Breaking the NHL goals record appears to have been good for Alex Ovechkin’s pocketbook.
According to Russian news outlet SHOT, Ovechkin signed a bunch of endorsement deals while back home in his native Russia, and the amount he was paid, if true, was staggering.
Per SHOT’s Telegram page and a translation by Google Translate:
Alexander Ovechkin could have earned more than 3.3 billion rubles in advertising during his vacation in Russia, industry sources told SHOT.
During the NHL offseason, Ovechkin signed up to 10 advertising agreements with several Russian companies at once, from sports betting to food products.
When converting those figures to the United States dollar, Ovechkin was paid $39.4 million, over four times his NHL salary of $9.5 million with the Washington Capitals.
One of Ovechkin’s biggest corporate partners in Russia is Fonbet, the largest sports betting company in the country. Fonbet went to great lengths to honor Ovechkin after he scored his 895th goal in April, specially designing a hockey rink in his native Moscow.
Last summer, Fonbet imagined what Ovi’s office would look like off the ice in a corporate building.
Ovechkin made headlines in August when he inked a deal with Yandex, the most popular search engine in Russia. The agreement gave Yandex’s production label, Plus Studio, the rights to produce a documentary about Ovechkin’s career.
Ovechkin also notably became a spokesperson for Indilight, which produces turkey.
Ovechkin, who has already made the most money of any player in NHL history, is headed into his 21st career season with the Capitals in the NHL.
The soon-to-be 40-year-old winger has said he will likely play out the year before deciding on his future with the Capitals. Ovechkin has also previously said that he’d like to finish out his playing days with his original first professional team, the KHL’s Dynamo Moscow.
Ovechkin returned to the Washington, DC area earlier this week and skated with his teammates at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. He’ll be on the ice for his 21st NHL training camp starting Thursday, September 18.
