On Sunday, Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin made NHL history when he scored his 895th career goal. This would break former LA Kings Wayne Gretzky's record which he set over 25 years ago.
Gretzky would play eight seasons with the LA Kings and had 246 of his 894 career goals with the Kings. It was a remarkable accomplishment by Gretzky based on how long it took for someone to break his record and how incredible Alex Ovechkin has been in his NHL career.
Sometimes it is hard to conceptualize just how good and consistent Ovechkin has been in his career. I took a look at some LA Kings players currently on the roster and how many seasons would be needed based on their career goals per game average to break Ovechkin.
It is clear that it is unlikely that anyone on the roster will do it based on some of these numbers.
Anze Kopitar
Career Goals: 438
Career Goals Per Game: .30
Number of Seasons Needed to Break the Record: 18
Anze Kopitar currently has the most career goals on the LA Kings with 438 but it has taken 19 seasons to reach this total. If he were to break Ovechkin's record it would require an additional 18 seasons and he would need to keep his career average of goals per game at .30.
Kevin Fiala
Career Goals: 206
Career Goals Per Game: .32
Number of Seasons Needed to Break the Record: 26
Kevin Fiala is second on the Kings' roster in career goals with 206 and has the highest career average of goals per game at .32. However, even still it would require him to have 37 -year career as it would require an additional 26 seasons on top of the 11 he already has in the NHL.
Adrian Kempe
Career Goals: 192
Career Goals Per Game: .31
Number of Seasons Needed to Break the Record: 28
Adrian Kempe is not far behind Fiala as he has 192 career goals and currently leads the Kings this season in goals with 33. He certainly has picked up the scoring pace as of late with 30 or more goals in three of the past four seasons.
However, he would also need to have a 37-year career if he wants to surpass Ovechkin as it would require 28 more seasons at this current rate to reach 895 goals.
Warren Foegele
Career Goals: 102
Career Goals Per Game: .20
Number of Seasons Needed to Break the Record: 48
Warren Foegele has been excellent in his first season with the LA Kings and already has a career high in goals with 22. This is the second straight season with 20 or more goals but he has one of the lowest career goals per game average at .20.
Due to that, it would take an absurd 48 seasons for him to reach 895 career goals. This type of totals are what can put in perspective how elite Alex Ovechkin has been.
Quinton Byfield
Career Goals: 47
Career Goals Per Game: .18
Number of Seasons Needed to Break the Record: 56
If there is any player on the roster that has any kind of chance to break Alex Ovechkin's record it would be Quinton Byfield. He is still very early in his career at only 22 years old but hasn't really become a goal scorer until recently with 20 goals last season and 19 so far this season.
That is why he has such a low goals per game average and why it would require 56 seasons. The past two seasons the goals per game average has been .25 but if he were not to improve that, it would still require 41 more seasons in the NHL producing at the same level.