Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin announced on Monday, Oct. 5 that he will retire from the NHL after the 2026-27 season.
He's the top goal scorer in NHL history with 929 and the only player to surpass 900 goals.
Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky's 894 career goals were once considered an unbreakable record. And then Ovechkin broke it late in the 2024-25 season during a game against the New York Islanders. He added another 32 goals last season at age 40.
Ovechkin, 41, will add to that total in his 22nd and final season, during which he's expected to break another Gretzky record: 1,016 combined regular season and playoff goals. He needs 11 to do that.
Will anyone be able to break Ovechkin's final record? It will be difficult, but here are some potential
candidates:
Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs
He's the most obvious candidate because he already has two 60-goal seasons to Ovechkin's one. He's a pure scorer with four goals in his NHL debut and 429 goals in 692 games. Ovechkin needed 634 to reach 400 goals. Matthews is averaging 0.62 goals a game in his career to Ovechkin's 0.59.
Matthews is 29 and potentially has many years left in his career. However, he missed a total of 34 games over his second and third NHL seasons. He was out on two occasions in 2024-25 with a nagging injury, costing him 15 games. He dropped from 69 goals to 33. In 2025-26, he missed 22 games and dropped to 27 goals.
One of Ovechkin's strengths was his durability. Matthews needs to stay healthy.
Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers
He has developed into a regular 50-goal scorer and has signed an eight-year extension that made him the NHL's highest-paid player at the time. Draisaitl has 437 goals and like Ovechkin, he's hard to stop on a one-timer from the faceoff circle (the right one, in his case).
The issue is Draisaitl, 30, didn't become a 50-goal scorer until his fifth season. He has played 858 games, taking more time to hit 400 than Ovechkin and Matthews. And teammate Connor McDavid has only two years left in his contract. Does Draisaitl score as much if McDavid leaves the team?
David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins
Pastrnak, 30, has a 61-goal season and four 40-goal seasons. He has 420 goals in 836 games, but he fell to 29 goals last season.
Macklin Celebrini, San Jose Sharks
The 2024 No. 1 overall pick jumped to 115 points in his second season. That includes 45 goals, a 20-goal increase from his rookie season. His 70 goals over his first two seasons are 28 fewer than Ovechkin's total, but Celebrini did it at 19 and Ovechkin was 21 during his second season.
Young player TBA
Don't forget that Ovechkin was 13 when Gretzky retired. One thing to watch is domination at the world junior championships. Ovechkin had 18 goals in 18 games over three tournaments.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who can break Alex Ovechkin's goal record as Capitals star plays final season?
