Alex Ovechkin has long spoken about the museum of hockey memorabilia he plans to open in his native Moscow, Russia.
In a recent interview with NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, Ovechkin dove further into the process of setting up his future home of hockey history. The Washington Capitals captain is hopeful the museum’s construction will be completed and ready for visitors sometime next year, but in the meantime, he has continued collecting jerseys, sticks, and other equipment throughout the 2025-26 NHL season.
While sticks were seemingly Ovechkin’s priority in past seasons, he has more focused on grabbing sweaters from some of the league’s top players this year.
“For my kids, for myself, just for the memories,” Ovechkin told Gulitti. “I wanted to just to do it with the captains. Soccer players do it, and I think it’s a good thing.”
According to Ovechkin, most of the jerseys he receives from foes are game-worn, except when teams don’t play ball because of prior arrangements for their players’ gear. Ovechkin has run into that problem in the past, as the Edmonton Oilers once prevented Connor McDavid from gifting him a game-used stick.
“Some of them are not (game-worn) because I think some players have a deal with the team and they have to give it away to the fans; most of them are game-worn,” Ovechkin said.
While Ovechkin has participated in an increasing number of equipment swaps this season, he says none of it is related to whether or not he plans to retire at the end of the year.
“No, because I wanted to do it a couple years ago,” Ovechkin said. “It was hard because I was talking to our (head equipment manager Brock Myles), and he said, ‘It’s tough. We have to wait one more year, one more year.’ And this year, he said, ‘OK, finally, we can do that.'”
So far this season, Ovechkin has added jerseys from Calgary Flames captain Mikael Backlund, Los Angeles Kings forward Anze Kopitar, Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin, Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, Florida Panthers forward Brad Marchand, and Team Canada superstar Marie-Philip Poulin.
He also acquired two signed sticks from the Hughes brothers, Jack and Luke, after a Capitals-Devils game on March 20 and Gulitti added he got a jersey from Devils captain Nico Hischier.
Beyond jerseys and sticks from other players, Ovechkin’s museum will also feature some of the most special items from his career. This past offseason, Ovechkin brought home to Russia his record-breaking 895th goal puck and hockey stick from the Capitals’ April 6, 2025, game against the New York Islanders.
Since scoring his 800th career goal, Ovechkin has had his Capitals teammates who assisted on goals sign the back of his game-worn jerseys. He has also collected the sticks, pucks, jerseys, and even socks from those goals.
