People say there is asterisks if Ovi breaks the record, you got to remember. Gretzky had like one shortened season (due to lockout) in his NHL career (and the seasons where he had his fair shares of injuries) while Ovi missed his rookie season (04-05), the 2013 season had only 48 games in the season, and the 2021 season had 56 games, and the 2020 season was missing 10 games due to the pandemic. Missing around 150 games in that span due to circumstances non-health related that's out of his hands. He could have broken that record like last year if he had a chance to play those games.
I don't know what sort of asterisk you might put on Ovechkin getting the record. Assuming Ovechkin gets it, it will take him
slightly more games.
Gretzky: 894 goals in 1,487 games = 0.6012 GPG
Ovechkin: 848 goals in 1,414 games = 0.5997 GPG
But that's not asterisk-worthy. What you'll typically hear is chatter unrelated to the goals record: oh, well, while he was scoring all those goals, Gretz also had nearly thrice as many assists as Ovechkin. I think a lot of folks forget that defensive play when Gretzky was on the Oilers was not close to the same level it has been during Ovechkin's career.
During Gretzky's tenure in Edmonton (1979-1988) goals per game in the NHL ranged between 3.51 and 4.01. By contrast, during Ovechkin's career (2005-2024), GPG ranged from 2.71-3.14. When you break down Gretzky's Oilers numbers to the rest of his career, the distinction becomes even more clear:
Gretzky with Edmonton: 583 goals in 696 games = 0.8376 GPG
Gretzky with everyone else: 311 goals in 791 = 0.3932 GPG
Gretzky in Edmonton was on video game mode. It would be interesting to run a simulation with Ovechkin on the '79-'88 Oilers.
Honestly, aside from otherworldly goal scoring ability, the biggest thing Gretz and Ovechkin have in common was/is the ability to stay healthy. Gretzky played in 92.48% of his teams' games (his worst seasons injury-wise were '87-'88, when he missed 16 games, and '92-'93, when he missed 35). Ovechkin's percentage is even better; he has played in 95.99% of his team's games (his lowest GP total in a normal season was 72 games in 2009-10!). Of course, you don't break records like these without staying healthy, but both of these guys were very fortunate in that regard.