Alex Ovechkin autographed a lot of keepsakes for his Washington Capitals teammates after breaking the NHL goals record last season. The practice has continued into 2025-26, his last year under contract with the Caps, where even young stars like Ilya Protas are asking for favors.
“Yeah, yeah. I asked for a jersey, and he signed it,” Ilya said on Friday after the team’s practice. “It’s going to be with me forever.”
“Everyone does it,” Brandon Duhaime said while being interviewed by 106.7 The Fan’s Sports Junkies. “You come to the practice rink, there’s probably five to ten Ovi jerseys sitting in everyone’s stalls. Guys just buying jerseys, getting them signed, whether it’s for friends and family or for yourself. He gives away sticks all the time. He takes care of everyone. Anytime you ask him to sign anything, it’s no problem at all. And, yeah, just a true class act.”
The practice isn’t just reserved for Capitals players either.
“After every game, jerseys, sticks, pucks, whatever,” Dylan Strome said. “There’s always something waiting in his stall for guys on other teams.”
“He’s very generous with this stuff,” he added. “At the end of every year, he’s giving away sticks to guys and things like that.”
While some players are bold enough to make memorabilia requests, Tom Wilson admitted he struggles asking for things like this as Ovechkin’s longtime linemate and teammate.
“You know what, I don’t think I’ve ever asked O for an autograph,” Wilson said. “He’s given me a few things over my career that I obviously cherish. But I won’t start now. I mean, his friendship is the most important thing to me and his leadership.”
Wilson has felt the same awkwardness with Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby as well.
“I don’t think I can ask for anything from Sid just because of the rivalry over the years,” Wilson added. “But I mean, it’s incredible what [he and Ovi] have done.”
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery has some Ovechkin memorabilia, which he added onto after his prized pupil broke the NHL goals record, and he also has plans to ask the Caps captain to autograph a special photo at some point.
“Yeah, I’ve got, I have a stick sitting next to Wayne’s stick in my office right now,” Carbery said. “So those, once he broke the record, I put his signed stick right next to Wayne’s. And then I have a picture that was hanging in the dressing room, that was taken down of him and John, that I’m going to get them to sign for me. It’s just John and O hugging after, I think it was Columbus my first year overtime when O scored the overtime winner. It was that game that was really heated. Did Willy get into it with Merzlikins? Yes, that game. So there’s a great picture that we had in our locker room of just John and O basically jumping and hugging each other after the OT. So those are a couple of the souvenirs I got.”
As Ovechkin enters what could be the final week of his NHL career, Strome, the centerman that assisted on Ovechkin’s milestone 895th and 1000th (combined) career goals, revealed that he’s been hesitant to ask.
“I haven’t gotten too much personalized for myself,” Strome said. “He signed a couple pictures for my dad, and I got the assist stick for 895. But he took the 1,000th assist stick. He said that’s going in the museum, so I don’t have that one. No, it’s something that I’m sure there will be a time after he’s done playing that he’ll be generous enough to sign stuff, which he always is, but just haven’t asked for too much.”
