Ovechkin grew hockey in D.C., League along with his legacy

WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin stood in front of the media, flanked by his sons Sergei, 7, and Ilya, 5, and tried to describe what he’ll take away from having them watch him chase history through their formative years.

“I’ll remember this moment,” Ovechkin said following his final home game with the Washington Capitals last season on April 12. “I’ll remember the playoffs, the atmosphere that was tonight. Obviously, it’s a good thing we have lots of video cameras, cell phones and they’re going to watch when they’re grown up and they’re going to remember it and they’re going to enjoy it.”

Ovechkin provided plenty of enjoyment for everyone during his first 21 NHL seasons, all with the Capitals, on his way to becoming the League’s all-time leading goal scorer and one of the most impactful athletes, from any sport, that’s called Washington home. That memorable ride will come to an end after this season with the announcement Monday that the 2026-27 season will be his last in the NHL. 

The 40-year-old left wing will leave the NHL with the NHL goal-scoring record, he has 929 entering the Capitals’ game at home against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, TNT), a host of other League records and awards, and the 2018 Stanley Cup championship on his distinguished resume. He’ll leave behind generations of fans who don’t remember an NHL without his familiar No. 8 blasting one-timers and running over defenders. 

Breaking Wayne Gretzky’s NHL goal record, a mark previously thought to be unreachable, by scoring his 895th career goal on April 6, 2025 at the New York Islanders undoubtedly cemented Ovechkin’s legacy. That moment tells only a part of his story, though.

“I don't think you can really put it into words what he's done for this area and the game of hockey as a whole, how marketable he was and the amount of fans that have become hockey fans because of him and only because of him,” Capitals right wing Tom Wilson said. “And then what he's done in this city, I don't know if there will ever be anybody like him ever again.”

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Ovechkin established himself as a physical and scoring force from his NHL debut against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 5, 2005. On his first shift, he crunched defenseman Radoslav Suchy with a check that dislodged a pane of glass behind Columbus’ net.

Then, he scored two goals in the second period to propel Washington to a 3-2 victory. He scored 52 goals that season on his way to winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie.

Washington didn’t win a lot of games that season, going 29-41-12 to finish last in the Southeast Division with 70 points. It was clear, though, that Ovechkin was transforming the organization. 

“The entertainment level of the game skyrocketed, the energy he brought every game, and it's still going on 20 years later,” Capitals president Brian MacLellan said. “It's pretty incredible what he's done for the franchise, community, growth in hockey, youth hockey.”

At 6-foot-3, 238 pounds, Ovechkin gave defenders nightmares with his size, strength and offensive skill. The hit on Suchy was the first of 3,877 he delivered in his career, which are third most since the NHL started tracking hits in 2005-06. 

Although Ovechkin budgeted his physicality more as he grew older, he was still third on the Capitals this season with 134 hits as a 40-year-old.

“If somebody got in his way, he’d put his shoulder down,” said Chris Clark, who was Ovechkin’s linemate much of his first two NHL seasons. “I think at the time he wasn't as big or as thick, but he was still over 200 pounds. He got to 220, 230 and when he put his shoulder down going that fast, even if you are a big strong D, you are going to take the brunt of it.”

Whatever toll all those hits took on Ovechkin’ body rarely was enough to keep him out of the lineup. Up to this point, he’s missed only 51 games because of injury during his career and 16 of those came after he fractured his left fibula in the 2024-25 season. 

Last season, Ovechkin became the fifth player in NHL history to play in all 82 regular-season games at age 40 or older, joining Jaromir Jagr (2013-14, 2016-17), Teemu Selanne (2011-12), Nicklas Lidstrom (2010-11) and Dave Andreychuk (2003-04). And he led the Capitals in goals (32) and points (64).

“He's a freak of nature,” said former Capitals goalie Olie Kolzig, who was teammates with Ovechkin during his first three NHL seasons. “Think about it; he's been that consistent, and it's not because he's a perimeter player. He’s physical player and, for him to have that longevity and be injured as little as he as he's been, it just speaks volumes to the kind of character and tenacity he has.”

It’s not that Ovechkin didn’t have to deal with injuries. It seemed he was able to play through them more than most players, though. He pulled his hamstring at the start of training camp last season, but he was ready for the season opener and was in the lineup for every game for the sixth time in his career. 

“Of course, I have some injuries,” Ovechkin said. “Of course, I have some problems, but our training staff do a good job to help me and I feel better.”

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You can’t tell the story of Ovechkin’s career without Crosby, and vice versa. 

Ask Crosby now about Ovechkin’s impact on the game and you can hear the admiration for his longtime rival in his voice.

“He’s had a huge impact on it, on and off the ice,” Crosby said last season. “Came in with such high expectations and I think he matched them if not more. To be the greatest goal-scorer of all time and to do what he’s done, as consistent as he’s been, pretty impressive.”

Crosby didn’t always speak so fondly of Ovechkin, though, and that feeling was mutual. They were pitted against each other as rivals even before they faced each other in the NHL for the first time on Nov. 22, 2005. 

Ovechkin was selected by the Capitals with the No. 1 pick in the 2004 NHL Draft and Crosby was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins with the No. 1 pick in the 2005 NHL Draft.

Viewed as potential generational players, each faced immense pressure to turn around their rebuilding teams and revitalize fan interest in the NHL after the 2004-05 season was cancelled because of a lockout. Somehow, they exceeded all that was expected of them.

Ovechkin is first in NHL history in goals and 10th in points with 1,688. Crosby is seventh in points with 1,763 and has 654 goals, second to Ovechkin among active players. 

And they did it in different ways.

“They're two completely different people,” former Capitals forward T.J. Oshie said. “Sid very poised, very driven, in the weight room and in a way that’s not flashy at all. And then you’ve got ‘O’, the tinted visor, the yellow laces, the laces hanging from his breezers (hockey pants), throwing massive hits, scoring insane goals.”

Ovechkin and Crosby have played against each other 100 times in the NHL, including 25 games in the playoffs. They met in four postseason series -- each in the second round.

Crosby and the Penguins won the first three, going on to win the Stanley Cup each time (2009, 2016, 2017) before Ovechkin and the Capitals finally broke through against them in 2018 and went on to their first Stanley Cup championship.

Each of those series was a must-watch.

“I think the whole situation around Ovi and Sid was kind of a big time,” Ovechkin said, “and even more, not pressure, but even more (you) think about it and get ready for it.”

The most remembered game between them was Game 2 of the 2009 Eastern Conference Semifinals, when each scored a hat trick. The Capitals won the game, 4-3, but the Penguins won the series in seven games.

“It truly is amazing they lived up to the hype, even maybe surpassed it,” Kolzig said. “Obviously, two different players, with their styles, but equally as impactful to the game of hockey and the NHL. They, obviously, had a big hatred for each other when they first started: Canadian versus the Russian and who's the better player? 

“But they developed a mutual respect because they understand how special they are and how special the Penguins-Caps rivalry was over the years.”

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The Capitals qualified for the playoffs for the first time with Ovechkin in 2007-08 and they were regulars in the postseason after that, missing only in 2013-14, 2022-23 and this season. They won the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top team during the regular season in 2009-10, 2015-16, 2016-17, but couldn’t get past the second round of the playoffs.

That changed in 2018 when the Capitals defeated the Penguins in six games to reach the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 1998. Ovechkin led Washington with seven points in the series (three goals, four assists), including the pass that sprung Evgeny Kuznetsov for his overtime breakaway goal in the clinching 2-1 victory Game 6.

Washington advanced to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games in the Eastern Conference Final and defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in five games in the Stanley Cup Final. Ovechkin led the NHL with 15 goals in the postseason and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player in the playoffs.

“Winning was a big one,” said defenseman John Carlson, who was Ovechkin’s teammate for 17 seasons before being traded to the Anaheim Ducks on March 6. He is now on the Tampa Bay Lightning.  “When you’re with someone for so many failures for all the years too, when you break through, something like that, it’s meaningful and lasting.”

Before that, Ovechkin scored 607 goals, led the NHL in goals six times and won the Hart Trophy as the League’s most valuable three times (2007-08, 2008-09, 2013), but was always asked about his playoff disappointments. Winning the Stanley Cup freed Ovechkin from that, as demonstrated by his joyous celebration in a Georgetown fountain, and changed how he and the Capitals were perceived.

“Everybody knew he was going to be a legend of the game, but to be considered a legend of the game, you have to win in Stanley Cup,” Wilson said. “And I think when he did that, it was just the last thing that he really always wanted to do. He had so much pressure leading up to that to win, so when you win, it's a bit of weight off your back.”

Before 2018, Ovechkin’s leadership was often questioned. Since then, he’s received more recognition for his work on and off the ice as the Capitals captain since Jan. 5, 2010.

“He's always been a phenomenal leader from Day 1 from my eyes,” Wilson said. “There is so much that I've learned from him, and some of it I'll never be able to do because of who he is and how great he was. But some of it, I'll be able to hopefully carry forward and keep as a culture around here.”

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The Stanley Cup win was Ovechkin’s crowning achievement. The fans that packed the streets outside Capital One Arena during the Capitals’ Cup-clinching Game 5 win in Las Vegas were a testament to the transformation in Washington he sparked.

Although the Capitals reached the Cup Final in 1998 before being swept by the Detroit Red Wings, Ovechkin’s arrival, his sustained high level of play and his enthusiasm for the game produced a relationship not previously seen in the city. After Washington changed back to red as the primary color for its home jerseys in 2007-08, the “Rock the Red” era began, with red-clad fans filling the arena for every game.

“He totally turned D.C. into a 100 percent hockey town where maybe that wasn't the case,” said Kolzig, who played 16 seasons in Washington (1989-2008) and now works in player development for the Capitals. “There's always the (NFL) Redskins, and then it was the (NBA) Wizards for a stretch there. But he just drew people to the game of hockey. 

“The Caps are always in the headlines because of him. We're always on national TV because of him. We won the Stanley Cup because of him. We rocked the red because of him.”

Ovechkin drew fans outside Washington, too. Clark remembers the reaction during the Capitals’ first trip to Western Canada with Ovechkin in 2006-07 after they didn’t travel to play the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks during his rookie season.

“They'd heard about him for two years but hadn't seen him,” Clark said. “So, if there were 10,000 people in the stands for warm-ups, they were all on our side. Everybody just gravitated to our side to watch warm-ups because that was the first chance to see Ovechkin.”

The perception of Washington as a hockey market changed throughout the League as well.

“Amazing what he did,” said former NHL goalie Brian Boucher, now an analyst on the NHL on TNT. “Basically, he made it a destination, and the Capitals were must-see TV for a long time.  … He basically put this franchise in a position where it was like, ‘That’s a premier team to go play for.’”

More hockey fans in the area led to a jump in participation, known in Washington as “The Ovechkin Effect.” According to USA Hockey's annual report for Ovechkin’s rookie season of 2005-06, there were 12,856 registered players in Washington (422), Maryland (6,450) and Virginia (5,984). That number grew to 22,222 in Washington (1,208), Maryland (9,929) and Virginia (11,085) in the most recent report in 2024-25, an increase of 73 percent.

“He was so important to the league and so important to the game of hockey, so important to this city,” Wilson said. “You see the stuff he did off the ice. There's hundreds of thousands of kids that have played the game because of him and look up to him every day. He's worn all that and just done it with class.”

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Whenever Ovechkin is inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, the list of the goal-scoring achievements on his plaque will be overwhelming. Of course, it will start with his regular-season goals, but he also holds the NHL records for power-play goals (331), game-winning goals (141), overtime goals (27) and empty-net goals (72). 

He has the most 30-goal seasons with 20 and 40-goal seasons with 14 and is tied with Gretzky and Mike Bossy for the most 50-goal seasons with nine. He posted three consecutive 50-goal seasons – 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 – during a span when no other player in the League reached 50 goals.

“He’s the greatest goal-scorer of modern time and a great blend of physical play, durability and touch that we’d not seen,” Boucher said. “Gretzky was a different player, Mario Lemieux was a different player, and Ovechkin did it a different way. He’s one of a kind.”

Ovechkin also scored 77 goals in the playoffs, giving him a combined total of 1,006 goals that ranks second in NHL history behind Gretzky’s 1,016.

“The greatest goal-scorer of all time. That’s easy,” Carlson said. “He’s put to bed a lot of critics over the years with his play, with his ability, with what he’s brought to the team. He basically revitalized DC as a hockey town. … He’s left and enormous footprint and legacy in a great city that will owe a lot to him for the rest of his life.”

Along the way, Ovechkin’s goal celebrations were displays of unbridled joy. Most included a kiss of his glove and point to the sky in tribute to his late brother Sergei, who died when Ovechkin was 10 years old.  

Some celebrations were more extensive, such as his famed too-hot-to-touch stick after he scored his 50th goal of the 2008-09 season against the Tampa Bay Lightning and his ecstatic belly-flop slide following his record-breaking 895th goal.

“I can guarantee no one has more fun scoring goals than Ovi,” Oshie said. “As far as someone that genuinely loves to score goals, and has fun doing it, no one comes close to the big man.”

Ovechkin celebrated equally hard when one of his teammates scored, though. Seeing the puck go into the net for the Capitals, regardless of who was responsible, brought out his true driving force.

“When you scored a goal, you had to figure out if he was on the ice with you, and you’ve got to kind of brace yourself for 200, 220 pounds landing in your lap,” Clark said. “The guys that knew him knew him as a guy that just wanted to win. Along the way came the personal kind of milestones and all that stuff, but I think he'd trade that all away for two or three more Stanley Cups. 

“I think that's the biggest thing that I don't think people see from the outside is how much he was a team-first guy and how much he loved winning.”

NHL.com Staff Writer Derek Van Diest contributed to this report.