Alex Ovechkin has made it clear he’s going to decide on whether he will or will not continue his NHL career on his own time.
The Washington Capitals captain is entering the final month of regular-season games on his current contract. He has said previously that he plans to play out the entire year before determining his future, but is it possible that he makes up his mind before then?
A recent report from Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos, a former Capitals winger, left open that possibility.
Kypreos writes in his most recent “Real Kyper’s NHL Buzz” column:
Washington has [seven] games left in its season, and it’s all quiet around Alex Ovechkin, who is in the final season of his contract at 40 years old.
Ovechkin has kept his cards very close to the vest, and not many know his intentions right now. What I’ve heard is that he’s never been interested in a farewell tour like Anze Kopitar has been having with Los Angeles this season. Ovechkin liked the way Wayne Gretzky did it at the end of his career, announcing two days before his last regular-season game that he was retiring at the end of the season. Ovechkin could follow a similar blueprint if he decides this is it.
As Kypreos notes, Wayne Gretzky purposefully avoided fueling speculation about his retirement throughout the 1998-99 season while a member of the New York Rangers. Reports eventually surfaced about Gretzky’s decision before the Rangers’ second-to-last contest of the year on April 15, 1999 — a road game against Ottawa in Gretzky’s native Canada. Fans in Ottawa wore 99 jerseys and gave Gretzky loud standing ovations throughout the game. The Senators named Gretzky all Three Stars of the Game at the end of the night.
“I didn’t want to do a (retirement) tour,” Gretzky said to NHL.com. “I didn’t want to go from city to city with people knowing I was going to retire, so we kept it really quiet. It kind of leaked out that the game against Ottawa could be my last game in Canada.”
Once the Rangers returned home, Gretzky held a press conference at Madison Square Garden on April 16, 1999, and officially announced his decision to retire at age 38.
Gretzky played his final NHL game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 18, 1999. In the Rangers’ 2-1 overtime loss, Gretzky recorded an assist for the 2,857th point of his career. The emotional game featured a post-game ceremony and the announcement that the NHL would retire his number 99 league-wide. Gretzky was especially thoughtful about his equipment use during that day, wearing three different jerseys for historical purposes and using 40 sticks so that he could gift them to teammates and coaches as a thank-you gesture afterward.
By waiting to announce so close to the end of the season, Gretzky avoided a practice that many of today’s NHL stars have experienced lately: handshake lines with opposing players, gift presentations, and long media sessions. Ovechkin, who reportedly may want to shirk that sort of attention as well, has played in several retirement tour games with other stars, starting handshake lines with both Marc-Andre Fleury and Anze Kopitar.
Ovechkin’s most recent comments on his future came early last month, when former Capitals teammate TJ Oshie interviewed him for ESPN. In that nationally televised segment, Ovechkin said that the biggest factor in his decision will be how his body feels after playing his age-40 season.
“Because right now, hockey is so hard, it’s so fast,” Ovechkin said. “I’m 40, and it’s hard to keep up with young guys. You know? But most important thing is health-wise. I don’t wanna be like, I don’t wanna play hockey, and then after one or two years, my knee or my elbow or my back is gonna be hurting. So I’m not gonna feel comfortable for the rest of my life. So I have to be smart about it.
“I still love the game,” he added. “I still enjoy come here in the locker room, like hang out with the boys.”
The comments were seemingly Ovechkin’s final words on the subject for the time being, as a week later, ESPN’s Steve Levy said that ABC was told they couldn’t ask Ovechkin about his future during a pregame interview from ice level.
Given that Ovechkin is slated to play his first full 82-game campaign since the Capitals’ Cup-winning 2017-18 season, his body has held up remarkably well even after breaking his leg last season and suffering an injury during the first on-ice day of 2025 Training Camp. With some creative deployment and shaving down of his ice time by Caps head coach Spencer Carbery, Ovechkin has also remained productive, scoring 31 goals this season and the eighth-most goals in the NHL since the start of 2024-25.
The Capitals have just seven games remaining in the 2025-26 campaign, and Ovechkin is in the middle of one of his classic red-hot streaks. He has scored seven goals in his last seven games and notched his 34th career hat trick against the Utah Mammoth last week.
The final three Capitals games of the regular season are notable. It first features a home-and-home set against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ovechkin’s biggest rival, Sidney Crosby. The Capitals play the Penguins on Saturday, April 11, in Pittsburgh before returning home to Capital One Arena for their final home game of the regular season on April 12. The Caps then end their slate of games with a trip to Columbus, Ohio, to play the Blue Jackets on April 14 at Nationwide Arena — the team Ovechkin made his NHL debut against on October 5, 2005.
Ovechkin’s contract with the Capitals officially expires on July 1, 2026. He is eligible for extension talks, if they were to occur, at any time before then.
