During his 21-season NHL career, Alex Ovechkin has played with a boatload of super-talented players on the Washington Capitals.
But what if he had to pick an All-Star group of just three forwards, two defensemen, and one goalie? Ovechkin gave that answer to former NHLer Nikita Filatov and retired pro soccer player Andrey Arshavin when the two recently interviewed him for Fonbet.
“Backstrom, Semin, Fedorov, Green, Carlson, and as for the goalie, I’m gonna take Holtby,” Ovechkin said, as translated by Google Translate.
Nicklas Backstrom
Ovechkin has now mentioned Nicklas Backstrom, his longtime center and good friend, first in a list like this twice this season. He started with Backstrom when asked in November by Jeff Marek and Bruce Boudreau to name the three former Capitals players that he misses playing with the most.
Backstrom and Ovechkin played 17 seasons together from 2007-08 to 2023-24, spending a sizable chunk of that timeframe on the same line. Backstrom’s 279 assists on Ovechkin’s 923 career goals are the most of any player, and no other Capitals teammate has come close to the 200 mark.
The 2006 first-round pick ranks behind only Ovechkin in all-time franchise scoring with 1,033 points (271g, 762a) in 1,105 games. Backstrom is still the Capitals’ all-time leader in assists, although Ovechkin (753) is just nine helpers away from tying his record. Among all-time Swedish players, Backstrom is one of just six to reach 1,000 career points and has a better point-per-game rate (.935) than all but one of those six, Mats Sundin (1.002).
Alex Semin
After Backstrom, Ovechkin chose another member of the high-flying Capitals of the mid to late 2000s, fellow Russian Alex Semin. The enigmatic Semin was already a member of the Capitals before Ovechkin arrived in 2005, playing most of the 2003-04 season with the Caps before returning to North America for the 2006-07 campaign.
Semin spent six total seasons playing with Ovechkin, recording his career year during the 2009-10 regular season when he hit 84 points (40g, 44a) in 73 games. He assisted on 45 of Ovechkin’s career goals, with their joint playing time limited due to mostly playing on separate forward lines.
The now-retired Semin ranks 18th in scoring in Capitals history with 408 points (197g, 211a) in 469 games. His 197 goals are the seventh-most after being pushed down a spot by Tom Wilson (204) this season.
Sergei Fedorov
Sergei Fedorov, the final forward picked by Ovechkin, played just two seasons with Ovi and the Capitals, but left a large mark on both the player and the club in those two years. The legendary Russian served as a mentor to Ovechkin, figuratively passing the torch to his superstar countryman before departing the NHL to return to Russia.
Fedorov helped shape the Capitals into a perennial playoff contender, helping lead them to their first postseason series victory over the New York Rangers in 2009. His final goal scored in the NHL was the game-winning goal in the third period of Game 7 against the Rangers.
When he wrapped up his career, Fedorov was a 6-time All-Star and could claim one Hart Trophy as league MVP, one Pearson Award, two Selke Trophies, and three Stanley Cup championships. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2015.
Mike Green
On defense, Ovechkin went with another member of the Young Guns, the high-scoring Mike Green. The Capitals also selected him in the first round of the 2004 NHL Draft and went on to play 10 seasons in DC alongside Ovechkin.
Green hit the high of his career with the Capitals in back-to-back seasons, scoring 31 goals from defense in 2008-09 and then registering a career high 76 points (19g, 57a) in 2009-10. He finished second in Norris Trophy voting as the NHL’s top defender in both years, losing out to Zdeno Chara in 2009 and Duncan Keith in 2010.
Among all-time Capitals defenders, Green ranks sixth in scoring with 360 points (113g, 247a) in 575 games. Green assisted on 70 of Ovechkin’s goals, many coming via passes from the point on the Capitals’ once-vaunted power play. He also holds the NHL record for most consecutive games with a goal by a defenseman (8).
John Carlson
John Carlson rounded out Ovechkin’s two picks on the blueline. Carlson played the entirety of his 17-season NHL career with Ovechkin and the Capitals until he was traded to the Anaheim Ducks at the trade deadline earlier this month.
The top of Carlson’s career came during the 2019-20 campaign, when he posted 75 points (15g, 60a) in 69 games, leading the team in scoring. The only players to lead the Capitals in scoring in a single season since Ovechkin’s debut are Carlson, Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Dylan Strome.
Carlson is the franchise’s all-time leader among defensemen in games played (1,143), goals (166), assists (605), and points (771). He recently became the NHL’s all-time leader in shot blocks (2,187).
Braden Holtby
Braden Holtby was Ovechkin’s selection in net. The Holtbeast played parts of 10 seasons for the Capitals, making his debut during the 2010-11 season. He led the Capitals to the Stanley Cup in 2018, making his iconic “The Save” against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 2, which sparked a run of four-straight wins for the Caps.
Holtby was a five-time All-Star with the Capitals, won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender in 2016, and the William M. Jennings Trophy in 2017. During his Vezina-winning season, Holtby tied Martin Brodeur for the league record for most wins by a goaltender in a single season. He went 48-9-7 with a 2.20 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage.
On the all-time Capitals leaderboard among goalies with at least 100 appearances, Holtby ranks second in games played (468), third in goals-against average (2.53), second in save percentage (.916), and second in wins (282). In the playoffs, Holtby recorded a .926 save percentage in 97 appearances, which ranks eighth all-time, but all seven goalies ahead of him have played in at least 46 fewer playoff games.
As of October 2025, Ovechkin had suited up alongside more than 39 percent of all Capitals players who have ever played for the team since the franchise’s first game on October 9, 1974. That list of players could come to an end as soon as this April, as Ovechkin has just 11 games remaining on the final year of his contract with the Capitals.
Notably, none of the six players Ovechkin chose for Filatov and Arshavin are still on the team’s roster. Only Carlson still plays in the NHL, with Backstrom the only other active player with Brynäs in the SHL.
