Alex Ovechkin is building a hockey memorabilia museum in Moscow, and some of his Washington Capitals teammates have become very familiar with the process.
Every time Ovechkin scores a big milestone goal, he asks whoever assists on the marker for the gear they wore or used while making the assist. Cole Hutson, one of Washington’s prized rookies, experienced that firsthand last season when he picked up the secondary assist on Ovechkin’s 1,000th career goal, regular season and playoffs combined.
Hutson recently told the story to Upper Deck’s Paul Zickler, who is the trading card company’s Director of Sports Brands. Zickler then relayed it to former NHL forward and avid collector Scottie Upshall while on stage at the National Sports Collectors Convention earlier this month.
“Alex Ovechkin is a massive collector,” Zickler said. “Last year we did buybacks of his Young Guns (rookie cards). He inscribed them personally. He didn’t want to do that inscription, GR8 out of 8, until he passed the goal record.
“Cole Hutson even told us the story. He assisted on his thousandth goal. He had to give Ovi his full lineup of gear, other than his jockstrap. He signed every item, and it’s going to go into Ovi’s museum that he’s building in his hometown.”
Cole Hutson assists on Alex Ovechkin’s 1,000th career goal
Dylan Strome, who assisted on Ovechkin’s record-breaking 895th career goal, has previously described the same process.
Ovechkin has said he hopes the museum’s construction will be completed and ready for visitors sometime next year. Still, in the meantime, he has continued collecting jerseys, sticks, and other equipment from teammates and opponents across the NHL. While game-used sticks were seemingly Ovechkin’s priority in past seasons, he has focused more recently on grabbing sweaters from some of the league’s top players and fellow captains across the league.
This past year alone, he added jerseys from Utah Mammoth defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, 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.
After the 2024-25 campaign, Ovechkin brought home his record-breaking 895th goal puck and stick from the Capitals’ April 6, 2025, game against the New York Islanders. And since scoring his 800th career goal, he has collected his own sticks, jerseys, and even socks from those goals.
