The NHL’s first-overall pick in 2004, Ovechkin made his debut on October 5, 2005 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. And so it began.

CHRIS CLARK, teammate 2005–10: I knew he was supposed to be a very good player, but who knows when a guy comes in — you’re not thinking he’s going to take over the league. And then he scores two goals his first game [laughs]. We realized pretty quickly what type of special player he was.

Ovechkin’s career in the NHL was just 27:21 old when he found the back of the net for the first time, and then he did it again on the power play less than five minutes later. Blue Jackets goalie Pascal Leclaire was making his third career NHL start.

PASCAL LECLAIRE, Columbus Blue Jackets goalie: I think his first shift, he hit one of our defencemen and then the glass broke. The arena went crazy and then he scored his first goal not too long after. Pretty good first impression [laughs].

On his first goal, there was a pass in the slot and he had a one-timer — it kind of surprised me. I knew he was supposed to have a good shot, but I had never seen it before. He scored again in the second period. His release was really something. Right away, he had one of the best shots in the league. So that was my, kind of, “Welcome, nice to meet you, Ovi” [laughs].

CLARK: I remember being wowed by him immediately. Everyone wants to score their first goal in the NHL, but who knows when it’s going to happen, and he does it in his first game — and he gets two.

Ovechkin’s shot was a clear weapon, and early in his career he displayed a range of complementary skills that made him difficult — some say almost impossible — to stop.

DEAN EVASON, Capitals assistant coach 2005–12: He has this unique ability to play a different way almost every shift. He could skate around people, he could shoot through people, but he could go through people as well. And I think that’s what kept other players guessing, because I think obviously it’s challenging if you don’t know if he’s just going to skate around you with his ability or if he was going to skate through you with his physicality or if he was going to shoot the puck around you or through you. He had all those tools.

CLARK: He was fast. He pushed defenceman back. His first year there were highlight reels of him going around a D and scoring a goal. So, all the D are like, “Okay, I’m not gonna let this guy go around me.” So, they were backing in, and he has such a great shot they’d back in to the top of the circle, he’d shoot through them to score. There was no one way to defend this guy.

LECLAIRE: When he was coming one-on-one against a defender, he was probably, for me, the best player to use a defenceman as a screen. That was a challenge, so I had to play him more aggressively. Instead of make a save, I was more in an “I hope it hits me” mentality [laughs].

KARL ALZNER, teammate 2008–17: If he really wanted to step on it, he could go out there and score at will. There’s just not many players like that. He could turn it up and take a game over, and we’ve all seen him go out there and smash somebody open ice and then, you know, one-timer top corner or crash the net hard. It’s like he just grabbed a star in Super Mario Brothers and he’s invincible, and it was really cool knowing you had that on your side.

TOM WILSON, teammate and frequent linemate: He’s incredible at turning nothing into something. You’re like, “Oh no, there’s no way he’s going to score,” and then he shoots and it goes perfect, right off the bar, catches almost everybody by surprise. So many pucks that are bouncing around the net he just finds a way to put it in. His goal-scoring touch is probably the best ever.

NICKLAS BACKSTROM, teammate and long-time linemate: Sometimes it just seems like the puck just finds him, you know? And he’s got that ability to put the puck in the net like no one else.

CLARK: It’s something where the accuracy, the heaviness, the quickness and how he changes direction — coming in and changing the angle on his shot when he’s shooting through a defenceman. Like, he never hit anybody. I’d take that same shot and nine times out of 10 it would get blocked.

ALZNER: One time, I had the puck in the zone and I think I just went off the glass and out and I pretty much gave the puck away, out of danger. And he told me, “If you see me battling one-on-one with somebody in the neutral zone, just give it to me. I’ll beat them every single time.” So, I started doing that more. If I’d see him in a spot with the defenceman, okay, puck’s going to him and he’s going to do the rest. And he did.

For all the goals Ovechkin has scored, many still believe there’s a clear frontrunner for his best of all time. It was 19 years ago, his 32nd NHL goal during a 52-goal Calder-winning rookie season. Brian Boucher was in net for the Phoenix Coyotes.

BRIAN BOUCHER, Phoenix Coyotes goalie: Which goal are you referring to? [Laughs.] Yeah, I’ve been asked quite a lot about it. But it’s okay because at the time when it happened, you feel demoralized, but then it turns out that this guy is going to end up being the greatest scorer in the history of the game, so it’s not so bad. I see it as a badge of honour.

So, he’s coming down the right side and he’s a new player in the league, but the scouting report is that this guy can rip a puck. He’s one-on-one on with Paul Mara, the defenceman, and seeing as he had no passing options, I figured I could get pretty aggressive so that if he shoots it through my D-man, I’m in a good position where perhaps it can hit me.

And then he puts it through or under Paulie, and somehow falls, and then he keeps going and sliding all the way to my right. I was so far out of my net and so far out of position that I just went directly across, hoping that if I dive with my stick, surely I would be able to cover enough ground that I would get it. And somehow the puck missed my stick — and I couldn’t believe it. Like, no less than two seconds earlier, he was way to my left and he ended up in a corner to my right and the puck’s in the net.

BRADY TKACHUK, Ottawa Senators forward: He scored behind his back. It still doesn’t make sense how that went in.

DYLAN STROME, linemate: I’ve seen that highlight soooo many times.

BOUCHER: I didn’t realize how unbelievable the goal was until I looked up at the replay on the Jumbotron after and saw he scored from his back. And I was like, “Wow” [laughs]. At the time, I just was so mad that I got beat like that, but I didn’t realize how great the goal was until I saw the replay.

EVASON: I was standing on the bench and looked over and watched Wayne Gretzky, who was Phoenix’s coach at the time, looking up at the Jumbotron and in awe of how he scored that goal. For myself to see the goal firsthand and then to see Wayne Gretzky watching the goal, it was pretty cool.

BOUCHER: That goal was the sixth in a 6-1 loss and it was a tough pill to swallow. But it turns out to be the greatest goal scored in hockey. That’s just my opinion.

Many other goals stand out to guys who had the best seats in the house to witness Ovechkin light the lamp.

WILSON: When I was younger, there was a goal in New Jersey that he scored where he went end-to-end and he put it through his legs and went backhand top-shelf. Earlier in my career, you’d just give him the puck and it was unbelievable how he could just take it end-to-end and fly down the wall, make a power move.

ALZNER: One against Montreal I remember very clearly. He got the puck and he banked it off the boards right outside the Montreal blue line. It was [against Habs defenceman]Roman Hamrlik, I think, and Ovi did a little spin-o-rama around him and then just carried it to the net. I can’t remember what other defenceman was there, but Ovi was falling over when he scored.

BACKSTROM: I think he was scoring laying down.

JOHN CARLSON, teammate: I’ve only been in one Stanley Cup Final, and he scored in the clinching game. Backstrom passed it to him on a one-timer. It was just an unbelievable pass, and to score from that angle was unreal in a big moment, in a big game like that.

LECLAIRE: I remember in overtime I was playing in Ottawa and he came down on a two-on-one, and Ovi, I thought of course he’s going to shoot, pick a corner, because that’s what he does, so I was expecting a really hard shot. I think he fanned on the shot — like, he missed the shot — and it went through my legs [laughs]. Good players, they find a way to score even when they miss.

NATHAN MACKINNON, Colorado Avalanche forward: I think he scores every time we play against him.

ALZNER: There was [another]one against Montreal, and I’ve actually talked to Carey Price about this goal. Ovi got a puck in his spot on the power play and he just kind of, I don’t even know, it was like a half wrist shot. I think he was maybe trying to pass it back door and it just got caught in his curve and it beat Price, glove side. I remember thinking when that happened that it was like an accidental shot and it was harder than any shot I can do while trying.

SAMUEL ERSSON, Philadelphia Flyers goalie: I remember playing the last game of the year there when we played them and he had a shot against me, I saved it, and he looked at me and he called me a lucky beep [laughs].

He scored one the last game of the year [2023-24], it was a deflection. It hit his pants and went in, so he’ll get it done any way. He scores a lot of goals through the goaltender just because of how good that shot is. And he’ll find ways to put the puck on net, but mostly in net.

LECLAIRE: The plan I think I remember is trying to send him on his backhand. But you have a game plan against these guys and it’s like, I don’t think you can stop them, but if you can limit them, it was a success. Let’s say we played Washington and he only has one goal, it’s almost like, okay we did a good job on him. I don’t think there’s a solution against this guy. You just try to limit him — and hope they have an offside against you.

Ovechkin’s size, which surprises many people the first time they see him, is one of the reasons for his dominance. He’s a thickly built six-foot-two, with intensity to accompany his frame.

CARLSON: I think his size is part of what makes him tough to defend. You obviously have to honour his abilities, too. So, you have that and then obviously his assets, his size, his strength, his shot. You’re playing off of all these different things and I think that’s what the great players in the league can do. They’re not one-dimensional. And certainly as time’s gone on he’s changed a little bit, but I think his size and strength are tough to get ready for.

CLARK: He’s 225, 235 pounds, somewhere in there — and sometimes 240 at certain times. It’s not like they’re going to stop him. Like if he got mad, which he didn’t very often, but if he did, he just went out and ran somebody over.

COREY PERRY, Edmonton Oilers forward: We were lined up on the faceoff and it was just a little battle and he literally pushed me 10 feet.

JJ PETERKA, Buffalo Sabres forward: He is hitting really hard. I can say that, I got hit by him a bunch of times. Especially when a call is against the Capitals or something like that from the refs and he’s a little mad, he’s, ah… yup [laughs].

ALZNER: I thought in practice, “I know how to play against him. I know what he does one-on-one.” Then I played against them for the first time when I was with Montreal and it was a completely different story. I was shocked. He’s hard to defend in front of the net — too strong. “Okay, I maybe misjudged this” [laughs].

RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS, Edmonton Oilers forward: You gotta stay off the tracks when he’s comin’ for you. I mean he’s obviously known as an elite goal-scorer, but he can lay you out pretty good if you’re not aware.

BRANDON CARLO, Toronto Maple Leafs defender: When we [the Bruins]played them in the playoffs a couple years ago, it was crazy the intensity that he brought to Game 1. First shift, right off the bat, he comes out and just hammers one of our guys. I think I’ll remember that intensity in that moment for a while.

WILSON: I think he actually hits harder than I do. He’s stronger than I am.

That strength certainly helps fuel Ovechkin’s most deadly weapon, his one-timer, which has accounted for more than 100 of his goals.

STROME: It’s a rocket.

CARLSON: It’s kind of patented.

WILLIAM EKLUND, San Jose Sharks forward: I didn’t think anybody can shoot like that, with that power that he has.

CHARLIE LINDGREN, Capitals goalie: It’s a different beast. Obviously, I see the one-timer a lot more on the mock power plays when they’re practising the power-play setup. He’s usually pretty good to us goalies. There’s only a few times I’ve seen him really let it hang.

CLARK: He does practise it but a lot of times there’s not a goalie wanting to stay in there doing one-timers with him after practice.

NUGENT-HOPKINS: If you give him an inch, it’s going in.

TOMAS HERTL, Vegas Golden Knights forward: His aim is perfect.

CLAUDE GIROUX, Ottawa Senators forward: It just comes off a little quicker than everybody else.

LECLAIRE: The puck comes at you with a lot of speed and it’s heavy, too, so when you make a save you feel that there’s weight under the shot. Few guys have it, and he definitely has it.

TKACHUK: It doesn’t need to be a flat puck for him to score. Like, it happened in our game [in January 2025]. The puck was rolling on him the whole time, he still goes bar down. That’s a sneaky skill in itself.

EVASON: He doesn’t care if it’s flat or if it’s rolling. And I think that’s an element that throws off goaltenders because when it comes off the stick, you have no idea — it doesn’t come off the stick at the same spot all the time. He shoots it off his back foot, front foot, off the toe, off the heel. He just shoots it. And he’s got an uncanny ability to get it on the net. It’s not necessarily always picking corners, but it’s almost always hitting the net.

LECLAIRE: He can surprise you because you don’t expect the shot, from one leg, or the puck isn’t always flat, so it’s coming, buzzing like a butterfly, and that changes the angle, too. You have to be lucky.

WILSON: He’s able to shoot the puck from anywhere, wherever the puck is, when I pass it to him. Whether it’s ahead of him, behind him, on his tape, in his skates, he’s so good at gathering it and shooting it quickly or one-timing it. Every time I see him open in space, I just try and get it to him and a lot of the time he puts it in the back of the net.

BACKSTROM: He had a lot bigger sweet spot than most people.

STROME: It’s very different than players I’ve played with in the past where, even if you make a bad pass, he wants the puck still. Whereas guys I played with, like [Patrick] Kane, want the puck flat on their stick, Ovi’s just like, “I’d rather you just try it because what if it goes off me and in?” Or what if he just bangs it in somehow?

Plenty of Ovechkin’s goals have come from his “office,” which, unlike Gretzky’s, is in front of the net, just above the circle on his off-wing. Local rinks in Washington have even marked the spot with “Ovi’s Office.”  

CLARK: When Nick Backstrom came in [2007-08] and became a mainstay on the power play and those guys were having such great chemistry, I think that’s when it became his office. He was at that point probably a couple years into his career where it really took off. And I think a lot of it had to do with Nick Backstrom finding him, because if Nick didn’t find him, that’s not going to become anybody’s office.

SAM REINHART, Florida Panthers forward: He’s got a spot on the ice named after him. That’s a legacy in its own right.

PERRY: You talk about the power play and his shot. As a penalty killer, you’re trying to figure out how to stop him and you watch video before games and stuff but there’s just nothing you can do.

MATTIAS EKHOLM, Edmonton Oilers defender: We played them in Nashville, I remember, and I think he scored two goals on the power play and it was like from the — he’s literally on the boards. You’d think he’s got this much to shoot at [holds up his fingers to show about an inch]and he hits it.

LECLAIRE: You expect that he’s going to be in what they call his office on the power play but it’s still really hard for a goalie because he has a way to change the angle at the last second. I always told my friends there are some shots in the NHL that you just can’t stop.

NUGENT-HOPKINS: He’s scored many times on us, on me [laughs] from that spot, I think even last year he scored right off the faceoff.

DAVID PERRON, Ottawa Senators forward: Sometimes from the bench and where his spot is on the power play, you see kind of the perfect line for his one-timer and how he’s able to shoot around bodies, shoot around everything. Guys are so good now at blocking shots and the goalies are extremely good. Getting it around that first layer, he does a really good job of that.

TKACHUK: I think now, and I feel like for his whole career, he’s always been marked and he always has a guy in his back pocket basically, but he just finds a way to get it done. Us teams or coaches, players, aren’t dumb enough to leave him open, but even just a little couple of feet that he is open and you think you’re covering him, he still finds a way to score.

PERRON: It’s tough to say how he does it when everyone knows he’ll be there.

CLARK: It’s one thing to do it your rookie year. It’s one thing to do it for a couple of years. But to do it for 20 years with everybody on the ice knowing he’s there and where he’s going to take a one-timer from, and it still goes in? That’s just amazing.

Many players have tried Ovechkin’s stick, hoping they can get the same kind of zip out of it. It turns out they cannot.

MARTIN FEHERVARY, teammate: His curve is literally like a golf club, like a 60 degree or whatever. I don’t know how he can shoot with that, and it’s an absolute bomb.

CLARK: I remember from the beginning he was using CCMs and he had that big hook curve on it, and a very whippy stick. I had a whippy stick with a heel curve, but the combination he had, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. He had such a banana curve. Big, and right in the middle.

CARLSON: I wouldn’t even know how to play with that thing. It’s small — very small for a guy that big. When he started in the league, you couldn’t use that curve, it was illegal. So, once they stopped doing that, it’s been the curve he’s used for a long time.

STROME: If you look at a pirate hook, that’s his curve. It’s crazy. And it’s legal, apparently.

ALZNER: When I first started in the league, I was using a 100 to 107 flex stick, and he was using an 85 and he’s 20 pounds heavier than me and stronger than me.

I’m a lefty, so I never got a chance to try it out. But a lot of guys that did, they couldn’t even come close to shooting a puck accurately or hard. So, it was just kind of weird. It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t adding up. I have probably six or seven of his sticks from over the years at my house, and every time I look at them, I shake my head.

WILSON: He’s always trying to get me to use his stick, but I don’t think that would work for me like it works for him. It’s one of a kind. I think it’s dangerous in a way that when he’s got the puck on his curve, goalies just don’t know where it’s gonna go. The goalies can’t read the puck coming off his blade, so if you’re the only person in the whole building that knows where it’s going, you’re a step ahead.

STROME: His stick is insane. I don’t understand how he can use it. But you can see why it’s successful for him because he likes to hold it kind of out a little further from his body and he can kind of shoot from anywhere because it’s such a big curve. So, you can notice that it’s a little harder for him to go on his backhand.

I want to say [the flex]is like 85 or 90. It’s not crazy whippy or crazy stiff. But he’s so powerful and strong, his arms and his upper body, that when he shoots you can see the flex, it’s bent in half like a mini-stick.

He dropped me for, I think, 72 stitches across my ear. I had good doctors and actually a team dentist that put me back together, so everything looks okay at this point [laughs]. Took a little while, though. It was more vertigo than anything, because it kind of shook things up in there.

STROME: On the power play, I’m usually in front of the net. I remember when I first got to D.C., the power-play coach texts me: “Where do you like to play on the power play?” And I’m like, “For most of my career, I’ve pretty much been down low, in front of the net, screening, looking for passes.” And he’s like, “Okay, well, when Ovi shoots, we don’t need a screen, just so you know, so don’t get in the way.”

Realizing that now, if you ever see Ovi shoot, he rarely scores through screens because he doesn’t need to. Maybe the other team’s screen, but never one of our own guys. And you don’t want to be in front of the net when he’s shooting because it’ll hurt you.

As Ovechkin neared the record, his durability, drive and ability to adapt to changes both in the league and to his own game were often held up as explanations for how he managed to rewrite history.

CARLSON: I think something that’s allowed him to reach this point is just how versatile he’s become. I can remember even 10 years ago, him changing up his style. He’s gone through many different kinds of pathways — the game changes, the way people play changes. We went from big to small and fast. So, there’s a lot of different segments of his career. And the way he scored, I don’t know if I want to say that it’s all that different, but he did a great job navigating all those different changes. You know, “Maybe I’ve got to go to the net a little bit more now,” or “Maybe I’ve gotta score more off the rush.” For him to just constantly change and find ways to be right at the top of the leaderboard in goals every single year throughout all of those different phases of his career is incredible.

QUINTON BYFIELD, Los Angeles Kings forward: It feels like he’s ageless.

REINHART: His shot’s not getting any worse [laughs].

LECLAIRE: What’s the most impressive is he missed some good playing years with lockouts and the strikes and COVID as well. It’s unbelievable. To me, that shows he’s a freak of nature. He’s so strong, and he was able to stay healthy most of his career. And he was able to adapt, too, staying effective and changing his style of play.

Even now on the power play, he passes the puck a bit more, so there’s more intrigue around his game. Before it was like, “If it’s coming to Ovi, he’s going to shoot.” Now he’s using his teammates a bit more and then when he takes the shot, that surprise comes in again. He’s a very smart player.

STROME: I think now he wants to be more in the offensive zone and in the right spot. I would say the most important thing is if you’re trying to pass to him throughout the neutral zone or in your own zone, to try to create a better play. You’re better off waiting for him in the offensive zone and letting him get to his spot. I feel like that’s the most important thing when we play together. We’re trying to use as much of the ice as we can so he can be open on the far side.

WILSON: I’ve learned to never doubt or think that it’s not going to happen because he goes out and just does it. Whenever you think, “Oh he’s not going to score here,” it ends up in the net. And then his face when he scores is just so excited and he screams — the scream is just, like, unbelievable. I think the best thing for me is no matter who on the ice scores, him or any of his teammates or linemates, he’s the most excited guy in the whole building.