Washington Capitals fan favorite TJ Oshie officially announced his retirement from hockey in June, ending an illustrious career that featured 16 seasons in the NHL, Olympic heroics, and a Stanley Cup championship.
Oshie missed the entire 2024-25 season and parts of the previous campaign with chronic back pain, taking that time to rest and seek treatment. Ultimately, he couldn’t regain full health to make a return to NHL ice.
After coming to terms with the end of his playing days, the 38-year-old and his family decided to move back to his native Minnesota this summer to be closer to family, a decision Oshie said was quite emotional.
“It’s really tough. I mean, my wife cried for like a week when we were making the decision, and over the last year, I’d say, when I wasn’t playing and we had a good idea that my back wasn’t gonna get good enough to come back and play,” he said during an interview with the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast. “That was the decision we were wrestling with… It was a tough decision and one we didn’t take lightly.”
The Oshies listed their McLean, Virginia home for $9.85 million in July and, according to Zillow, it’s still on the market.
But Oshie won’t be gone from Capitals fans’ lives entirely. He teased a possible recurring role with the team but didn’t provide any specific details.
“I’m looking at doing a part-time thing with the Caps, so I should be going back and forth a little bit, which will be great,” he said with a smile. “Things are looking up.”
Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir posted a picture on X with his “new colleague” on Wednesday, essentially confirming where Oshie’s next gig will come. Oshie received some TV experience this past year, making his debut as an analyst for ESPN during the 2025 NHL playoffs.
Besides his playing days being over, Oshie cited former teammate Nicklas Backstrom’s decision to move back to his native Sweden to resume his hockey career with Brynäs IF as another reason to leave the DMV.
Like Oshie, the 37-year-old centerman’s contract with the Capitals ran out at the end of the 2024-25 season, and he, too, spent the previous two campaigns on LTIR with hip problems. The pair were close in the locker room, and their families were nearly inseparable.
“One of the deciding factors, too, is Backy went back to Sweden, and our kids are all best friends,” Oshie explained. “Us in the back room, [we were] super, super close. We lived two doors away, and our kids were together basically all day… So our kids were kind of already losing a couple of their best friends, and we’re like, ‘If we’re gonna try [moving to Minnesota], let’s do it now.’ So we made the decision [but it was] still tough.”
Oshie lamented leaving the place where he grew his family and saw his hockey career peak, but said he will always have a deep appreciation for the club and its fans.
“Our kids lived their whole lives in the DC area, right?” Oshie said. “And so not only the team, which I can never say enough good things about the Capitals organization, but the people we met away from there and how good the fans were to us, leaving all that is super, super tough.”
