Ovechkin gifted painting during on-ice ceremony after record-breaking goal

Alex Ovechkin made a habit of collecting Tony Harris’ paintings of him during his climb up the NHL goals list.

So, it seemed fitting that Ovechkin received another after the Washington Capitals left wing scored his NHL record-breaking 895th goal against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, on Sunday.

“To commemorate this moment, there is a Canadian artist who does sports named Tony Harris. You collect his paintings," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said during the on-ice ceremony after Ovechkin passed Wayne Gretzky on the NHL all-time goals list. "We had this painting especially commissioned for you to celebrate and commemorate this amazing, amazing accomplishment. Congratulations. Greatness is now a part of your name.”

It was the sixth time Harris, an Ottawa-based professional sports artist who has frequently worked with the NHL, NHL Players’ Association, and the NHL teams, was commissioned to do a painting of Ovechkin.

An oil painting on canvas (5 feet by 3½ feet), it features an image of Ovechkin lifting the Stanley Cup after the Capitals won it in 2018 in the background, another image of Ovechkin in the foreground taking one of his signature one-timers with Gretzky skating up behind him in an Edmonton Oilers uniform, which he wore when he scored the first 583 of his 894 NHL goals.

“We really liked the idea of him holding the Stanely Cup because it’s still a team thing and winning the Stanley Cup is essentially the goal,” Harris said. “Then in the foreground, it’s him taking a one-timer, which probably is 35 percent of his goals are one-timers on the off wing. Then, it’s got Gretzky in behind him in an Oilers uniform.”

Easter egg details in the painting include that names of Ovechkin’s wife Nastya and sons Sergei and Ilya engraved in the Stanley Cup, the number 894 on Gretzky’s glove and 895 on the brim of Ovechkin’s hat in the image of him lifting the Cup.

The League and the Capitals felt the painting was a perfect gift because beautifully captures a momentous time in history, not just for the entire hockey world but also for Ovechkin and his closest family and friends. It’s a thoughtful gesture that requires not just skill and ability, but painstaking detail and focus to ensure every brush stroke is perfect; a good painting reflects a moment in time but a great painting evokes an emotion: awe, amazement, admiration, and only someone with a deep understanding of their subject can achieve this.

And the NHL felt Harris was the perfect person to do the Ovechkin painting because he has been immortalizing the greatest NHL players and the biggest moments in NHL history for more than 15 years. He painted 100 original works of art in the span of a year for every member on the list of The 100 Greatest NHL Players to commemorate the League’s Centennial anniversary in 2017. even though this will be Ovechkin’s sixth painting, Tony has painted more than 150 different NHL players.

Harris felt honored that this one is connected to the NHL goal record.

“My kids don’t think my job is super cool, but they think this is kind of cool,” Harris said. “So, I guess it must be a little cool, if that makes any sense. ... Being a part of it and working with the NHL and different teams has been a great thing. As an artist, and a sports artist, there’s nothing else I’d rather do.”

Harris’ previous Ovechkin pieces included smaller paintings when he won the Ted Lindsay Award, presented annually to the NHL’s “most outstanding player” voted by members of the NHLPA, in 2010, when he was named one of the NHL’s 100 Greatest Players during the League’s Centennial Celebration in 2017, after he scored his 600th goal on March 12, 2018, and after he scored his 767th goal to pass Jaromir Jagr for third in NHL in goals on March 15, 2022.

Harris did a larger painting of Ovechkin after he scored his 802nd goal to pass Gordie Howe for second in NHL history on Dec. 22, 2022. The 60-year-old considers the painting for Ovechkin’s 895th goal as a companion piece to the one to commemorate his 802nd.

A major difference with this piece is that Harris was commissioned to have it completed so it could be presented immediately after he broke the goals record. The paintings from his 600th, 767th and 802nd goals were done after Ovechkin reached the milestones to be presented at ceremonies later in those seasons.

Harris said he finished this painting in mid-March.

“When he scored the hat trick against Edmonton (on Feb. 23), I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. He’s going to do this quicker than we think,’” said Harris, a former junior and university hockey player in Canada. “Doing the painting while he’s chasing the record is a different kind of stress than I’m used to in painting.”