Alexander Ovechkin has supplanted Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time goal scorer.
Let that sink in for a moment, because even a few years ago, did it seem possible that anyone, from any era, could supplant Wayne Gretzky at anything?
I, for one, didn’t. In fact, I wrote as much in our GOAT of GOATS project five years ago, which asked readers to vote for who you think is the greatest of the greatest athletes:
“Gretzky has set the bar so high, it’s unlikely his records for … deep breath … points scored (2,857), goals (894), assists (1,963), goals in a season (92) and points in a season (215), just to name a few — we could go on … quickest to 50 goals in a season, most assists in a season, most 100-point seasons — will ever be broken.”
Readers agreed. When we put the GOAT of GOATS to a vote, in a make believe tournament that included Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth and Michael Phelps and Tom Brady and Muhammad Ali and Lionel Messi and all the greatests in their respective sports, Gretzky emerged victorious, beating out Jordan by a 54%-46% count in the final.
“The old adage ‘records are made to be broken’ does not apply to Wayne Gretzky,” I wrote at the time.
That confidence came from the swiftness with which Gretzky became No. 1, plus the distance he’d put between himself and second place. He passed Gordie Howe’s all-time points scoring record in just 780 games (to Howe’s 1,767), then went on to play another 10 seasons. He became the NHL’s all-time goal scorer after 1,052 games, then tacked on five more seasons and 93 more goals.
But as great as the Great One was, Father Time caught up with even him. In the four seasons from age 35 to 38, he managed just 80 goals.
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