The Washington Capitals’ cherry blossom auction raised a franchise-record amount for charity. The team announced that the 70 items available helped net $117,435 for the Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation.
The jerseys, a first of their kind, were designed by popular local artist Taylor Kampa Olson and worn by the Capitals during wamrups of their April 2 game against the New York Rangers.
With the Capitals not making replica cherry blossom jerseys available for purchase, fans shelled out huge bucks to land one of the rare, 28 publicly available sweaters.
Alex Ovechkin’s cherry blossom jersey led the way, going for $9,100. Four other sweaters went for over $4,000 including Nicklas Backstrom ($5,050), Tom Wilson ($4,500), TJ Oshie ($4,400), and John Carlson ($4,100).
No cherry blossom jersey netted less than $2,000. The cheapest two jerseys were for Vincent Iorio ($2,450) and Gabriel Carlsson ($2,250), who were both in Hershey for the April 2 Rangers game and did not participate in the Capitals’ warmups that day.
To put these prices in perspective, Capitals game-used jerseys from this season start at a couple hundred dollars on Meigray – the team’s reseller of game-used items. Ovechkin game-used jerseys are available for as low as $12,500 on the site.
Auction prices for Caps cherry blossom jerseys
| Rank | Player | Price | Signed | Worn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Ovechkin | $9,100 | Y | Y |
| 2 | Nicklas Backstrom | $5,050 | Y | Y |
| 3 | Tom Wilson | $4,500 | Y | Y |
| 4 | TJ Oshie | $4,400 | Y | N |
| 5 | John Carlson | $4,100 | Y | Y |
| 6 | Sonny Milano | $3,550 | Y | Y |
| 7 | Dylan Strome | $3,300 | Y | Y |
| 8 | Evgeny Kuznetsov | $3,200 | Y | Y |
| 9 | Nic Dowd | $3,150 | Y | Y |
| 10 | Mitchell Gibson | $3,000 | Y | Y |
| 11 | Darcy Kuemper | $2,900 | Y | Y |
| 12t. | Nick Jensen | $2,800 | Y | Y |
| Rasmus Sandin | $2,800 | Y | Y | |
| Trevor van Riemsdyk | $2,800 | Y | N | |
| Craig Smith | $2,800 | Y | Y | |
| Dylan McIlrath | $2,800 | N | N | |
| 17 | Nicolas Aube-Kubel | $2,750 | Y | Y |
| 18 | Martin Fehervary | $2,600 | Y | Y |
| 19t. | Aliaksei Protas | $2,550 | Y | Y |
| Conor Sheary | $2,550 | Y | Y | |
| Connor Brown | $2,550 | Y | N | |
| Matt Irwin | $2,550 | Y | Y | |
| 23t. | Anthony Mantha | $2,500 | Y | Y |
| Charlie Lindgren | $2,500 | Y | N | |
| Alex Alexeyev | $2,500 | Y | Y | |
| Bobby Nardella | $2,500 | N | N | |
| 27 | Vicent Iorio | $2,450 | N | N |
| 28 | Gabriel Carlsson | $2,250 | N | N |
The item that went for the most was an Alex Ovechkin cherry blossom-themed painting by Taylor Kampa Olson, which sold for $9,200 — $100 more than his warmups worn jersey. The acrylic painting was 36×36 inches and was eventually signed by Ovechkin.
Photo: Taylor Kampa Olson
Capitals cherry blossom-designed pucks were also available. Alex Ovechkin’s signed version went for $625.
“I’m just so happy it went well!” Taylor Kampa Olson said to me. “Seeing the guys wearing the jerseys and the entire arena covered in the design was just insane. I kept saying to Bryan and my sister is this real?”
There were some limited drops of Capitals cherry blossom merch that sold in the team’s official stores at MedStar Capitals Iceplex and Capital One Arena. The shirts, hoodies, and hats sold out quickly.
“DC people sure do love their cherry blossoms,” Taylor said, “that’s for sure!”
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