Wayne Gretzky vs Alex Ovechkin: Who has had a more impressive career?

Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player to ever live, so there is no question that he has had a better career than Alex Ovechkin.

Gretzky is nicknamed "The Great One" for good reason and has his number 99 retired by every NHL team. This shows just how great a player he was.

Ovechkin has still had a great career and there is a chance that he can break one of Gretzky's records.

Let's take a look at their respective careers.

Wayne Gretzky's NHL career

Wayne Gretzky played 20 seasons in the NHL from 1979 to 1999 and the NHL itself has declared Gretzky the greatest player ever.

In his career, Gretzky is the leading goal scorer, assist producer, and point scorer in NHL history. As well, to show how good he was, he has more career assists than any other player has total points.

Gretzky is also the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he accomplished four times. As well, he tallied over 100 points in 15 professional seasons, 13 of them consecutive When he retired in 1999, he had 61 NHL records, 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.

He ended his NHL career with 1487 games played, 2857 points, 894 goals, and 1963 assists. Gretzky also won the MVP nine times and won the Stanley Cup four times. "The Great One" indeed.

Alexander Ovechkin's NHL career

Although Alexander Ovechkin won't have as good a career as Wayne Gretzky, he may still break his goal-scoring record.

Ovechkin is second all-time in goals scored as he has 822, meaning he only needs 72 more goals, which he likely can do in two or three more seasons.

Even Gretzky figured Ovechkin would eventually go on to his break goal record.

"Absolutely. First and foremost, you got to be injury-free and Alex has been injury-free throughout his career," Gretzky said on the Hockey Night in Canada podcast.

"You have to play in a good organization and Alex is playing in a good organization. And, you have to play with good players, and Alex is playing on a good team with good players.

"I just have nothing but respect for the young man. He plays the game hard, he plays physical and he wants to win... If he breaks my record, I will be the first guy there to shake his hand. I think it is good for hockey and I think it's great for sports when people break records."

Alexander Ovechkin may well pass Wayne Gretzky's goal-scoring record, but Gretzky will remain the greatest player of all time.