Capitals ‘one of the best teams’ after offseason additions, Ovechkin says

Alex Ovechkin said he decided he wanted to play a 22nd season with the Washington Capitals after seeing the moves they’ve made this offseason.

And when it came to agreeing to a contract after he told them he was returning?

“I think it took us maybe like 10 minutes,” the 40-year-old forward and Capitals captain said on Monday of the one-year contract he signed Thursday ($1 million in salary, $3.25 million signing bonus and $4.75 million bonus for playing 10 games). “I called Chris (Patrick, Capitals general manager) and said, ‘OK, let’s make a deal,’ and he said what was going to happen with the signing bonus and I said, ‘OK, let’s go.’”

Washington (43-30-9) has retooled since missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. On June 23, it acquired forward Jordan Kyrou from the St. Louis Blues for forward Connor McMichael, a first-round pick (No. 16) in the 2026 NHL Draft and forward prospect Milton Gastrin. 

The next day, the Capitals landed Alex Tuch from the Buffalo Sabres and signed the forward to an eight-year, $84 million contract ($10.5 million average annual value).

They also signed forward Boone Jenner (four years, $5.75 million AAV) and defenseman Vincent Desharnais (four years, $4.2 million AAV) when free agency began July 1.

“What management did signing new players, trading for new guys, you can see how (Patrick) said for ‘Carbs’ (coach Spencer Carbery), it’s going to be lots of work, lots of thinking of what line combinations are going to be,” Ovechkin said. “We have lots of depth in our lineup, so yeah, I’m very excited.

“I’m very excited for the team and for the fans as well because on the paper, you can see our team is one of the best teams. But now we have to work for the Stanley Cup, for the playoffs first and then the Stanley Cup.”

Ovechkin led Washington to its lone Stanley Cup championship in 2018, when it defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in the Cup Final in five games. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP with 27 points (15 goals, 12 assists) in 24 games.

His game hasn’t declined much since that time; Ovechkin is the NHL’s all-time leader in goals (924) after surpassing Wayne Gretzky (894) on April 6, 2025. He played all 82 games for the Capitals last season and led them in goals (32) and points (64). 

Ovechkin also ranks first in NHL history in power-play goals (331), game-winning goals (141), overtime goals (27), empty-net goals (72), 30-goal seasons (20), 40-goal seasons (14) and 50-goal seasons (nine, tied with Gretzky and Mike Bossy).

With his decision to play at least one more season, Patrick can barely maintain his excitement when combined with Washington’s offseason additions. 

“We talked about some of the acquisitions we made, how many 20-goal scorers and 30-goal scorers, and now just added the greatest goal-scorer of all-time again who just happened to score (32 more) last year,” Patrick said. “So, it really just melds into our lineup very well and gives Carbs a lot of options now going into a game on a given night.”

Ovechkin has won the Rocket Richard Trophy for leading the NHL in goals a record nine times and ranks 10th in NHL history with 1,687 points in 1,573 regular-season games. He is second in Capitals history with 758 assists, trailing only Nicklas Backstrom (762).

His combined total of 1,006 goals in the regular season and playoffs is second in NHL history, 10 behind Gretzky (1,016).

It’s another record Ovechkin is likely to have soon, with the help of some new teammates.

“Everybody was asking me, ‘Are you coming back? Are you coming back?’ Then, that situation when you can see we have that type of team that we have, to win one more time, the Stanley Cup, it’s one of the big reasons (I’m returning),” Ovechkin said. “My wife told me it was cool.

“One more.”