Capitals sign Ovechkin to one-year deal
The GR8 is coming back, for at least one more year.
On Thursday, the Washington Capitals announced that the team has signed captain Alex Ovechkin to a one-year contract. The deal will carry a cap hit of $4.25 million through the 2026-27 season.
It’s not entirely a surprise that Ovechkin is coming back, though, given how some around the game were feeling sentimental toward the Russian superstar, there was wonder whether he was going to hang up his skates and close out what has been a remarkable career.
However, with the caliber of team the Capitals are expected to have next year, it makes sense for Ovechkin to give it, at least, one last kick at the can. Prior to the NHL Draft, the team acquired both Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch, with the team signing the likes of veterans Boone Jenner and Vincent Desharnais, as well as Josh Dunne, to bolster the roster.
It’s certainly a pay dip for Ovechkin. He just came to the end of a five-year contract, which he signed in July 2021. That deal had a cap hit of $9.5 million.
Even though he’s going to be 41 by the time the 2026-27 campaign begins, the former No. 1 overall pick is still one of the top scorers in the game. In 82 games last year, he scored 32 goals and 64 points, a down year by his standards, but still proved he can be an impact player on a fledgling team.
There isn’t much left for Ovi to prove. In 2024-25, he broke Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record and joined Gretzky as the only other NHL player to score 1,000 goals (regular season and playoffs combined. Ovechkin will go down as the greatest goal scorer the game has ever seen. In 1,573 regular-season games, he has scored 929 goals and 758 assists for 1,687 points – good for 10th all-time. He has reached the 50-goal mark an impressive nine times, tied for the most historically with Gretzky and Mike Bossy. Ovechkin has won the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy a record nine times, the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award three times, the 2007-08 Art Ross Trophy, and the Conn Smythe Trophy when he led the Capitals to their first Stanley Cup in 2018.