The 2024-25 NHL season will see some star players break records, extend current records and reach some impressive milestones.

It will be fun to see Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Auston Matthews and others chase records, reach milestones and cement themselves among some of the greatest to play the game.

Ovechkin needs 42 goals to pass Wayne Gretzky for the most goals in NHL regular season history with 895. It is a record many felt would never be broken, but now it is only a matter of time before the Great Eight passes the Great One. Ovechkin started slowly last season with eight goals in his first 43 games, but he found his stride and tallied 23 goals in his final 31 games to reach the 30-goal plateau for a record-breaking 18th time. The only season he didn’t reach 30 goals was the shortened 2021 season, when he scored 24 goals in 45 games. He’s been incredibly consistent in his career.

If he scores 20 goals this year, he’ll join Gordie Howe (22) and Ron Francis (20) as the only players with 20 seasons with 20+ goals. Score 30 and he will extend his record to 19 seasons. Score 40 and he’ll extend his record to 13 seasons with 40+ goals. Gretzky (12), Mario Lemieux and Marcel Dionne (10) are the only other players with double-digit seasons with 40+ goals.

Breaking Gretzky’s record this season will be difficult, but after scoring 23 goals in 31 games, I can’t rule out Ovechkin breaking the record this season, especially when you consider the new teammates he’ll have this year.

Ovechkin needs seven game-winning goals to pass Jaromir Jagr (135 GWG) for most in NHL history.

He also is only 50 points shy of becoming the 11th player to reach 1,600 career points.

Ovechkin is also third all-time in hits with 3,633. It has only been tracked since 2005-2006, but it still shows the versatility of Ovechkin. He isn’t just a scorer. He is third behind Cal Clutterbuck (4,029) and Matt Martin (3,854). Ovie had 162 hits last season, and it seems unlikely he will catch Martin this season, but he could pass him next season.

(Side note… Jeremy Lauzon set a new standard last year for most hits in a season with 383.)

Crosby will continue his ascent up the scoring race among the greatest offensive players of all time. Crosby needs four points to become the 10th player in NHL history to score 1,600. The Penguins open the season at home v. the Rangers on October 9th, then they are in Detroit on the 10th and in Toronto on the 12th. Fans in one of those three cities will have a good chance to see point #1,600 live. Crosby should pass Joe Sakic (1,641 points) for ninth later this season. Crosby also needs eight goals to become the 21st member of the 600-goal club. He also needs 45 assists to join the top-1o all-time in assists with 1,050. Gordie Howe is currently 10th with 1,049.

Crosby is showing no signs of slowing down. He scored 42 goals and 94 points last season. It was the third-highest goal total of his career, and the second-highest point total in his last 10 seasons. If he scores 30 goals, he will become the 11th player with 13 seasons of 30+ goals.

18: Ovechkin
17: Mike Gartner
15: Jaromir Jagr
14: Howe, Gretzky and Dionne.
13: Bobby Hull, Brett Hull, Phil Esposito and Mats Sundin.

Crosby is also 10th with 242 games with 2+ assists. He could pass Ray Bourque (255), Dionne (256) and Adam Oates (262) this year.  Lemieux is second with 282, and Crosby has a chance to catch him. But he won’t finish higher than second as Gretzky leads with 575 games with 2+ assists.

Crosby ranks eighth in 3+ assists games with 63 and will pass Mark Messier (64), Bourque (64), Francis (65) this season to sit fifth. He could surpass Oates (71) in the future but will need some big games to pass Coffey (82) for third. It would seem unlikely he will catch Lemieux (108) and no chance he matches Gretzky (224).

McDavid enters the season 18 points shy of 1,000 points. He has 982 points in 645 games and will likely become the third-quickest player to 1,000 points. Mike Bossy is currently third with 656 games.

McDavid needs to score 18 points in 10 games to pass Bossy. It is doable, but far from easy as he’s never averaged 1.80 points/game in his first 10 games. The Oilers’ first 10 games see them host Winnipeg, Chicago, Calgary, and Philadelphia, then they are in Nashville and Dallas, home v. Carolina and Pittsburgh, and back on the road in Detroit and Columbus. In his career, McDavid has scored 341 points in 212 games (1.61 points/game) v. those 10 teams.

He’ll also become the 10th active player with 1,000 points behind Crosby (1,596), Ovechkin (1,550), Evgeni Malkin (1,296), Patrick Kane (1,284), Anze Kopitar (1,211), Steven Stamkos (1,137), Claude Giroux (1,066) and Nicklas Backstrom (1,033).

McDavid is currently 28th in most 2+ assist games with 179 in 645 games. He is on pace to finish his career ahead of Crosby for second place and has over 300 games with 2+ assists.

McDavid is 22nd in 3+ assist games with 47 and will pass Bobby Clarke, Peter Stastny and Guy Lafleur (all at 48) this year, and he could also catch Esposito (51), Peter Forsberg (52), Doug Gilmour (53) and Dionne (54) and rank 15th at the end of the season.

McDavid is one of only eight players in NHL history to have 45 or more games with 2+ points in one season. He had 45 multi-point games in 2022 and 2023 and only Gretzky (10x), Lemieux (3x) and Esposito (2x) have done it multiple times. Gretzky holds the top seven spots (62, 61, 57, 56, 56, 54 and 52 games) with 2+ points. Lemieux had seasons with 50, 49 and 48 games while Steve Yzerman also had 48 games in 1989.

Could McDavid beat his personal best of 45 multi-point games this season?

McDavid can also tie Dionne for third with eight 100-point seasons. Dionne did it in 18 seasons and this will be McDavid’s 10th. Lemieux is second with 10 and Gretzky leads with 15. McDavid has a great chance to pass Lemieux and an outside shot to challenge Gretzky for the most 100-point seasons in a career.

Matthews could become the sixth player in league history with three 60+ goals seasons. Bossy and Gretzky lead with five, Lemieux and Esposito had four and Brett Hull had three.

He could also become the first player since Pavel Bure in 1994 to produce consecutive 60-goal seasons.

Matthews had 18 multi-goal games last season, which is tied for 11th most in a season and was the most since Alex Mogilny in 1993. Brett Hull owns the record with 26 (1991) and four others have managed 20 multi-goal games in a season: Gretzky, Lemieux and Mogilny (24), Gretzky (22) and Esposito (21). Matthews’ lethal release makes him a strong candidate to reach 20.

Evgeni Malkin needs four points to become the 38th player with 1,300 points. He’d tied Jarome Iginla at 1300. If he scores 53 points this season, he will move into 30th place ahead of Sundin (1,349), Dave Andreychuk and Denis Savard (1,338), Mike Gartner (1,335), Pierre Turgeon (1,327) and Gilbert Perrault (1,326). Remember when they didn’t list Malkin among the top-100 players of all time in 2017 despite him winning an Art Ross, Hart, Ted Lindsay and three Cups? Crazy.

Patrick Kane is 16 points shy of 1,300 and will be chasing Malkin all season. He will be the 38th player all time to reach 1,300 points, but only the third American joining Brett Hull (1,391) and Mike Modano (1,374). Kane should pass both of them next season.

Steven Stamkos needs 63 points to become the 53rd player with 1,200 career points. Stamkos is already 30th in career goals with 555. He needs 23 goals to move into 22nd and pass Mark Recchi (577), Bossy (573), Patrick Marleau (566), Joe Nieuwendyk and Sundin (564), Modano (561), Guy Lafleur (560) and Johnny Bucyk (556).

Stamkos can also become the 12th player with 10+ seasons of 30+ goals, and if he reaches 40 goals, he’ll be only the eighth player to have eight 40+ goal seasons and join Ovechkin (13), Gretzky (12), Lemieux (10), Bossy (9) and Robitaille, Brett Hull and Esposito (8).

Leon Draisaitl can become the 17th player with six 100-point seasons and the 14th with four-consecutive 100-point seasons. And if he scores 50 goals and 50 assists, he’ll be only the ninth player to do it four times.

Brent Burns needs three GWG to pass Paul Coffey, Denis Potvin and Al MacInnis to sit third among D-men with 45. Phil Housley is second with 49 and Bourque leads with 60.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson owns the NHL record for most GWG by a D-man in one season with eight in 2016. Evan Bouchard had seven last season and could chase OEL this year.

John Carlsson needs 34 blocked shots to become the fifth player with 2,000 blocks in their career (stat only tracked since 2005-06). Mark Giordano (2,164), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (2,144), Kris Russell (2,044) and Duncan Keith (2,010) are the others. Alex Pietrangelo (1,956) and Ryan Suter (1,954) should also join the 2000 club.

Crosby took the most faceoffs in the NHL last season with 1,872. Robert Thomas was second at 1,649. Crosby holds the NHL record for most faceoffs taken (tracked since 1997-98) and will surpass 3,000 in the 2025-26 season. Often overlooked in Crosby’s game is how many faceoffs he takes and how consistent he’s been at 52.6% in his career. As a rookie, he was 45.5% and last season he won 58.2% of his faceoffs, the best % in any season of his career.