How close is Alex Ovechkin to breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL career goals record?

Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is closing in on the NHL goals record of 894 held by Wayne Gretzky.

Ovechkin has 886 goals and needs eight to tie and nine to break the record.

Ovechkin entered the season 42 short of breaking the regular-season record by “The Great One” that had long seemed unapproachable. The 39-year-old Russian is in his 20th NHL season and was on pace to get to 895 in February before breaking his left leg in a shin-on-shin collision in November. He missed 16 games but resumed his pursuit at Toronto in the Capitals' first game out of the Christmas break.

Ovechkin scored into an empty net with 1:29 left against Seattle on Sunday to seal a 4-2 Capitals victory. It was also his 1,600th career point, becoming the 11th player to reach that mark.

Ovechkin already owns the NHL records for power-play goals and shots on goal.

He also has 135 game-winning goals, tied for the most with Jaromir Jagr. Ovechkin has scored on 181 different goaltenders, breaking Jagr's record by beating Leevi Merilainen of the Senators with No. 874. Ovechkin has 178 multi-goal games, second to Gretzky (189).

Ovechkin earlier this season became the 60th player to record 700 career assists. He joined Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Jagr, Marcel Dionne and Phil Esposito as the only players with 700 goals and 700 assists.

Ovechkin, after climbing past Mike Gartner (708), Esposito (717), Dionne (731), Brett Hull (741) and Jagr (766), scored goal No. 802 on Dec. 23, 2022, to move into second behind Gretzky (894).

Gretzky has held the record since scoring his 802nd goal on March 23, 1994, to pass Howe. He added 92 more before retiring in 1999 after a total of 1,487 games over 20 seasons.

Gretzky holds 55 NHL records and even if his goals mark falls to Ovechkin — which he has said he is excited about — two seem truly untouchable: 2,857 total points and 1,963 assists, which is more than anyone else has in goals and assists combined.

For NHL playoff goals, which do not count toward the record, Gretzky has the most (122). Ovechkin has 72. Gretzky also had another 56 in the World Hockey Association regular season and playoffs, while Ovechkin has 57 from his time in the Russia-based KHL.

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Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his 886th goal with teammates during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Seattle Kraken, Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)

The Washington Capitals mascot celebrates after left wing Alex Ovechkin, not pictured, scores his 886th goal during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Seattle Kraken, Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his 886th goal with right wing Tom Wilson during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Seattle Kraken, Sunday, March 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Terrance Williams)

Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin (8) skates during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers Wednesday, March 5, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin (8) approaches the ice for the start of the second period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers Wednesday, March 5, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin celebrates his goal during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Calgary Flames, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

FILE - Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin reacts during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Edmonton Oilers, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin celebrates his goal during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Calgary Flames, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) celebrates his goal with right wing Tom Wilson during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Calgary Flames, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) and St. Louis Blues center Brayden Schenn (10) collide during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) wears a special helmet decal in support of the figure skating community and all those affected by the Flight 5342 tragedy during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Saturday, March 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin (8) skates during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the New York Rangers Wednesday, March 5, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

KAKUMA, Kenya (AP) — Windswept and remote, set in the cattle-rustling lands of Kenya’s northwest, Kakuma was never meant to be permanently settled.

It became one of Africa’s most famous refugee camps by accident as people escaping calamity in countries like South Sudan, Ethiopia and Congo poured in.

More than three decades after its first tents appeared in 1992, Kakuma houses 300,000 refugees. Many rely on aid to survive. Some recently clashed with police over shrinking food rations and support.

Now the Kenyan government and humanitarian agencies have come up with an ambitious plan for Kakuma to evolve into a city.

Although it remains under the United Nations' management, Kakuma has been redesignated a municipality, one that local government officials later will run.

It is part of broader goal in Kenya and elsewhere of incorporating refugees more closely into local populations and shifting from prolonged reliance on aid.

The refugees in Kakuma eventually will have to fend for themselves, living off their incomes rather than aid. The nearest city is eight hours' drive away.

Such self-reliance is not easy. Few refugees can become Kenyan citizens. A 2021 law recognizes their right to work in formal employment, but only a tiny minority are allowed to do so.

Forbidden from keeping livestock because of the arid surroundings and the inability to roam widely, and unable to farm due to the lack of adequate water, many refugees see running a business as their only option.

Startup businesses require capital, and interest rates on loans from banks in Kakuma are typically around 20%. Few refugees have the collateral and documentation needed to take out a loan.

Denying them access to credit is a tremendous waste of human capital, said Julienne Oyler, who runs Inkomoko, a charity providing financial training and low-cost loans to African businesses, primarily in displacement-affected communities.

“We find that refugee business owners actually have the characteristics that make world-class entrepreneurs,” she said.

“They are resilient. They are resourceful. They have access to networks. They have adaptability. In some ways, what refugees unfortunately have had to go through actually makes a really good business owner.”

Other options available include microloans from other aid groups or collective financing by refugee-run groups. However, the sums involved are usually insufficient for all but the smallest startups.

One of Inkomoko’s clients in Kakuma, Adele Mubalama, led seven young children — six of her own and an abandoned 12-year-old she found en route — on a hazardous journey to the camp through four countries after the family was forced to leave Congo in 2018.

At the camp it took six months to find her husband, who had fled two months earlier, and six more to figure out how to make a living.

“It was difficult to know how to survive,” Mubalama said. “We didn’t know how to get jobs and there were no business opportunities.”

After signing up for a tailoring course with a Danish charity, she found herself making fabric masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Able to borrow from Inkomoko at half the rate charged by banks, she expanded, taking on 26 employees and buying new sewing machines. Last year she made a profit of $8,300 — a huge amount when many refugees live on allowances or vouchers of about $10 or less a month.

Another beneficiary is Mesfin Getahun, a former soldier who fled Ethiopia for Kakuma in 2001 after helping students who had protested against the government. He has grown his “Jesus is Lord” shops, which sell everything from groceries to motorcycles, into Kakuma’s biggest retail chain. That's thanks in part to $115,000 in loans from Inkomoko.

Trading with other towns is also essential. Inkomoko has linked refugee businesses with suppliers in Eldoret, a city 300 miles (482 kilometers) to the south, to cut out expensive middlemen and help embed Kakuma into Kenya's economy.

Some question the vision of Kakuma becoming a thriving, self-reliant city.

Rahul Oka, an associate research professor with the University of Notre Dame said it lacks the resources — particularly water — and infrastructure to sustain a viable economy that can rely on local production.

“You cannot reconstruct an organic economy by socially engineering one,” said Oka, who has studied economic life at Kakuma for many years.

Two-way trade remains almost nonexistent. Suppliers send food and secondhand clothes to Kakuma, but trucks on the return journey are usually empty.

And the vast majority of refugees lack the freedom to move elsewhere in Kenya, where jobs are easier to find, said Freddie Carver of ODI Global, a London-based think tank.

Unless this is addressed, solutions offering greater opportunities to refugees cannot deliver meaningful transformation for most of them, he said.

“If you go back 20 years, a lot of refugee rights discourse was about legal protections, the right to work, the right to stay in a country permanently,” Carver said. “Now it’s all about livelihoods and self-sufficiency. The emphasis is so much on opportunities that it overshadows the question of rights. There needs to be a greater balance.”

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General view of Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana county, Kenya, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jackson Njehia)

Julienne Oyler, who runs Inkomoko, a charity providing financial training, talks during an interview with the Associated Press Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana county, Kenya, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jackson Njehia)

Adele Mubalama, holds a cloth at her boutique in Kakuma refugee camp, Turkana County, Kenya, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jackson Njehia)

General view part of Kakuma refugee camp in Turkana county, Kenya, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jackson Njehia)