Alex Ovechkin is officially on the board in his 22nd and final season in the NHL.
The 41-year-old forward lit the lamp with 3:13 remaining in the first period to give the Washington Capitals a brief 2-1 lead over the Seattle Kraken, extending his NHL goals record to 930.
Alex Ovechkin’s 930th goal
Skating with the Protas brothers with Pierre-Luc Dubois out with an illness, Ovechkin got fed wide open in front of the net and beat Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord past the glove. The play was made possible after Aliaksei Protas deflected a Kraken clearing attempt and Ilya Protas got ahold of the puck near the goal line extended with his long reach, finding the Capitals captain with a snappy setup feed.
The goal marked the first time both Protas brothers assisted on an Ovechkin goal together.
With the tally, Daccord became the 190th different goaltender Ovechkin has scored on in his career, the most in NHL history (see the full list).
There was another nuanced record extended as well. The lamp-lighter marked Ovechkin’s 298th career go-ahead goal, which is now 34 more than second place Brett Hull.
Most go-ahead goals in NHL history
| Rank | Player | Go-Ahead Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Ovechkin | 298 |
| 2 | Brett Hull | 264 |
| 3 | Jaromir Jagr | 262 |
| 4 | Sidney Crosby | 235 |
| 5 | Teemu Selanne | 232 |
| 6 | Mark Messier | 220 |
| 7 | Brendan Shanahan | 217 |
| 8 | Wayne Gretzky | 214 |
| 9 | Joe Sakic | 210 |
| 10 | Jarome Iginla | 209 |
Ovechkin is now also the 26th player in NHL history to score a goal at age 41 or older joining legendary names like Jaromir Jagr, Gordie Howe, Teemu Selanne, Mark Messier, Igor Larionov, Tim Horton (the defenseman, not the coffee), and Ovechkin’s former teammate Zdeno Chara, who also did so in a Capitals jersey.
Most NHL goals scored at age 41 or older
| Rank | Player | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jaromir Jagr | 97 |
| 2 | Gordie Howe | 69 |
| 3 | Teemu Selanne | 47 |
| 4 | Mark Recchi | 44 |
| 5 | Mark Messier | 36 |
| 6 | Johnny Bucyk | 25 |
| 7 | Igor Larionov | 19 |
| 8 | Matt Cullen | 18 |
| 9 | Zdeno Chara | 14 |
| 10 | Daniel Alfredsson | 11 |
| 11 | Nicklas Lidstrom | 11 |
| 12 | Joe Thornton | 10 |
| 13 | Ray Whitney | 9 |
| 14 | Chris Chelios | 9 |
| 15 | Dave Keon | 9 |
| 16 | Gary Roberts | 7 |
| 17 | Dave Andreychuk | 6 |
| 18 | Allan Stanley | 5 |
| 19 | Patrick Marleau | 4 |
| 20 | Tim Horton | 4 |
| 21 | Frank Boucher | 4 |
| 22 | Brent Burns | 3 |
| 23 | Ron Francis | 3 |
| 24 | Adam Oates | 2 |
| 25 | Brett Hull | 2 |
| 26 | Alex Ovechkin | 1 |
Ovechkin now has 1,007 career goals, regular season and playoffs combined, bringing him to within 9 of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 1,016.
The goal was just Ovechkin’s second point (1g, 1a) of 2026-27 after missing the entire preseason due to a lower-body injury. The Capitals star winger has just eight shots in five games while averaging a career-low 14:15 of ice time. Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery, who said coming into the Kraken game that he was “not even close” to being concerned about Ovechkin’s slow start, hoped that the tally on Sunday could be a spark.
“Anytime he gets on the board is a good thing, right?” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said after the game. “We know when he gains confidence and pucks start to go in for him, it can snowball. I feel like that’s one of the things that he’s done an amazing job in his career of turning one goal into a good 10, 12, 15-game stretch.”
Ovechkin described his line’s performance as only “okay.”
“But, you know, it was the first time we played since last year,” he said. “We take it and we move on.”
Ovechkin has been productive against the NHL’s newest franchise, recording seven goals and 14 points in 11 career games against Seattle dating back to 2021. His previous tally, the 919th of his career, came on former Capitals teammate Philipp Grubauer, a power-play goal in a 5-1 loss at Climate Pledge Arena.
For concert-going Washingtonians, career goal No. 930 had a particularly fitting local flavor — a nod, intentional or not, to DC’s iconic 9:30 Club, a venue Ovechkin himself has visited multiple times over the years. The club published multiple posts on social media celebrating the moment.
“Welcome to the 9:30 club @ovi8! We are lucky to have you 😉🎶✨” the venue’s social media wrote. The longtime owner of the venue, Seth Hurwitz, is a huge Caps fan.
As for Ovechkin himself, despite all the history, it was business as usual.
“Knowing this is your last season, do you take a bit of time to savor each goal a bit more?” a reporter asked.
“No,” Ovechkin replied.
