ARLINGTON, VA — Spencer Carbery hasn’t taken his time coaching Alex Ovechkin for granted, and he’ll get to do it for one more year.
Carbery — and the rest of the hockey world — finished the 2025-26 season not knowing if it would be Ovechkin’s last, as the 40-year-old superstar left DC still considering his future. Months of speculation came to an end on Thursday when Ovechkin announced he was coming back, signing a one-year deal to continue his legendary career.
Ovechkin, who turns 41 in September, will be one of the league’s oldest players when he hits the ice this fall, but Carbery doesn’t expect Father Time to catch up anytime soon.
“He can still continue to defy odds and be a very productive, good NHL player for the Washington Capitals and help us win a lot of hockey games,” Carbery said Friday. “That’s the way that I see it going.”
Before Ovechkin left the United States this spring, he and Carbery had a heart-to-heart discussing his future should he decide to keep playing, as well as Carbery’s evaluation of the team.
“I wanted him to be able to leave DC and go back home,” Carbery said, “and if he was going to play, him and I would have a face-to-face conversation about what that would look like, and role, and our team, and my thoughts on what our team was going to look like, and where we needed to get better. So we had a great, great conversation there.”
Carbery has kept in contact with Ovechkin over the offseason, including discussions of the Capitals’ recent moves, but he didn’t press Ovechkin for an answer on his future. Instead, the conversations were primarily social calls, with Carbery checking in on Ovechkin’s family and how his summer had gone.
That meant Carbery learned Ovechkin was coming back the same day as everyone else.
“(Capitals general manager) Chris (Patrick) contacted me and filled me in that Ovi was going to be re-signing and coming back. And then shortly thereafter, I got a phone call from O.”
While a 41-year-old Ovechkin may not be the player he was in his prime, he’s proven more than capable of holding his own among younger peers. While his 44 goals in 2024-25 came partially from teammates’ desire to get him the all-time goals record, his numbers on a middling Caps team last year are harder to deny.
Ovechkin was Washington’s top scorer in 2025-26, ending the campaign with 64 points (32g 32a) and the 20th 30-goal season of his career. Those 32 goals came despite a sharp power play drop-off for both Ovechkin, who had a career-low 5 PPGs, and the team as a whole.
The Capitals’ busy offseason will likely make Ovechkin’s job easier in 2026-27. After Washington just barely missed the playoffs this spring, Ovechkin made it clear that the team’s ability to compete would be a major factor when deciding his future.
And while general manager Chris Patrick noted last week that attracting Ovechkin wasn’t the goal of recent acquisitions, it was certainly a side effect. Wingers Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou will add much-needed firepower, especially on the power play, while players like Boone Jenner and Vincent Desharnais provide strength down the lineup.
As much as the Capitals’ new acquisitions will help Ovechkin succeed, Carbery believes Ovechkin’s off-ice presence will be a huge boon for incoming players and developing talent. Losing John Carlson and Nic Dowd at the trade deadline has only increased the importance of Ovechkin’s leadership, especially with so many new figures in the locker room.
“(Ovechkin can) continue to be the leader that he’s been through his career as our captain and continue to help a winning team, hopefully a playoff team, and young players inside of that continue to grow their game and develop and get to the next level,” Carbery said.
Carbery cited the Capitals’ similarly-high turnover before the 2024-25 season. Despite adding seven new players that summer, the team’s chemistry gelled almost immediately, leading to an unusually close bond and contributing to Washington’s stellar record.
“When (those new players) walked through the door, how welcome they felt, and how they could be themselves so quickly and just worry about playing hockey and doing their thing, and not walking on eggshells, and not being nervous around the group, that’s Alex Ovechkin,” Carbery said.
“He plays a massive role in that being the case. And so I expect it to be the same (this season), whether it’s Alex (Tuch), whether it’s Vinnie Desharnais, of being able to come in and feel as comfortable as possible right from day one of camp.”
On the ice, Carbery expects the team’s added depth, especially up front, to help reduce the burden on top players like Ovechkin.
“We are going to be able to rely on all four lines way more consistently (than last year),” he said. “I think people’s minutes will come down, which I don’t think is a bad thing.”
Ovechkin has already played a less prominent role for the Capitals in recent seasons. His average time on ice has gone down every year since 2021-22 and decreased to a career-low 17:27 in 2025-26: between the effects of age and the stronger roster surrounding Ovechkin, that trend is likely to continue.
Carbery is confident Ovechkin can still pack a punch into those limited minutes.
“Even if [his ice time] comes down a little bit, there’s little things that him and I talk about, like just making sure it doesn’t go for too long a stretch of — stuff that, it’s same for everybody,” he said. “I think, too, what O has done a great job of is, like last year, of (managing) the quality and the quantity. Being able to use more energy bursts throughout his shifts as the minutes come down.”
Long before he put pen to paper, Ovechkin made it clear he wasn’t interested in coming back just to take a victory lap. He would have been well-justified in relishing a farewell tour, but Ovechkin was adamant that any return would have to be a serious run for the Cup. The Capitals have built a team around Ovechkin, and they’re confident he will remain a serious threat. Now all that’s left is to hit the ice and prove it.
