Jaromir Jagr credited with passing Wayne Gretzky for most overall goals

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While Alex Ovechkin continues to garner well-deserved attention for his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goal-scoring record, another of the Great One’s all-time marks recently fell in relatively quiet fashion. Wp Get the full experience. Choose your plan ArrowRight Jaromir Jagr — still playing professional hockey at 50, these days for a Czech team he owns — scored a goal Sunday that pushed him past Wayne Gretzky for the most overall, when taking into account all professional games and senior-level international tournament appearances.

That’s according to the Associated Press, which has Jagr now at 1,099 goals — 844 of them, including 78 in the postseason, come from his 24-year NHL career, during which he earned a Hart Trophy and helped the Pittsburgh Penguins win two Stanley Cup titles. Jagr subsequently moved on to stints with the Washington Capitals, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Dallas Stars, Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils, Florida Panthers and Calgary Flames.

The AP also tallied Jagr with 107 goals in Czechoslovakian and Czech leagues and 93 in the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League. Another 55 were scored in the Olympics — which saw Jagr become a 1998 gold medalist — world championships and other international competitions.

Jaromír Jágr celebrated his 51st birthday about a week early by scoring his 1,099th goal to overtake Wayne Gretzky at the top of the chart.

MORE: https://t.co/pdZWorQMaW pic.twitter.com/HPDkdbA5Rw — TSN (@TSN_Sports) February 6, 2023

Gretzky sits at 1,098 goals, including his as-yet unparalleled 894 over 20 NHL regular seasons, plus 122 more in the playoffs. In his one season in the World Hockey League before his Edmonton Oilers joined the NHL, Gretzky amassed 56 regular season and playoff goals. Per the AP, he also put the biscuit in the basket 26 times between Canada Cup, World Cup and world championships appearances.

Whereas Gretzky retired from the NHL at 38 — possibly forgoing some still-productive years, given he had led the league in assists in each of the two previous seasons — Jagr competed in North America’s top circuit until he was 45. He departed in January 2018 with 1,921 points, second only in league annals to Gretzky’s mark of 2,857, after the Flames reassigned him to the Czech team he had taken over from his father as majority owner in 2011.

Jagr has since continued to suit up for Kladno, his hometown squad for which he made his professional debut in 1988. In 2021, Jagr told the Hockey News he was still playing for Kladno out of a sense of “responsibility to the club.”

“Otherwise I wouldn’t fly here and I wouldn’t be making a fool of myself,” he said at the time. “But if I quit, the partners and sponsors would leave and the club may be done. I have no choice. People don’t understand it, but I don’t care. Only God will judge me. I expect much more from myself, and I also believe that I have it in me.”

On Sunday, Jagr showed he still had some of his old prowess by holding off a Trinec defender to collect a puck behind the net, pop out to one side of the goalkeeper and adroitly slip the puck past his other side.

Jaromir Jagr scored his 1099th pro goal, passing Wayne Gretzky for the most in hockey history. pic.twitter.com/7dwvFK2UpY — Hockey Of Tomorrow (@HockeyTomorrow) February 6, 2023

Ovechkin, meanwhile, was last seen participating in the NHL All-Star Game last Saturday, one day after he shared the ice with his 4-year-old son, Sergei, during a skills competition.

When Ovechkin’s Capitals resume their regular season Saturday, he will look to add to his total of 812 regular season goals. That has him just 82 behind Gretzky, and the 37-year-old Ovechkin could move past him for a new NHL record if he maintains his scoring pace for another two or possibly three seasons.

As for assists, no one seems likely to come close to either Gretzky’s NHL record or whatever his overall professional-plus-international-tournament mark may be. As has been frequently noted since he hung up his skates in 1999, Gretzky’s assists alone — a regular season total of 1,963 — amount to a greater number than any other NHL player has in total points.

Ron Francis, who starred for the Penguins, Hartford Whalers and Carolina Hurricanes, is a very distant second in assists at 1,249. Jagr stands fifth all-time with 1,155 assists, and he is fourth in goals (766) and games played (1,733).

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