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The NHL and the Capitals are approaching a major inflection point as the league’s all-time goal scorer, Alex Ovechkin, is now contemplating retirement after 21 seasons.
The Russian veteran, one of the most decorated and celebrated players in NHL history, played his final game of the 2025–2026 season Tuesday as Washington beat Columbus, 2–1, but fell two standings points of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. With that, the 40-year-old said he will not rush a decision on whether to return to the Capitals next season.
His current contract, a five-year, $47.5 million pact signed in 2021, expired with the end of the regular season.
“I’m going to stay a little bit in D.C. I don’t know when we’re going to fly [back to Russia],” Ovechkin said after the victory in Columbus. “I’ll talk with [Capitals coach Spencer Carbery and GM Chris Patrick], my family and go from there. … I don’t know what’s going to happen. Fans came here from D.C. and different spots to watch the game, which was very nice. I could hear them cheering for me and screaming for one more year.”
Ovi Is Big Business
The on-ice record for Ovechkin is hard to miss, and includes the league’s regular-season goal-scoring record set last year and extended this past season to 929, as well as the 2018 Stanley Cup championship, nine goal-scoring titles, and three Most Valuable Player awards. Notably, Ovechkin also played all 82 games this past season, becoming just the fifth player in league history to do so while aged 40 or older.
Ovechkin, however, has also driven extensive amounts of business across hockey over the past two-plus decades. His high-profile GR8 Chase last year in pursuit of the NHL goal-scoring record created a burst of additional national media exposure for the Capitals, as well as a large-scale collectibles campaign to capitalize on it.
Over the entire Ovechkin era, the Capitals have remained one of the most consistently successful and most-watched teams in the league—contrasting sharply against the Wizards, the sister NBA team in the Ted Leonsis-led Monumental Sports & Entertainment that has been one of that league’s worst franchises for more than a generation.
As Leonsis has continued to morph and expand the scope of MSE’s operations, including the acquisition of NBC Sports Washington from Comcast to help create the Monumental Sports Network, Ovechkin has been a featured figure in many of those efforts.
The period also included a steady run of appearances for Ovechkin and the Capitals in key league initiatives such as the NHL Winter Classic and Stadium Series.
“He’s the greatest goal-scorer of all-time,” said former Capitals teammate T.J. Oshie, now an ESPN on-air analyst. “If he came back next year, probably, if he wanted to, he’d score 30 again. And I wouldn’t put 40 out of the question because he can just score goals.”
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