News: Alexander Ovechkin to Sign with Dynamo Moscow KHL for 2026-2027

[JKG33]

Blame the shortened seasons he had to experience in his career. He'd probably be at 950 already... or in Moscow.

He'd be at about 980. Those cancelled games lost him about 100 goals

 

[Mr Nogatco]

That's a reason to abandon his mom?

Bizarre conclusion to draw

 

[elmaco]

Bizarre conclusion to draw

Nope, i'm just countering your cynicism.

 

[MXD]

He said to Jamie McLennan and Jeff O’Neil that he wants to retire right after the goal

Literally taking off his equipment while celebrating on the ice and slowly making his way towards his car.

Images of Ned Braden

 

[Bocephus86]

OV will go back home to play on Putin's wing, they'll put up 15 goals a game.

 

[Shark Finn]

Nope, i'm just countering your cynicism.

Well, you said parents.

 

[Zine]

He is going back to take care of his parents.

The Ovechkins are filthy rich. He doesn't need to personally take care of his mother to ensure her well-being.

 

[elmaco]

The Ovechkins are filthy rich. He doesn't need to personally take care of his mother to ensure her well-being.

I doubt that he would be that heartless.

 

[TheFridge]

He'd need three more years at least to hit 1000. He's probably fine just breaking the record. 40 is a difficult age to keep pushing past. One slightly down year or injury and it suddenly becomes four years needed to hit 1000. No guarantee he even hits 900 this year since he'd need to essentially go 1.8 goals a game.

No one in the league even has a chance of getting to 900 so he's safe for another generation at least. Then he'll be old/dead and won't care if someone breaks it. Matthews isn't even pacing for 40 this year and is still in his peak. It doesn't bode well for his longevity and he misses too many games every season. No one else is goalscoring at even close to that pace.

Matthews' career goals per game average would put him at 948 goals if he played the same amount of games as Ovechkin has to date (1479). Scoring is also up compared to the majority of Ovechkin's career.

Also, Matthews having a down year doesn't mean a whole lot. Ovechkin had 3 years in his prime that he scored/paced less than 40 goals (less than 35 goals twice). The biggest thing with Matthews will be durability. There are few players as tanky as Ovechkin.

 

[Ezpz]

Matthews' career goals per game average would put him at 948 goals if he played the same amount of games as Ovechkin has to date (1479). Scoring is also up compared to the majority of Ovechkin's career.

Also, Matthews having a down year doesn't mean a whole lot. Ovechkin had 3 years in his prime that he scored/paced less than 40 goals (less than 35 goals twice). The biggest thing with Matthews will be durability. There are few players as tanky as Ovechkin.

Matthews has zero chance to hit Ovy's games played. He's already missed too many games. He'd need 11 years in a row without missing any games. The likelihood that scoring stays up for 11 years in a row is also zero.

 

[nturn06]

He said to Jamie McLennan and Jeff O’Neil that he wants to retire right after the goal

Literally taking off his equipment while celebrating on the ice and slowly making his way towards his car.

And the next day Wayne signs a contract with some team and plays until he scores 2 more

 

[TheFridge]

Matthews has zero chance to hit Ovy's games played. He's already missed too many games. He'd need 11 years in a row without missing any games. The likelihood that scoring stays up for 11 years in a row is also zero.

First, he's already missed too many games? Ovechkin, while being incredibly durable through his career, technically missed a season and half within his first 9 years of NHL eligibility. The 2004-05 lockout cost him 82 games and the lockout of 2012-13 cost him almost half a season. Through their first 9 seasons post-draft, Ovechkin played in 601 games total, while Matthews has played in 616 games total.

Second, I think the likelihood that scoring stays up is significantly higher than it going back down without correction. The NHL knows goals = entertainment. They aren't going to allow scoring to stay down for long. The league always wants more goals.

 

[Ezpz]

First, he's already missed too many games? Ovechkin, while being incredibly durable through his career, technically missed a season and half within his first 9 years of NHL eligibility. The 2004-05 lockout cost him 82 games and the lockout of 2012-13 cost him almost half a season. Through their first 9 seasons post-draft, Ovechkin played in 601 games total, while Matthews has played in 616 games total.

Second, I think the likelihood that scoring stays up is significantly higher than it going back down without correction. The NHL knows goals = entertainment. They aren't going to allow scoring to stay down for long. The league always wants more goals.

Ovy was healthy the entire time, he had one 10-game suspension and a few suspensions for skipping the all star game. This year was the first injury-lost-time of Ovy's career. Last year was the first year of Matthews career where he didn't miss time for injury.

Yeah when you count a season Ovy wasn't in the league it naturally skews the numbers. The likelihood that Matthews plays at Ovy's level at 39 is also pretty much zero though. Considering Matthews is his his peak now and Ovy is outpacing him in goals this year and they're essentially gathering the same number of points. If 27 Matthews can't pull away from 39 Ovy, it doesn't bode well for his capability to catch him.

PPG in 2024 is like 50 points in 2014, and Ovy never had a down season on that level. Era adjusted Ovy is already 5th all time in points and is already close to 1000 era adjusted goals and is nearly 250 ahead of era-adjusted Gretzky.

Like the criteria for Matthews to catch up requires the following things.
1: He stays completely healthy.
2: Scoring stays in this 80's esque peak and the overall quality of competition doesn't adjust to the 32+ teams that will be in the league.
3: Matthews' game doesn't age whatsoever.
4: He has no more down years.
5: Marner re-signs. Cause let's be honest, he's not going to get 60 playing with Nylander who also likes to shoot and seemingly is trusted more now.
6: The Leafs, or wherever he plays, Need to consistently be a good team with some dedicated passers. If Hull had stayed with Oates, that'd be who Ovy would be chasing instead of Gretzky. Instead, he dropped 20-25 goals a season on average when the Blues traded Oates. Neely got into the HOF because Oates got him 50 in 49. Right now that guy for Matthews is Marner, who is speculatively walking this summer.


I actually believe number 2 will be true, because they are already talking expansion again when there's not even 32 starting goalie-caliber goalies in the world. Lots of records will get broken, just not this one. Because goal scoring consistently for 20 years is something almost no one has done. Gretzky got most of his pre-30, with only 176 goals in his final 8 years. So 718 goals at 30, Matthews is not pacing to hit that with only two more seasons left; he'd need 160 goals per season, slightly less depending on how many he gets this year.

So he's not even close to hitting it through peak numbers, but his GPG is slightly above Ovy at the same age with the benefit of one extra season of play. But Ovy didn't hit it because of what he did from 19-27. He hit it because of what he did from 28-38.

Matthews peak is great, he hit 60+ twice, but never hit 50 in another season. The rest is pace, which benefits him because he went goalless for 5 games at the end of 2022 when he was at 58 goals. And it's a common occurrence where hitting milestones gets in his head and he misses.

Adding pace doesn't mesh with reality, like last year he didn't hit 70 and went pointless and -4 in the final two games. Only to sit out of the final game to rest for the playoffs where he did nothing because he was pushing so hard for regular season success.

I don't mean to say he wouldn't have hit 50, because obviously in some of those years he was pretty close with lots of games left, but I don't think he would have maintained the pace he was scoring at to the conclusion of the season; he would have slumped when getting close bring down his overall numbers.

This argument had more merit last season when it looked like Matthews had unlocked an even higher gear of goal scoring. The reality is he's scoring at the lowest pace of his career now and even the in between point of those two numbers isn't even close to good enough to catch Ovy. Last year's Matthews (60 goals a season) needs to appear for 5-6 years straight to open that conversation as being realistic, as it brings down Matthews to only be 160ish back of Gretzky which lets him average 30ish goals for his 33+ seasons. 10 straight 50 goal seasons would be enough to barely tie Gretzky. When you subtract 3-10 goals a season it becomes very difficult to come close. Like averaging 40 gets him 100 back of Gretzky, let alone what Ovy gets next season. Even 30-40 goals next year puts Ovy so far ahead and increases the pace Matthews' needs to score at by a ton.

One more down season basically ends to conversation completely as he'd need a couple 80 goal seasons or to play til he's 42 at a high level to get back into it.

Also keep in mind there have been four simultaneously rebuilding clubs in Matthews division the last 5 years that are (mostly) now starting to play real hockey. Florida and Tampa don't appear to be falling off either, so there's a lot more tough games that are going to be appearing in Matthews' schedule.

 

[TheFridge]

Ovy was healthy the entire time, he had one 10-game suspension and a few suspensions for skipping the all star game. This year was the first injury-lost-time of Ovy's career. Last year was the first year of Matthews career where he didn't miss time for injury.

Yeah when you count a season Ovy wasn't in the league it naturally skews the numbers. The likelihood that Matthews plays at Ovy's level at 39 is also pretty much zero though. Considering Matthews is his his peak now and Ovy is outpacing him in goals this year and they're essentially gathering the same number of points. If 27 Matthews can't pull away from 39 Ovy, it doesn't bode well for his capability to catch him.

Look at this essay.

It doesn't "naturally skew the numbers" my guy. Those are just the numbers. They're both late birth years and Matthews has played *more games* than Ovi at the same age. Your claim that Matthews had missed "too many games" I guess was just a lazy assumption based on Matthews supposed injury history (he's still played 88% of the Leafs games through his career to date).

Why are you making the same stupid "peak" argument? Matthews is having a down year and he's still on pace for 41 goals. Peak Ovi had 4 seasons in which he scored at or or less than a 40 goal pace.

PPG in 2024 is like 50 points in 2014, and Ovy never had a down season on that level. Era adjusted Ovy is already 5th all time in points and is already close to 1000 era adjusted goals and is nearly 250 ahead of era-adjusted Gretzky.

Like the criteria for Matthews to catch up requires the following things.
1: He stays completely healthy.
2: Scoring stays in this 80's esque peak and the overall quality of competition doesn't adjust to the 32+ teams that will be in the league.
3: Matthews' game doesn't age whatsoever.
4: He has no more down years.
5: Marner re-signs. Cause let's be honest, he's not going to get 60 playing with Nylander who also likes to shoot and seemingly is trusted more now.
6: The Leafs, or wherever he plays, Need to consistently be a good team with some dedicated passers. If Hull had stayed with Oates, that'd be who Ovy would be chasing instead of Gretzky. Instead, he dropped 20-25 goals a season on average when the Blues traded Oates. Neely got into the HOF because Oates got him 50 in 49. Right now that guy for Matthews is Marner, who is speculatively walking this summer.

The criteria for Matthews catching Ovi is for him to continue scoring at the same pace he's scored at his entire career, while playing 1400 games. He can afford a few down years, just like Ovi did, because the mf can go off for 70.

Matthews peak is great, he hit 60+ twice, but never hit 50 in another season. The rest is pace, which benefits him because he went goalless for 5 games at the end of 2022 when he was at 58 goals. And it's a common occurrence where hitting milestones gets in his head and he misses.

Adding pace doesn't mesh with reality, like last year he didn't hit 70 and went pointless and -4 in the final two games. Only to sit out of the final game to rest for the playoffs where he did nothing because he was pushing so hard for regular season success.

This is such a brainrot argument. He "never hit 50 in another season". Yeah man, that's true. It's also true that he would have hit 50+ in 2019-20 if not for Covid; he had 47 goals in 70 games before the league shut down in 2019-20 and then had 41 goals in 52 games in the actual Covid year. So not only would he have had 3 consecutive 50-goal seasons, he very, *very likely* would have had back-to-back 60 goal seasons, and 60+ goals in 3 of 4 seasons from 2020-2024.

I don't mean to say he wouldn't have hit 50, because obviously in some of those years he was pretty close with lots of games left, but I don't think he would have maintained the pace he was scoring at to the conclusion of the season; he would have slumped when getting close bring down his overall numbers.

Maybe he'd have lost pace, maybe his pace would have gone up. We'll never know. It doesn't matter.

This argument had more merit last season when it looked like Matthews had unlocked an even higher gear of goal scoring. The reality is he's scoring at the lowest pace of his career now and even the in between point of those two numbers isn't even close to good enough to catch Ovy. Last year's Matthews (60 goals a season) needs to appear for 5-6 years straight to open that conversation as being realistic, as it brings down Matthews to only be 160ish back of Gretzky which lets him average 30ish goals for his 33+ seasons. 10 straight 50 goal seasons would be enough to barely tie Gretzky. When you subtract 3-10 goals a season it becomes very difficult to come close. Like averaging 40 gets him 100 back of Gretzky, let alone what Ovy gets next season. Even 30-40 goals next year puts Ovy so far ahead and increases the pace Matthews' needs to score at by a ton.

What are you even talking about? Matthews, at the same age as Ovi, has played in more games and scored at a higher rate. Matthews does not need to have 5-6 years of 60+ goals to "open the conversation as being realistic". Ovechkin only scored 60+ *ONCE*. After Ovechkin's 9th season post-draft, he's scored 466 goals in 800 games. That's a 47 GpG pace. All Matthews has to do, is maintain a 47-goal pace and stay healthy. Maybe he won't stay healthy, maybe he will. Ovechkin's durability is certainly a huge reason why he's as close to breaking Gretzky's record as he is but no. No, no, no... Matthews does not need to maintain a 60 goal pace to have realistic shot at catching OV.

One more down season basically ends to conversation completely as he'd need a couple 80 goal seasons or to play til he's 42 at a high level to get back into it.

Also keep in mind there have been four simultaneously rebuilding clubs in Matthews division the last 5 years that are (mostly) now starting to play real hockey. Florida and Tampa don't appear to be falling off either, so there's a lot more tough games that are going to be appearing in Matthews' schedule.

Again, Ovechkin had 4 seasons in his career that he scored at a <39 goal pace.

I feel like math wasn't your best subject.