9 NHL Players Who Could Break Alex Ovechkin’s Career Goal Record in the Future

Of anyone in the NHL right now, the player who has the best chance to chase down Ovechkin is Auston Matthews.

Throughout the Toronto Maple Leafs star’s career he’s been a goal-scoring machine with the kind of regularity that makes your eyebrows perk up in a cartoonish way.

The fewest goals he’s had in a season is 34 and only twice in his first eight seasons has he scored fewer than 40 in a season. He’s twice had 60 or more, including a league-best 69 last season.

For his career, the 27-year-old’s goals-per-game pace of 0.639 is fifth best of all time trailing the likes of Mike Bossy and Mario Lemieux along with early Original Six-era skaters Cy Denneny and Babe Dye.

Matthews’ pace is better than Ovechkin’s, and it’s hard to not think he could actually track down the new record.

There’s a big “if” here, though. This season, Matthews’ goal scoring has dipped as he’s also missed time with upper-body injuries. In 51 games he has 24 goals (0.471 goals per game) and it’s possible he won’t break 30 goals this season, which would set a new career-low mark. It doesn’t help that his shooting luck hasn’t been up to his normal level. He’s shooting 11.9 percent this year when he’s averaged 15.8 for his career.

That’s not great to see, but coach Craig Berube’s system isn’t nearly as freewheeling as Sheldon Keefe’s was. Still, Matthews’ history shows he can’t be kept down for long, and the goals will come back.

However, if there’s anyone in the NHL who is best set up to chase down Ovechkin’s mark one day, it’s Matthews.