The Washington Capitals claim Alex Ovechkin wants to play in the 2022 All-Star Game*, which is being held this season at Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena on February 5, 2022.

Well, the early voting is in, and if the trends hold, Ovi appears set to be captain of the Metropolitan Division All-Stars once again.

Ovechkin (29 percent) is leading the Metro in voting, doubling up second-place Sidney Crosby (13.4 percent) in the process. Only Connor McDavid (30 percent) has a bigger share of his division’s voting.

Ovechkin is currently third in the NHL in points (47) and second in the league in goals (22).

NHL.com has the rest of the stragglers leaders in the Metro.

Ovechkin… is ahead of Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby (13.4 percent), followed by Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho (6.8 percent), New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox (5.5 percent), Rangers forward Artemi Panarin (5.1 percent) and Rangers forward Chris Kreider (3.8 percent).

Now some people may claim that the real story here is that Ovechkin is not receiving votes from 71 percent of the Metropolitan Division voters. But that’s because of an inscrutable NHL rule where fans only have to pick one person from each Division to vote for to submit a ballot.

Voting will remain open through January 8, 2022, at 11:59 PM. The top vote-getters will be named All-Stars and captains and the rest of the team will be named by NHL Hockey Operations.

* Unless COVID-19 forces the All-Star Game’s cancellation

Screenshot: NBC Sports Washington