As we count down these last eight games of the 2024-25 regular season – the 50th season of Capitals hockey – and as we continue to celebrate the end of Alex Ovechkin’s chase of Wayne Gretzky’s goal mark last weekend, we’re going to share a personal memory of these last 20 years with the Gr8 Eight every game day until season’s end.
Today, we revisit the deal that made Ovechkin a Capital for life, the 13-year contract extension he signed with the team on Jan. 10, 2008. Three things make this deal unique in retrospect. First, it’s not possible for a team to sign a player for more than eight years any longer; a subsequent CBA between the League and the NHLPA limits contract extensions to a maximum of eight years. Second, Ovechkin and his mother Tatiana negotiated the deal on their own; Ovechkin had severed ties with his agency more than a year before this deal was consummated. And finally, Caps majority owner Ted Leonsis surprised a crowd of season ticket holders in the building then known as Verizon Center when he announced the deal that evening.
Midway through the 2007-08 season, Alex Ovechkin was amid what stands as the best season of his NHL career. He would finish with career highs in goals (65) and points (112) as he skated through the final season of his three-year entry level contract. Caps fans were on pins and needles, hoping their superstar left wing would be signed to a long-term deal to keep him in DC.
The hockey landscape was a bit different in these parts then. The Caps had yet to reach the playoffs in the relatively nascent Ovechkin era, but they were almost two months into the Bruce Boudreau era, and the Caps’ new bench boss had the team on the move, with Ovechkin filling nets around the League and rookie center Nicklas Backstrom showing strong chemistry with the Gr8 Eight.
As people began to file into the arena that night, the Caps were on a 10-4-3 roll in their prior 17 games.
In the previous summer of 2007, offer sheets were tendered to a pair of young restricted free agents in the League – Thomas Vanek and Dustin Penner – fueling some nervousness and anxiety among the fan base as Ovechkin continued to vex goaltenders around the League.
Signing Ovechkin to a five-year deal would have kept the RFA wolves at bay, and it would have kept the 22-year-old star in DC right up to the onset of his UFA seasons. Realistically, that was probably the hope most Caps fans had at the time.
Once the calendar flipped from 2007 to 2008, Ovechkin was eligible to ink an extension with Washington, and he and his mother quietly began negotiating terms of what that might look like while fans and media types in other NHL cities began to foment pipe dreams of their own about what Ovechkin might look like sporting the sweater of their favorite team.
By the time the night of the season ticket holders’ party rolled around on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008, the deal was essentially done, and some media outlets—both mainstream and non-traditional -- believed they had the details nailed down. So much so that as folks filed into the arena that night, there was a bit of a buzz because many believed the extension was going to be six years rather than five.
All the players were in attendance, and Leonsis stood at the podium as the event got underway. With a flair for the dramatic – and playfully poking at the incorrect rumors flying about – Leonsis announced the team and Ovechkin had come to terms on an extension.
“The rumors of a six-year are wrong,” he said, pausing for effect, and letting the silence sink in. “We signed him for 13 years.”
The reaction in the arena was immediate and loud. It was one of exuberance and relief; finally, the Caps had a star player who actually wanted to remain in Washington.
“I’ll also enjoy tweaking a couple of you on the reporting because you guys weren’t even close with some of this stuff that was floating out there. I’m going to enjoy going through the historical,” Leonsis continued.
And for his part, Ovechkin – who had continually professed his desire to stay in DC to a skeptical North American hockey media – was also quite pleased.
“I see how our owners and boss make the team better,” said Ovechkin. “All year we’re getting better. We signed good players, and the team is growing up. I want to stay here. I don’t want to change atmosphere. I like fans, I like living in Washington. I just love it.”
And finally, the rampant and ridiculous rumors of trades and offer sheet possibilities could be put to bed. Ovechkin was a Capital through the 2020-21 season – his age 34 campaign – at a total of $124 million, and carrying an annual salary cap hit of $9,538,262, a significant dent of 18.96 percent of the salary cap ceiling at the time.
“As we all know, this deal will be surpassed probably within a year or two,” said then Caps GM George McPhee, who deserves much credit for diligently cementing the bond between the player and the organization from the moment Ovechkin’s name was called on the draft floor in Raleigh on June 26, 2004.
“The longer it goes the better this deal gets, and we’ve got lots of [salary] room. We’ve got cap room. The plan was to make sure we’ve got enough money to sign our own players, and we do.”
When the deal was signed, Ovechkin was in the middle of his third NHL season. He had played in 206 of a possible 207 games to that point, and he had already broke into the team’s all-time top 25 in scoring. From the beginning of his NHL career on Oct. 5, 2005 to that date, no player in the League had scored more goals than the budding Russian superstar, and he had not gone more than two games without a goal to that point in the 2007-08 season.
“I’m thrilled that a player of this talent level made a commitment to us,” said Leonsis. “It is a two-way street. We couldn’t be happier as a franchise. I said that we would be rebuilding for the long term with our young players and that Alex Ovechkin was the cornerstone of that rebuild. I think his confidence in us as a franchise and his teammates and our coach[ing] staff speaks volumes for what we’re trying to build here.
“The goal is very singular. It’s to build a great team, a generational team and to win several Stanley Cups. I think this move today puts us in good stead in the right direction to meet that goal.
“It’s a major financial commitment. It’s one that we think was well considered by us. We think it’s a fair deal. It’s a long-term deal and it allows us to keep our team together for the long term. We think the cap will continue to go up and up over the years and we think it does allow us over a long period of time to keep our team together and be competitive.”
From the moment Ovechkin was drafted nearly 21 years ago, things could have gone in any number of different directions with his career, and we’ve seen any number of divergent career paths for number one overall draft picks over the years.
But on that night in January more than a decade and a half ago, that two-way commitment between Ovechkin and the Capitals was forged, and it has remained so ever since.
“I’m happy I’m staying here,” said Ovechkin. “It’s my second home. I like fans, I like team, I like everything here. I’m happy I’m staying here for the long-term. Like Ted said, our goal is to win Stanley Cup. If we play like we play right now, that goal will happen.”
On Friday afternoon in DC, less than a week after breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL goals record, Ovechkin stood among a crowd of adoring fans in the same building where that pivotal contract extension was announced, and he issued a fun callback to that night in January 2008, suggesting that Leonsis and the Caps sign him to another 13-year extension.
Two decades deep into a magical NHL career, Ovechkin is a Capital for life.
