Forget goals, records, and all-time rankings. Alex Ovechkin has revealed the list that truly matters: his five favorite beers.
Ahead of the upcoming Match of the Year charity game, Ovechkin participated in a live Q&A alongside Artemi Panarin, Mikhail Sergachev, and Ilya Kovalchuk. While there, he was asked to share his five go-to beer brands and draft them like an NHL general manager picks prospects.
Ovechkin’s response was shared in a Telegram video by Romance with Hockey.
“Sapporo, Tsingtao, Stella Artois, let’s take our Baltika, and Guinness,” Ovechkin said, via a sports.ru transcription and translation via Google Translate.
Ovechkin’s list features a mix of international favorites, including Japanese beer Sapporo, Chinese brew Tsingtao, Belgian staple Stella Artois, Irish classic Guinness, and one domestic option, Russia’s Baltika. Four of his five choices are lagers, beers brewed and fermented at cooler temperatures, with Guinness being the lone ale, a stout.
Outside of the Coors Light in the Capitals’ locker room after Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record, his other recent milestone markers have featured Stella Artois on ice. He was doused in the pilsner after tying Gretzky’s mark with his 894th career goal, and again after scoring his 900th goal.
Ovechkin, who went on a legendary bender after the Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018, has never been shy about drinking a few beers after games, once saying that he “can’t imagine a [player] who says he doesn’t drink,” when he revealed in 2024 that the Capitals have a beer fridge stocked in their coach’s room. He also has a personal beer guy on the Caps, a role that former defenseman Matt Irwin held during his two seasons with the club.
The Capitals captain’s sheer openness about enjoying beer potentially even led a Russian state official to believe that Ovechkin could help bring beer back into the country’s stadiums after a 20-year ban imposed by President Vladimir Putin. The movement has not yet seen any success, despite Russia temporarily lifting the ban when they hosted the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Ovechkin even went viral last week after accepting a free beer from a group at a Moscow bar that had been offering him one every Wednesday for seven consecutive weeks.
Ovechkin, who has already begun preparing for his 22nd NHL season with the Capitals, said previously that he hates the offseason preparation, mainly because of the non-hockey-related fitness work and having to give up certain foods and drinks.
The soon-to-be 41-year-old will be back on the ice with the Capitals during the 2026-27 season, as he begins his march towards scoring 1,000 career goals.
