Alex Ovechkin is already a huge hockey equipment collector. Now, it appears he may be entering the trading card game.
On Wednesday, the NHL’s greatest goal-scorer visited Goatz Sportz Cardz in Herndon, VA, to the absolute shock of the owner, Bryan Janick, a former Pentagon police officer.
“He looked at our hockey, basketball, and Pokémon cards,” Bryan said. “He liked a LeBron we had. He didn’t end up getting anything, but asked if we could order some older hobby boxes, which I did immediately. I was completely shocked. I was just opening the doors and looked up to see Ovi walking up. It was pretty amazing! Such a nice person.”
Bryan added that Ovechkin specifically requested some older hockey trading card boxes from 2005-06 and 2008-09.
“His rookie year and TJ Oshie’s rookie year. We showed him some of the stuff we had of his,” Bryan said. “He was more interested in a rare Lebron we have in the shop. He said his wife collects Pokémon and looked at some of those as well. He said he didn’t have any cards but had a lot of memorabilia. Sounds like he might be trying to get into some cards, though.”
Most of Ovechkin’s common rookie cards from the 2005-06 season are worth hundreds, while his Upper Deck Young Guns card has routinely raked in over $1,000.
Ovechkin has long been a fan of LeBron James, dating back to his days with the Cleveland Cavaliers. In late January, Ovechkin attended a Washington Wizards vs Los Angeles Lakers game at Capital One Arena to root LeBron, the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, on.
The pair of GOATs then swapped autographed jerseys and took a photo together afterward.
Ovechkin’s visit to the trading card store followed a spontaneous appearance by Brandon Guyer, a former MLB outfielder who played seven seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians. Now Guyer is a mental strength coach for the Los Angeles Angels and the University of Virginia Cavaliers Baseball team.
Ovechkin’s trading card stop follows a season where he collected hockey sticks and game-used jerseys from stars across the league. He plans to open a museum in his native Moscow, which he hopes will be ready for the public in late 2027.
