 20 seasons into his NHL career, Ovechkin has never really experienced a down period. The only time he failed to score at least 30 goals in a season was 2020-21 when the scheduled was shortened to 56 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ovechkin was already a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer no matter where he finished on the all-time goals list. He just further cemented his status as the best scorer in NHL history by surpassing Gretzky's record that had stood for 26 years.