Alex Ovechkin will be represented by Alex Ovechkin during negotiations for a new contract – potentially his last in the NHL. Ovechkin will be an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the 2020-21 season after completing a 13-year, $124 million deal he originally signed in 2008.
Ovechkin revealed his plans during a Russian language interview with Sport24 last week.
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“You have been asked many times about the new contract, but I’ll ask again,” the interviewer says. “Are you going to conduct negotiations yourself or will use an agent?”
“I’ll do it myself,” Ovechkin replies.
Ovechkin’s previous contract was negotiated by his mother, Tatyana Ovechkina, after the 22-year-old superstar fired his original agent Don Meehan in 2006 while still signed to an entry-level contract.
“I wouldn’t call her uncompromising because she did, in fact, compromise,” McPhee said to Sports Illustrated after announcing the deal. “But Alex’s mother is very strong, very protective. And she knows what she wants.”
Ovechkin will follow in the footsteps of longtime teammate Nicklas Backstrom who negotiated his new five-year, $46 million contract by himself.
Backstrom signed the deal on January 14 and received rave reviews from general manager Brian MacLellan and team president Dick Patrick for how he represented himself.
GM Brian MacLellan on Nicklas Backstrom the agent: "I found him very well prepared. What he did not know, he went back and learned and came back with solid answers. Overall, the process went smooth and he did a good job negotiating for himself."
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 14, 2020
A joking Brian MacLellan believes Nicklas Backstrom can negotiate deals for other players: "I think there might be a few guys using him (in the future)." [laughs]
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 14, 2020
Dick Patrick on NB19's deal: "It was a constant grind, I would call it, to the end. Mac was complaining that Nick was grinding him. I'm sure Nick was complaining that Mac was grinding him. But we came out with a deal that everyone was happy with."
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 14, 2020
Also, there was this tiny tidbit from Backstrom’s contract which is probably why Ovechkin will represent himself: he gets to keep all the money himself!
Nicklas Backstrom on how much he'll pay his agent, Nicklas Backstrom: "100 percent."
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 14, 2020
Ovechkin said previously during the offseason that he would play up to five more years with Capitals and then retire from hockey with the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow.
Brian MacLellan said last week during a press conference that negotiations with Ovechkin are “status quo” and will earnestly begin during training camp in January.
Translation by Elizabeth Winters
Headline photo: Amanda Bowen/RMNB
