DALLAS, TX.- It really is a matter of simple math: the Great Eight is better than the Great One.

When Wayne Gretzky retired from the National Hockey League after the 1998-99 season, "The Great One" owned the vast majority of the league's career scoring records, including the most hallowed of all: in 20 NHL seasons, he amassed 894 goals, 93 more than second-place Gordie Howe.

Thought for decades to be unreachable, Gretzky's 894 goals are about to become the second-highest total in league history, as Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals — the "Great Eight" (for his jersey number) — is rapidly making up ground. The Capitals are now calling the chase to the record "the Gr8 Chase," and the margin is down to single digits. The chase is suddenly the center of the sports universe, and league is planning to interrupt the game whenever he does break it for an on-ice ceremony.

Three game-worn Ovechkin jerseys, along with jerseys worn in games by NHL legends Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Mark Messier, Connor McDavid, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby and Auston Matthews, will find new homes when they are sold April 19 in Heritage & MeiGray Present: The March to Greatness Game Worn Hockey Catalog Auction on HA.com.

Every jersey in the auction has been photo matched by MeiGray Authenticated.

"This is like when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record for career home runs, or LeBron passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career scoring record," says authentication expert and MeiGray President and COO Barry Meisel. "In each case, the previous record had stood for a long time, and was thought to be permanently out of reach. But now he's about to claim the most important individual record in the sport."

Ovechkin has a chance to break Gretzky's once-unbreakable record before the end of the regular season. If that doesn't happen, he will climb to the top rung of the sport's greatest goal scorers early next year.

"The jerseys in this auction represent the best of the best, a veritable Mount Rushmore of hockey," says Chris Ivy, Heritage's Director of Sports Auctions. "Wayne Gretzky will always be viewed as the greatest of all time in my opinion — his jersey number is retired, not just by the teams he played for, but by the entire league — but what Ovechkin is doing now is incredible and wasn't thought possible until recent years.

"Then you add in Gordie Howe, Jaromir Jagr, Mark Messier and two of the greatest active players in Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews … this auction is like a Hall of Fame of hockey jerseys."

Ovechkin's assault on the record book defies all logic. When he breaks the all-time record for goals scored — and at this point, it is a matter of when, not if — it will be the crown jewel at the top of a list of league records that already includes (but is not limited to) the most power-play goals, most goals by a left wing, most empty-net goals, most goals in games away from home, most goals with a single team and the most season with 40 or more goals scored. At 39, he is a year older than Gretzky was when the Great One retired from the game (like Gretzky's last season, the 2024-25 campaign is Ovechkin's 20th in the NHL); while Gretzky mustered nine goals in his final campaign, Ovechkin is closing in on 40 again, and this despite missing 16 games earlier this season with a broken leg.

"Remember, if not for a couple of lockouts (in 2004 and 2012), he would already have the career goals record by now, too," says Meisel. "And he has played a long time, but it's not like 20 years of his jerseys are out there, available. The Capitals have some, and he has a lot, too. He wants to open a museum of his gear, and sticks and jerseys from other players, in Russia after he retires. So while he has played in a lot of games and worn a lot of jerseys, they're not easy to come by, especially the ones he wore for milestone goals like these."

The auction contains three Ovechkin jerseys: the one he wore when he scored his 400th NHL Goal — photo-matched to the Caps' December 20, 2013 game against the Carolina Hurricanes, the jersey he was wearing April 5, 2011, when he scored the 300th goal of his career against the Toronto Maple Leafs and the sweater he wore February 4, 2025 in the game in which he secured his 19th consecutive season in which he has scored at 25 or more goals.

The auction includes two Gretzky jerseys, including a 1998-99 New York Rangers sweater that was one of the last the Great One ever wore on NHL ice. It has been photo-matched to four games in which he played in January 1999, including the game in which he scored the 892nd of his 894 career goals. It also bears a red heart drawn inside the left "9" on the back by his wife, Janet.Also in play is a 1991-92 Los Angeles Kings jersey that Gretzky wore four years after being the centerpiece in the biggest trade in NHL history. The swap that sent the league's most celebrated player in the sport from Edmonton, where he was a national treasure, to southern California added instant credibility to the evolution of the sport across the southern United States.

Before Gretzky took the league by storm, Gordie Howe was the standard by which many NHL players were measured — to this day, a goal, an assist and a fight in a single game is referred to as "a Gordie Howe hat trick." His 26-year career included six seasons in the World Hockey League, the first of which was the 1973-74 season in which he wore this Houston Aeros jersey on his way to being named the league's MVP when he won the Gary L. Davidson Trophy — an award that later was renamed the Gordie Howe Trophy.

For two decades, mentions of Ovechkin rarely fail to include a mention of Pittsburgh center Sidney Crosby, and this auction is no different. Among the treasures in this auction is Crosby's 2011 Winter Classic Game-Worn Pittsburgh Penguins Jersey from the game in which Pittsburgh fittingly played Ovechkin's Capitals. More than 68,000 fans turned out to Pittsburgh's Heinz Field to watch the NHL's two biggest stars face off. A concussion in the game ended Crosby's season, and later games in which this style of jersey was worn included injuries to Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal and another injury to Crosby led the team to permanently shelve jerseys with this design.Other jerseys in the auction include:

• A 2016-17 Connor McDavid Game-Worn Edmonton Oilers Jersey that has been photo-matched to his first game (October 12, 2016) as team captain

• A 2000-01 Mark Messier Game-Worn & Signed New York Rangers Jersey that has been photo-matched to the January 20, 2001 game against the Montreal Canadiens

• A 2013-14 Jaromir Jagr 700th Career Goal Game-Worn New Jersey Devils Jersey photo-matched to March 1, 2014 game against the New York Islanders

• A 2020-21 Auston Matthews Game-Worn Toronto Maple Leafs "St. Pats" Throwback Jersey photo-matched to March 14, 2021 game against the Ottawa Senators