Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin hasn’t spoken a ton about retirement in his interviews with the media over the years but he has started opening up about it more as he approaches two full decades in the NHL. Back at the start of this season, Ovechkin brought up retirement unprompted when asked about what still fuels him this far into his storied career.
“Still enjoy it,” Ovechkin said in October. “As soon as I’m not going to enjoy it, it’s probably not right for me to stay here and play the game the way I wanted to play.”
The topic was broached again recently when Ovechkin sat down for a Russian-language interview with Sport-Express’ Igor Rabiner.
Rabiner explicitly asked the big winger if he thinks he will be done with professional hockey after his current deal with the Capitals runs up.
“I think, yes,” Ovechkin said as translated via Google Translate.
Rabiner got into that discussion after he first brought up Ovechkin’s former teammate with both the Russian national team and Capitals, Ilya Kovalchuk, who returned to the KHL with Spartak Moscow this season at the age of 40. Kovalchuk, when he made his return, had not played pro hockey since the end of the 2020-21 campaign.
“I check the [KHL scores] periodically,” Ovechkin said. “Ilya is great, we talked to him recently. Getting ready for the playoffs. I think this man, with his health and approach to business, can play until he is 50 years old. The most important thing is that he himself wants it.”
Rabiner then asked Ovechkin, who is 38, if he thought he had another 12 years of hockey in him to get to 50.
“No,” Ovechkin simply replied.
In the past, Ovechkin, who has an NHL contract with the Capitals through the 2025-26 season, has left open the possibility that he might finish out his playing days by signing a short-term deal with the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow in his 40s. Ovechkin got his start in hockey with Dynamo and even returned to the team during the 2012-13 NHL lockout. Now, it doesn’t sound like The Great Eight is currently planning another return.
The other big question mark left for many around the sport comes in the form of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record. Ovechkin is just 58 goals away from tying The Great One for the top spot on the all-time list.
Before this season, where Ovechkin, up until his recent hot streak, had a big slump that saw him on pace to score under 20 goals in a season for the first time, no thoughts about him not taking down Gretzky before his current contract is up were really even brought up.
Now, with his struggles in his age-38 season, murmurs of Ovechkin possibly needing to sign on for additional years with the Capitals to track down the record have started.
Ovechkin was asked by Rabiner if he had any plans for that. “I don’t like the word ‘if’,” Ovechkin said. “We live today, we play, we move on.”
