Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews provided a sobering take on potentially chasing Alex Ovechkin and the NHL goals record.

At the moment, only one active player has a realistic chance: Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews. Through 623 career games, as the B/R Open Ice account noted on X, the 27-year-old Leafs center has scored 398 goals —outpacing Ovechkin, who had 391 through the same number of games.

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To break the goals record, Matthews has to find the back of the net over 500 more times. Ovechkin scored the final 505 goals, including the record-breaker, in 865 games, or 10.5 seasons. Matthews can achieve that, however, he would need health on his side and play into his late thirties.

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There was a time when Ovechkin thought he had no chance at breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894 goals. In 2016, Ovechkin said during an interview with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman that it would be “impossible” to break the record.

Well, so much for the conspiracy theory that the Florida Panthers are throwing games to meet the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the playoffs.