Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin broke the NHL's all-time goals record this past season, but there's another upcoming milestone that he's looking forward to.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin broke the NHL's all-time goals record this past season, but there's another upcoming milestone that he's looking forward to.
The 39-year-old is looking forward to playing his 1,500th NHL game with Washington, a feat he'll accomplish nine games into the upcoming season.
"Playing 1,500 games for one team is worth a lot," Ovechkin told MatchTV, per a DeepL translation. "Very few players in the entire league have played that many games, so this number will be very important to me."
Ovechkin's 1,491 games with D.C. rank the eighth-most all-time when it comes to the most NHL games played with a single franchise. If he plays in all 82 games this upcoming season, he'll move up to third on the all-time list, overtaking Nicklas Lidstrom (1,564), Alex Delvecchio (1,550), Shane Doan (1,540), Ray Bourque (1,518) and Steve Yzerman (1,514).
Gordie Howe leads all players with 1,687 total games played with the Detroit Red Wings.
Ovechkin played in 66 games last season, missing 16 games due to a broken leg he suffered in November. He still scored 44 goals, the third-most in the league. He's totalled 1,623 points over the course of his career.
In addition to games played with one franchise, Ovechkin also leads all active players in hits (3,743) and needs just 286 more hits to pass Cal Clutterbuck (4,029) for the most in league history.
Looking at the totals over his career, Ovechkin said he doesn't get tired of the swing of it; it's all for the love of the game.
"You just get used to it," he added. "You're ready for it."
Ovechkin is entering the final year of the five-year extension he signed in July 2021. He is not ruling out continuing his NHL career after this season.
Category: General Sports
