{"id":61444,"date":"2025-08-12T02:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T02:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61444\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T02:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T02:29:07","slug":"metro-notes-ovechkin-flyers-goaltending-wotherspoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61444\/","title":{"rendered":"Metro Notes: Ovechkin, Flyers Goaltending, Wotherspoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Alex Ovechkin<\/a> broke arguably the NHL\u2019s most iconic record last season by scoring his 895th career goal, the Russian sharpshooter still has more milestones to chase in the coming year, Sports Illustrated\u2019s Nick Horwat<\/a> outlines.<\/p>\n

In what could be his final season, Ovechkin will easily become the first player in NHL history to hit the 900-goal plateau. Just three goals away, a fast start should put that record in the rear-view mirror and could kick-start another pursuit in Ovechkin\u2019s age-40 season. Currently, Gordie Howe<\/a> holds the record for most goals by a 40-year-old player with the 44 he put up during the 1968-69 season with the Detroit Red Wings. It\u2019s a lofty mark that remains unmatched 50-plus years later for a reason, but it\u2019s a reasonable expectation for Ovechkin, who is coming off a 44-goal season while playing just 65 games.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin is also just 18 points shy of cracking the NHL\u2019s top 10 all-time scoring list, three goals away from entering the top 10 in playoff goals, and 192 hits short of becoming second all-time in that category.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the Metropolitan Division:<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Flyers have been on a bit of a goaltending carousel over the years, due to a variety of circumstances. As Haley Taylor Simon of Philly Sports Network<\/a> details, the situation may have hit rock bottom during the 2018-19 season when the team utilized an NHL-record eight goaltenders. Still, the Flyers haven\u2019t exactly fortified the position since. However, Simon wonders if recently signed Dan Vladar<\/a> could be the answer between the pipes. Still just 27, Vladar is coming off a solid showing with the Calgary Flames last season, appearing in 30 games and securing a .898 save percentage, a 2.80 GAA, and a career-high .586 quality start percentage. On the opening day of free agency, Vladar signed a to a two-year, $6.7MM deal and is expected to compete with Samuel Ersson<\/a>, who appeared in 47 games for the Flyers last season and finished with a .883 save percentage and 3.14 GAA.
\nPenguins GM Kyle Dubas expressed a desire to improve both the depth and overall performance of his left-side defensemen, which led to a series of free-agent signings aimed at finding the right fit. Among the players he signed, physical defenseman Parker Wotherspoon<\/a> \u2014 who inked a two-year, $2 million deal with Pittsburgh \u2014 may have the inside track on a roster spot. Wotherspoon, 27, has appeared in 108 regular-season games in the NHL across three seasons, including a career-high 55 games for the Boston Bruins last season. On the year, he averaged 18:02 of ice time per night and registered seven points, 75 hits, and 66 blocked shots. He joins recently signed Caleb Jones<\/a> and\u00a0Alexander Alexeyev,<\/a> as well as veteran\u00a0Ryan Graves,<\/a> and promising youngster Owen Pickering<\/a> in Pittsburgh\u2019s depth chart. Per Justin Guerriero of Triblive.com<\/a>, Wotherspoon believes Pittsburgh gives him the best opportunity to play. \u201cThey seemed interested, we seemed interested and we thought it\u2019d be a good fit with some opportunity to play. \u2026 An opportunity to get back in the playoffs is all I wanted to do. Everything just kind of lined up really well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Alex Ovechkin broke arguably the NHL\u2019s most iconic record last season by scoring his 895th career goal,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[3062,10231,64,63,49634,575,49635,3065,4785,85,4791],"class_list":["post-61444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-2025-free-agency","tag-alex-ovechkin","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dan-vladar","tag-nhl","tag-parker-wotherspoon","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-sports","tag-washington-capitals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}