Alex Ovechkin has a lot to be optimistic about individually even though age-related regression has finally caught up to him.
Ovechkin finished the 2023-24 season with 31 goals, becoming the first player in league history to have 18 30-goal seasons. The Great Eight is also now just 41 markers shy of sharing the NHL’s all-time goals record with Wayne Gretzky.
Ovechkin, wearing a customized red Echostage hat, met with the media on Tuesday for his yearly Breakdown Day presser. After potting just 8 goals through his first 43 games this year, Ovechkin ended his season with 23 goals in 36 games, putting him back on pace to catch Gretzky before his career ends.
“Yeah, I was worried I would get traded, but thanks god I’m still here,” Ovechkin joked. “No, to be honest with you, it was tough with the whole situation, the injuries, line combinations. I was talking to Carbs all the time and we just try to figure out like, ‘Okay, what’s the best way for me to start doing my job and start to scoring goals, make some points.'”
Ovechkin’s big rally at the end of the year keeps his chase of Gretzky as one of major storylines in hockey, meaning he will continue to field questions on it — no matter how exasperating that can be.
“I’m always saying the same thing: If I make it, it’s good, but it’s still 42 goals,” Ovechkin said. “It’s kind of a long way. But it’s possible if you’re going to be healthy, yeah.”
The tepid optimism comes after years of Ovechkin has almost exclusively saying that he didn’t think he’d reach the coveted milestone in the past.
“Well, it’s not close,” Ovechkin said in 2020. “It’s almost 200 goals. And I think, if I would score right now 800 goals, it’s still 100 goals. [94] right? So it’s still a lot. I don’t think it’s possible, but – how I said – you have to play long enough to get that milestone – to get closer.”
Ovechkin now sits at 853 career goals and, barring injury, if he scores at the same pace he did to end this past season (0.64 goals per game), he’ll tie Gretzky by game 64 and surpass him by game 66. Overall, he has 164 total games left on his current contract, so even if he slows down mightily he’ll need to average just 21 goals over the next two years to become the new goals king.
Perhaps the newfound positivity comes from how he has constantly been able to reinvent himself over his career. This season, he emphasized getting to the front of the net and scoring more dirty goals around the crease, like former teammate Mike Knuble.
The changes, implemented post-All-Star break, paid dividends. From February on, only Zach Hyman (24), Filip Forsberg (24), Kirill Kaprizov (27), and Auston Matthews (29) scored more goals than Ovechkin (22). He is at least seven years older than all four of those players.
“I think it was just a period of time where you try to find the way to, ‘OK, what do I have to do to get better on the ice?” Ovechkin said. “What do I have to do to find the game?’”
The 38-year-old winger missed only three games this season due to injury, but the grind of the schedule wore him down as he went scoreless in a playoffs series for the first time in his career.
To help avoid a repeat of that in his age-39 season, Ovechkin says he’s going to handle the upcoming offseason differently than he’s done before. The big winger normally heads home to Russia during the summer to meet up with longtime trainer Pavel Burlachenko.
“I already talk to my trainer and we’re gonna do something different,” Ovechkin said.
Ovechkin has two years remaining on a five-year extension he signed with Washington in the summer of 2021. Ovechkin said previously that he believes he will retire at the end of that deal.
“I always said I love this game so much,” Ovechkin said Tuesday. “So, if I’m not gonna be able to and I’m not gonna feel the love and I’m not gonna feel comfortable to play, I’m not gonna play.”
