How close is Alex Ovechkin to breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career goals record?

Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is closing in on the NHL goals record of 894 held by Wayne Gretzky.

Ovechkin has 889 goals and needs five to tie and six to break the record.

Ovechkin entered the season 42 short of breaking the regular-season record by "The Great One" that had long seemed unapproachable. The 39-year-old Russian is in his 20th NHL season and was on pace to get to 895 in February before breaking his left leg in a shin-on-shin collision in November. He missed 16 games but resumed his pursuit at Toronto in the Capitals’ first game out of the Christmas break.

With Winnipeg leading by a goal late in the third period Tuesday night, Ovechkin got the puck from linemate Aliaksei Protas and and fired a wrist shot past Vezina Trophy front-runner Connor Hellebuyck to tie it with 4 minutes left. The Capitals lost in overtime.

Ovechkin already owns the NHL records for power-play goals and shots on goal.

He also has 135 game-winning goals, tied for the most with Jaromir Jagr. Ovechkin has scored on 182 different goaltenders, breaking Jagr’s record by beating Leevi Merilainen of the Senators with No. 874. Ovechkin has 178 multi-goal games, second to Gretzky (189).

Ovechkin earlier this season became the 60th player to record 700 career assists. He joined Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Jagr, Marcel Dionne and Phil Esposito as the only players with 700 goals and 700 assists.

Ovechkin, after climbing past Mike Gartner (708), Esposito (717), Dionne (731), Brett Hull (741) and Jagr (766), scored goal No. 802 on Dec. 23, 2022, to move into second behind Gretzky (894).

Gretzky has held the record since scoring his 802nd goal on March 23, 1994, to pass Howe. He added 92 more before retiring in 1999 after a total of 1,487 games over 20 seasons.

Gretzky holds 55 NHL records and even if his goals mark falls to Ovechkin - which he has said he is excited about - two seem truly untouchable: 2,857 total points and 1,963 assists, which is more than anyone else has in goals and assists combined.

For NHL playoff goals, which do not count toward the record, Gretzky has the most (122). Ovechkin has 72. Gretzky also had another 56 in the World Hockey Association regular season and playoffs, while Ovechkin has 57 from his time in the Russia-based KHL.