With a power-play wrist shot in the second period of the Washington Capitals’ game against the New York Islanders on Sunday, Alex Ovechkin completed his Gr8 Chase, scoring for the 895th time in his illustrious career to overtake Wayne Gretzky and set an NHL record for regular-season goals.

When it comes to his pay, the Capitals’ 39-year-old star winger is also at the top of hockey’s leaderboard.

Across his 20 NHL seasons, Ovechkin has piled up roughly $220 million in earnings before taxes and agents’ fees, according to Forbes estimates, tying him with Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby for the most by a hockey player while still active in the sport (unadjusted for inflation). Ovechkin’s total includes roughly $160 million in playing salary and bonuses—an all-time high in the NHL—and another $60 million off the ice from endorsements, licensing, memorabilia and other business ventures.

This season, Ovechkin is tied for third on Forbes’ annual list of the NHL’s highest-paid players, with a total of $16 million ($11 million on the ice and an estimated $5 million off it). And although he has somewhat unbelievably never led the ranking in the 14 years Forbes has published it, he was the runner-up in 2012-13, 2022-23 and 2023-24, and he has made 13 appearances in the top 10.

The only exception was in 2021-22, after Ovechkin signed a five-year, $47.5 million contract extension that featured a relatively meager $5 million in salary and bonuses in its first season. But that was actually a savvy move. Under the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement, a portion of on-ice pay is held in escrow to ensure a 50-50 league-wide revenue split between players and team owners, and Ovechkin knew that with the Covid-19 pandemic still driving down attendance, he could expect to fork over some, or all, of his income at the end of the season. By backloading his contract with the Capitals, he minimized his salary hit during the health crisis and gave himself his best shot to pocket the money he was owed on paper, after the league’s business had returned to normal.

On the ice, Ovechkin’s list of accomplishments is nearly as long as his goal tally. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2004 draft, he won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2005-06 and has claimed three Hart Trophies as the league’s most valuable player, as well as nine Maurice Richard Trophies as the leading goal-scorer, plus the 2018 Stanley Cup. Ovechkin also owns quirkier NHL records, including the most points by a Russia-born player (1,619), the most 40-goal seasons after turning 30 years old (seven), the most empty-net goals (65) and the most goaltenders scored on (183).

But his remarkable career crossed into new territory, and into the sports mainstream, as he approached Gretzky’s mark, long thought to be untouchable. In recent weeks, the Capitals became mainstays of U.S. national television—no small feat in hockey, which gets fewer linear-TV opportunities than some other sports leagues—and in addition to the regular broadcasts, ESPN and TNT Sports aired an alternate “OviCast,” with an isolated camera on Ovechkin.

The NHL created a microsite to document his pursuit, and the Capitals unveiled several brand activations and fan initiatives, such as a throne made of pucks at their home Capital One Arena. Meanwhile, the broader Washington area has been flooded with lawn signs and goal counters, and Gretzky himself has been following the hunt in-person since Friday, 31 years after he set the record by passing Gordie Howe’s 801 career goals.

Ovechkin has been saving his sticks and pucks from the last four seasons to display them in a museum in Moscow, his hometown, and he was reportedly considering changing into a new jersey each period over the last few games to produce more game-used gear to be sold as memorabilia later on.

The preparations for Ovechkin’s run to the milestone goal began much earlier than that. In 2021, he filed to trademark “the Gr8 Chase”—a reference to the No. 8 he has worn on his jersey his entire career—and he has licensed T-shirts, memorabilia and various other products with partners including Fanatics, 500 Level apparel, FOCO bobbleheads, Inglasco pucks and WinCraft collectibles.

That is just an extension of the big business Ovechkin has long done. As Forbes has tracked his annual off-ice earnings over the last 13 years, he has never dropped below $2.5 million, and his stable of sponsors includes Nike, Hublot watches, Papa John’s and Upper Deck trading cards, as well as Russian companies such as the sportsbook Fonbet.

Ovechkin’s nationality has occasionally worked against him, particularly since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, with brands across the sports world approaching the country’s athletes with trepidation. Ovechkin campaigned for President Vladimir Putin ahead of Russia’s 2018 election, and although the most recent post on his official Instagram page is from 2023, his profile picture continues to feature him posing alongside Putin.

But his biggest hindrance when it comes to endorsements—and to his pay in general—is the sport he plays. While Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid (an estimated $6 million this season), Crosby ($5.5 million) and Toronto Maple Leafs sharpshooter Auston Matthews ($5 million) can match Ovechkin off the ice, only a handful of other hockey players top even $1 million annually. Playing salaries have also lagged behind other sports’ since the NHL implemented a strict salary cap in 2005.

Put those two facts together, and hockey is a long way from the days when Gretzky ranked among the world’s 10 top-earning athletes, with an estimated $13.5 million in 1994 and $14.5 million in 1995 (roughly $29 million and $31 million adjusted for inflation). Now, no hockey player has any shot at appearing on Forbes’ list of the 50 highest-paid athletes, which had a cutoff of $45.2 million last year.

That financial reality is at least starting to improve, however, with more marketing opportunities popping up and the salary cap climbing as the NHL posts revenue records. And in the meantime, as Ovechkin looks to pad his career goals lead, he can continue to light up the earnings scoreboard alongside Crosby, who signed a two-year, $17.4 million extension with the Penguins in September that runs through the 2026-27 season. (Relative to Ovechkin, Crosby has made a little less on the ice for his career—surpassing $150 million—and a tad more off it.)

Ovechkin has one more season on his contract with the Capitals, for $9 million, and he recently indicated in an interview with Russia’s Sport-Express that he was unlikely to sign another NHL deal. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s ready to hang up his skates, though. Ovechkin also said he planned to return to the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow—his first pro team, from 2001 to 2005—before heading into retirement, where he can occupy his time with the Papa John’s franchises he owns and the hockey academy he is building in Moscow.

For a forward like Ovechkin, the next big score is never too far away.