With his one-year extension, Alex Ovechkin is almost certainly going to enter the top ten of the NHL’s games-played list. At 1573, he currently sits in 15th place on the list.
Last season, Ovi played all 82 games. This coming season, he’s projected to play fewer minutes as the Caps are stacked up and down the lineup, which is likely good for his long term health.
If he plays all 82 games again this season, he’ll have 1655 games, good for eighth place, ahead of Mark Recchi.
Oddly enough, he only needs to play 10 games to earn a contractual bonus this coming season, but no one thinks that is nothing more than a formality.
Brent Burns is the only active player ahead of Ovi, with 1579 games, though Burns started playing two seasons ahead of Ovi. Almost everyone on the list is a hall-of-famer, or a projected hall-of-famer, except for the all-time leader, Patrick Marleau, who played from the age of 18 to 41. Ovi was only able to start playing at age 20, due to the lockout and his late birthday, which let to him being selected by the Caps but also cost him a year in the NHL. Those two extra years, plus this one coming up, would have easily made him the all-time games-played leader, and would have also put him above 1,000 goals.
| Rank | Player | Years | GP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Patrick Marleau | 1997-21 | 1779 |
| 2. | Gordie Howe | 1946-80 | 1767 |
| 3. | Mark Messier | 1979-04 | 1756 |
| 4. | Jaromír Jágr | 1990-18 | 1733 |
| 5. | Ron Francis | 1981-04 | 1731 |
| 6. | Joe Thornton | 1997-22 | 1714 |
| 7. | Zdeno Chára | 1997-22 | 1680 |
| 8. | Mark Recchi | 1988-11 | 1652 |
| 9. | Chris Chelios | 1983-10 | 1651 |
| 10. | Dave Andreychuk | 1982-06 | 1639 |
| 11. | Scott Stevens | 1982-04 | 1635 |
| 12. | Larry Murphy | 1980-01 | 1615 |
| 13. | Ray Bourque | 1979-01 | 1612 |
| 14. | Brent Burns | 2003-26 | 1579 |
| 15. | Alex Ovechkin | 2005-26 | 1573 |
