WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin is returning for a 22nd season with the Washington Capitals.
Will this be the final act of his illustrious career?
“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see.”
The NHL’s career leader in goals didn’t formally commit to returning in 2026-27 until last week, so it was perhaps no surprise that Ovechkin remained noncommittal on whether this is going to be his swan song in Washington. Ovechkin said his wife suggested he play “one more year, or maybe two years, I don’t know” — so if anyone was expecting him to announce a retirement tour for this season, that did not happen.
Instead, Ovechkin is focused on showing he can still be effective — he’ll be 41 — and help the team win. The organization he’s returning to has been one of the most active in the league this offseason, adding Jordan Kyrou, Alex Tuch and Boone Jenner — among others — via the trade and free agent markets.
Those three have all reached 30 goals at some point in their careers, and Ovechkin did that even last season at his advanced age. The Capitals missed the playoffs, but they had the same number of points (95) as Vegas did before the Golden Knights made a run to the Stanley Cup Final. Washington also finished tied for third in the NHL in even-strength goal differential.
“When you look at our roster, it’s a Stanley Cup contender,” Ovechkin said. “I know I still can play, and bring energy to the locker room, energy on the ice.”
The Capitals have mostly remained competitive even though almost everyone from their 2018 Stanley Cup-winning team is gone. Ovechkin and Tom Wilson are still around, but Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Braden Holtby and Evgeny Kuznetsov exited at various points since then. Veteran defenseman John Carlson, who was in his 17th year in Washington, was traded last season.
Now it’s a team led by Ovechkin, Wilson, Dylan Strome, Jakob Chychrun, Pierre-Luc Dubois and goalie Logan Thompson — plus new additions.
“We came in looking to add skill to our top six,” president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan said. “We wanted to get a physical, long defenseman that had a net-front presence. We were looking at veteran leadership.”
Ovechkin said it took “maybe 10 minutes” to finalize a deal after telling the team he’d return. He’ll make a $1 million salary with bonuses worth an additional $8 million — including $4.75 million if he plays 10 games. The contract counts just $4.25 million against the cap after Washington made plenty of use of its substantial salary cap space.
“Alex, thank you very, very much for the way you handled this,” owner Ted Leonsis said.
Ovechkin appeared on a video conference while vacationing in Turkey. Leonsis, MacLellan and general manager Chris Patrick were on the call. Coach Spencer Carbery, who will be tasked with arranging all the new talent on the ice, wasn’t.
Ovechkin scored 32 goals last season and 44 in 2024-25, when he broke Wayne Gretzky’s career record of 894. He’s still a threat in the offensive zone, although oddly, he managed only five power-play goals on 86 shots last season. The power play was a big problem for Washington in general.
The role Ovechkin will play going forward remains to be seen.
“I think we have a pretty balanced team,” Patrick said. “Like a lot of our players, he can move up and down the lineup as how Carbs sees fit, and how he wants to use the lines and deploy the lines on a given night. And obviously the power-play piece as well, where Alex has proven time and again he’s an effective player.”
Ovechkin’s news conference came shortly before the start of Monday’s Portugal-Spain match in the World Cup. Ovechkin spoke glowingly about how Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentina’s Lionel Messi continue to perform against younger opposition.
“If you look at Messi and Ronaldo, those players show example that if you’re able to continue show the level what you have, the skill, it’s tremendous,” he said. “You can see how they play. It’s tremendous. I’m really impressed.”
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Noah Trister, The Associated Press
