894 in 20 NHL seasons

Gretzky scored his 894 goals across 20 NHL seasons (1979-99), playing for Edmonton, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and the Rangers. He scored 50+ goals nine times, 60+ five times, and 70+ four times — including his record 92-goal season in 1981-82. He’s the only player in NHL history with 200+ points in a season (he did it four times: 1981-82 at 212, 1982-83 at 196 — actually 196, not 200; 1983-84 at 205, 1984-85 at 208, 1985-86 at 215).

Gretzky was the league MVP nine times (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989), a record by any player in any of the four major sports. He led the NHL in goals five times. He won the Art Ross Trophy (scoring leader) ten times — also a record. He retired in April 1999 after Game 82 of the 1998-99 season with 894 goals, 1,963 assists, and 2,857 career points (the all-time NHL record by 970 points over Jagr’s 1,887).

April 2025 — Ovechkin passes Gretzky

Alex Ovechkin reached 895 career goals on April 6, 2025 against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena — the goal that officially broke Gretzky’s record. Ovechkin had been chasing the record for 19 NHL seasons (entered the league in 2005-06 at age 20). His 894th goal — the record-tying one — came earlier in the same week against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Ovechkin’s pursuit was structurally improbable. He missed time in 2020 (COVID lockdown), broke a leg in 2023 that cost him 38 games, and turned 39 during the record-breaking season. He’s almost exclusively scored on the same shot — the one-timer from the left faceoff circle on the power play, where Gretzky himself called him ‘the best one-timer shooter who has ever lived’ in a 2018 interview.

How the modern leaderboard sets up

Behind Ovechkin (895+) and Gretzky (894), the active goal-scoring leaders are: Sidney Crosby (~600 entering 2025-26), Steven Stamkos (~575), Patrick Kane (~470), Connor McDavid (~330 at age 28). McDavid is the only realistic candidate to chase 800+ — he’d need to maintain 50 goals per season for the rest of a 14-15 year career, which is plausible but not certain.

After 800, the all-time list runs Gordie Howe (801), Jaromir Jagr (766), Brett Hull (741), Marcel Dionne (731), Phil Esposito (717), Mike Gartner (708), Mark Messier (694), Steve Yzerman (692), Mario Lemieux (690 — in only 915 games due to injuries; the highest goals-per-game rate of any player on the list).

Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Wayne Gretzky and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records.