Matthews not thinking about chasing Ovechkin's goal scoring record
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Toronto Maple Leafs superstar and captain Auston Matthews is focusing on the present, not the future, a day after Washington Capitals legend Alex Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's all-time goal record.
The 39-year-old Ovechkin netted his 895th career goal on Sunday afternoon against the New York Islanders in his 1,487th career game. The Russian star seems destined to add to that total with no indication he’s thinking about retirement anytime soon..
Currently in his ninth season with the Maple Leafs, the 27-year-old has 398 career goals in 623 games.
Some have already started to muse that Matthews could be the best current hope to be the new all-time goal king down the line. When you take a look at the stats, it's easy to see why the speculation is warranted.
At the age of 28, Ovechkin played the 623rd game of his career on Nov. 23, 2013 against the Maple Leafs, scoring the 391st goal of his career in that contest. Like Matthews, it was also the ninth season of his NHL career.
Matthews says he doesn't want to think about record chasing at this point and time.
"That's such a long way to go. I don't think I should even be in that conversation," Matthews told Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun. "This guy just broke the record. I'm so far away from that, and I think it shouldn't really be a focus on myself."
With just six games remaining in the regular season, Matthews is on pace to possibly set his lowest goal total of his career as he's netted 30 goals and 71 points over 61 games in 2024-25. The American has dealt with nagging injuries throughout most of the season.
Mathews scored 34 goals in his sophomore season of 2017-18.
The main problem Mathews - or any other goal-scoring star for that matter - will face when it comes to chasing Ovechkin is longevity.
During his 20-year career in the NHL, Ovechkin has played 72 games or more on 17 occasions, aside from the lockout-shortened season of 2012-13, the COVID-19-shortened seasons of 2019-20 and 2020-21, and this season, where he missed significant time because of a leg injury.
Edmonton Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl could also be in the running as he's scored 399 goals in 790 career games.