With his goal against the Detroit Red Wings, Alex Ovechkin has an NHL record with his 18th career 30-goal season. He surpassed the mark set by Mike Garner, who played for five NHL teams in his career, including the Washington Capitals.
Ovechkin’s goal also gets him closer to Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record. The Great One’s mark of 894 has stood for nearly three decades and was considered unbreakable. However, the Washington captain has become a serious threat to dethrone Gretzky. Going into the game, Ovechkin has 851 career goals, just 43 behind Gretzky.
In February, Ovechkin said in an interview that he wasn’t considering returning to Russia to play in the KHL and would be fully retired by the end of 2026. At the time of the interview, the 38-year-old was not putting up the numbers this season that he had in previous years. He had scored only 14 goals to that point, which had put him on pace to end the season with 22 goals in 79 games, his lowest career total, leaving him with 51 goals to score through the next two seasons.
In March, Ovechkin became the third player in NHL history to record 18 25-goal seasons as he joined Gordie Howe (20) and Jaromir Jagr (18). He also became the fourth-oldest player in league history to record a five-game goal streak along with Brett Hull (39 years old in 2003-04), Johnny Bucyk (39 years old in 1974-75), and Joe Pavelski (38 years old in 2022-23).