On January 10th 2016, Ovechkin became the 43rd player in NHL history to score 500 career goals.

His goal scoring achievements are even more impressive when you consider the era he's playing in:

Ovechkin became the fourth youngest player ever to reach the 500-goal milestone despite playing in an era when teams average less than 3 goals a game.

Although a decrease in power-play opportunities/goals has played a minor role, better goal-tending is the biggest reason for this recent goal drought. Save Percentage has increased from .873 in 1983-84 to .916 in 2015-16 and average shots per game has remained relatively constant. Running a regression analysis shows 94% of the variance in average goals per game can be explained by save percentage.

One way of comparing Ovechkin's goal-scoring stats with the all-time greats' is to calculate era-adjusted goals. I'll use Gretzky's rookie season as an example of how to calculate goal adjustments:

In the 1979-80 season, teams averaged 3.51 goals per game and Gretzky scored a total of 51 goals. To adjust his goal total to this 2015-2016 season, divide the present-day goals per game average of 2.65 by the 1979-80 season average of 3.51, and then multiply it by Gretzky's 51 goals. In this case, Gretzky's era-adjusted goal total is 39.

Here's how Ovechkin stacks up against the all-time greats:

In his 11th season, he's on pace to finish with the most career era-adjusted goals:

Dashboard- Player Comparison by Season:

Gretzky's point totals are incredible- easy to see why he's "The Great One".

Data Source:
www.hockey-reference.com