49.7 – Goals per 82 games for Alex Ovechkin over the course of his career, as he currently sits at 598 goals in 984 games played overall. That leads all active players by a pretty healthy margin, with Steven Stamkos in second at 43.8 goals per 82 games, Sidney Crosby in third with 39.1, Evgeni Malkin 38.9 in fourth and Jaromir Jagr rounding out the top five with 36.2.
Ovechkin scored his League-leading 40th goal of the year over the weekend, the ninth time he’s hit that milestone in his 13 seasons – making him one of six players in NHL history to have as many as nine 40-goal seasons (and more than doubling up the next active player, Stamkos, who has four under his belt). He’s also just passed Wayne Gretzky in goals-per-game, his .61 settling into a tie with Phil Esposito for fifth in the modern era.
Since breaking into the League, Ovechkin has scored 194 goals than anyone else; in fact, to find someone with more goals than #8 over the last two decades, you have to extend the start date to the 1997-98 season – and even then, Jarome Iginla just barely shoves past Ovechkin with 604 goals.
Place your bets as to whether that mark still stands by the end of this season, with 17 games to go… and Ovechkin hungry for more.