Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin is showing absolutely no signs of decline in his 17th NHL season and in fact, he's seemingly managed to elevate his game to a new level.
In 28 games this season, Ovechkin has 20 goals and 44 points. Those numbers have him sitting second in the league in goals and third in points, while also putting him on pace for his most goals since the 2007-08 season and the most points he's ever scored in a single campaign. While his pace could be unsustainable, it shows how dominant Ovechkin continues to be despite being 38 years old.
He's led the Capitals to an impressive 17-5-6 record and has played a key role in keeping the team a contender. While he does have some pretty great talent around him, comparing his numbers to those of his teammates is still quite staggering. The player closest to him in both goals and points on the Capitals is Evgeny Kuznetsov, with nine goals and 30 points. Kuznetsov's numbers are nothing to scoff at either, given he sits tied for 13th in the NHL in points.
What makes Ovechkin's numbers perhaps even more impressive is that only nine of his 44 points have come on the power play. He's still generating a ton of offense at even strength, with a league-leading 34 points (second-placer Kirill Kaprizov sits well back with just 26 even strength points). Over the last few years, Ovechkin has often had roughly 35 percent of his points come on the power play, compared to just 20 percent this year. He's also already accumulated 121 shots this season, an average of well over four shots per game, which has him leading the league in the category. It's worth noting that he's been extremely consistent as well. He's failed to register a point in just five of his 28 games this season while tallying 14 multi-point games already.
Ovechkin's numbers would be an outstanding feat for a player in his mid-20s, let alone for a guy in his late 30s. He's one of only two players in the top 5o in points this season who's over 33 years old, which further illustrates how difficult it is to avoid the decline.
The story that will undoubtedly follow Ovechkin for the next few seasons will be his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky's career goals record. As of now, Ovechkin sits fourth all-time with 750 goals—144 goals short of the record. He's already gained a ton of ground with his ridiculous start to the season, passing both Marcel Dionne and Brett Hull. Now just 16 goals behind Jaromir Jagr for third place, he'll surely take another step on the list before the end of the campaign.
Having just signed a five-year contract extension this summer, we know Ovechkin isn't going anywhere, anytime soon. It seems like a good bet that he's going to break Gretzky's record, it's just a matter of when and by how much. At this point, if Ovechkin can score 24 goals through the final 54 games of the season, he'd have just 120 goals to go, with four years remaining on his deal. This would leave him with a fairly manageable 30 goals per season and that's just through this current contract, as he'd always have the ability to extend afterward. For reference, he's only scored less than 30 goals in a season once and that came last year when he played only 45 games.
We can also factor in that Ovechkin rarely misses time with injuries. He's played in every game so far this year and only missed more than a single game in one of the five previous seasons. Assuming he can continue to avoid missing any extended periods of time due to injury, he's in a good spot to break the record.
A less-talked-about but still very interesting storyline also continues to be the Capitals managing to remain a top team in the NHL, despite the age of their core group. A good chunk of key players are past 30 years old now but the squad continues to be an absolute force, reaching the playoffs in 13 of the last 14 seasons. Plus, the Capitals look like a lock for another postseason appearance this year. So in saying this, while Ovechkin's individual accomplishments remain nothing short of incredible, it'll also be interesting to see if he's able to track down a second Stanley Cup.
While so many elite players would be long past their prime by the time they hit their mid-30s, Alex Ovechkin has somehow managed to become even more productive. He remains one of the most dynamic offensive forces and is showing no signs of slowing down, as he charges towards the title of greatest goal scorer in NHL history.
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