NHL Milestone Watch 2026-27: Ovechkin, McDavid, Burns can do what no player ever has
We continue to be spoiled in this era of generational NHL superstars, many of whom are continuously smashing records year after year. Last season alone, Alex Ovechkin became the league’s first 900-goal scorer, Joel Quenneville became the second coach to win 1,000 games, Sidney Crosby leapfrogged fellow Pittsburgh Penguins legend Mario Lemieux in points, Patrick Kane became the all-time points leader among American-born players, Steven Stamkos eclipsed 600 goals and Mathew Schaefer tied the single-season rookie defenseman record for goals.
What benchmarks are likely to fall this coming season? Welcome to NHL Milestone Watch 2026-27.
Brent Burns: IRON MAN RECORD (1,065 consecutive games played)
Doug Jarvis held the ironman record for 36 years, but these days it changes hands like a combat-sport title belt. Keith Yandle set the new mark in 2022 only to be usurped by Phil Kessel less than a year later, and Kessel’s run is set to end at four years. Burns, 41, returns for a 23rd NHL season. He’s hoping to win that elusive Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche, but he’ll also set a new ironman mark if he can play 58 more games in a row. Add in his 2016-17 Norris Trophy and the fact he’ll be top-10 in defenseman points by season’s end, and Burns is a Hall of Fame shoo-in.
Alex Ovechkin: MOST TOTAL GOALS INCLUDING PLAYOFFS (1,017)
‘Ovi,’ already the goal-scoring G.O.A.T., is back for one more ride with a stacked Washington Capitals team primed for a Stanley Cup push in 2026-27. Sitting at 929 regular-season goals, he left Wayne Gretzky’s long-standing record of 894 in the rearview mirror in spring 2025, but Gretzky still has the most total NHL goals between the regular season and postseason with 1,016. Ovechkin sits just 10 back at 1,006, meaning his 11th goal of 2026-27 will grant him undisputed supremacy as the NHL’s pre-eminent twine bulger.
Paul Maurice: 1,000 COACHING WINS
Maurice’s longevity and gift for media-friendly quips have made him one of the most memorable bench bosses of his generation, but he’s backed up his likability with a legitimate resume including two Stanley Cups with the Florida Panthers. He’ll chase a third in four years this season and, after becoming the second coach ever to log 2,000 games in the NHL, he’ll join Scotty Bowman and Quenneville as the third 1,000-game winner if the Panthers win 44 games this season. With a healthier roster and the acquisition of Brady Tkachuk, hitting that number shouldn’t be a problem for Florida in 2026-27.
Sidney Crosby: TOP FIVE ON ALL-TIME SCORING LIST (1,799)
Remember the despair of 2011, when concussions were threatening Crosby’s career, leaving us wondering if he’d become an Eric Lindros what-if story? A decade and a half later, Sid is still playing at a near-elite level, and he needs just 38 points to pass Ron Francis for fifth on the NHL’s all-time scoring list. Crosby will also become the sport’s fifth 1,800-point scorer with his 39th point of 2026-27. It remains to be seen how many years left we have of this hockey icon, but it’s thankfully not close to the end yet.
Sergei Bobrovsky: TOP FIVE IN GOALIE WINS (485)
With two Stanley Cups, two Vezina Trophies and 400-plus wins, ‘Bob’ has already cemented an easy Hall of Fame legacy, but he’s not done collecting accolades. He needs 29 victories to pass Ed Belfour for fifth in NHL history. Whether Bobrovsky does so this season depends on how large of a role he carves out with the Toronto Maple Leafs and how well the revamped roster performs as a whole. If Bobrovsky wins 29 or more games while sharing the net with Anthony Stolarz, that likely means Toronto returns to the playoffs after missing them in 2025-26.
Brent Burns & Erik Karlsson: TOP 10 IN DEFENSEMAN SCORING (949 points)
Even if Burns falls short in the ironman quest and/or doesn’t win the Cup this season, he’s a strong bet to enter the top 10 in blueliner points, albeit with a brief foray as a forward puffing up his total slightly. He needs only four points to pass Chris Chelios for 10th on the all-time list. Erik Karlsson, another surefire Hall of Famer, will get there with 13 more points. Karlsson, younger and more productive, might pass Burns during the season, but with Larry Robinson only 10 points north of Chelios, Burns and Karlsson should each pass both of them and finish this season comfortably in the top 10.
Andrei Vasilevskiy: 400 WINS
Vasilevskiy’s resume will rank among the best of all-time at his position by the time his career ends. It does already, really, and he’s still just 32, not exactly ancient by goalie standards. He already has two Stanley Cups, a Conn Smythe Trophy, two Vezina Trophies and multiple first-team All-Star nods to his name. Having led the NHL in victories six times in the past nine seasons playing for a perennial contender in the Tampa Bay Lightning, ‘Vasy’ needs just 30 more wins to reach 400. Bobrovsky is the fastest netminder ever to hit the milestone – keeping in mind we live in the era of shootouts, 3-on-3 overtime and no ties, inflating goalie win totals – and he did it in 707 career games. Vasilevskiy opens the year at 598; he’ll obliterate the record for fastest to 400 Ws.
Benn, Perry, Panarin, Pastrnak and Scheifele: 1,000 POINTS
The five names here approach the milestone at wildly different paces. I’ve listed Jamie Benn (992), Corey Perry (972), Artemi Panarin (954), David Pastrnak (933) and Mark Scheifele by proximity to 1,000 points, but if we order them by how fast they’ll likely get there, from fewest to most games: Panarin, Pastrnak, Scheifele, Benn, Perry.
The Connor McDavid category
What will happen on the latest episode of ‘McDavid did what?’ If he wins the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s leading scorer this season, he’ll do so for a seventh time and pass Lemieux and Gordie Howe to sit alone in second all-time behind Gretzky’s 10. McDavid is tied with Gretzky for the most times winning the Ted Lindsay/Lester B. Pearson Award for most outstanding player as voted by his fellow players; a sixth win would break the record. McDavid also just needs 80 points to reach 1,300; when he does so, he’ll be the third-fastest to get there behind, you guessed it, Gretzky and Lemieux. We know McDavid is a once-in-a-century talent when only G.O.A.T.-tier scorers are his peers now.
Other milestones to watch in 2026-27
– Sidney Crosby and Corey Perry: 1,500 games
– Steven Stamkos: 1,300 points
– Connor Hellebuyck: 350 wins
– John Tavares, Claude Giroux, Nathan MacKinnon and Nikita Kucherov: 1,200 points
– Leon Draisaitl and Brad Marchand: 1,100 points
– Matt Duchene, Mark Scheifele and Filip Forsberg: 400 goals
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