T.J. Oshie Officially Retires | Washington Capitals Legend Ends NHL Career

T.J. Oshie Officially Retires | Washington Capitals Legend Ends NHL Career

on today’s show TJ Oshi retires from the NHL [Music] you’re Locked On Capitals your daily podcast on the Washington Capitals part of the Locked On Network your team every day well hello and welcome into this edition of Locked On Capitals part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day my name is Dan Holy i’ve covered the Capitals for the last three seasons for Locked On and various other outlets before that i’m also the host of the weekly show called The Capitals Minute Cast available wherever you find your podcasts and as always I want to thank you for making this your first listen of the day so in this edition of Locked on Capitals we talk about the news that broke on Monday in a press conference that TJ Oshi is retiring from the NHL in my opinion one of the greatest capitals uh to ever lace up the skates uh what is the legacy at number 77 we’ll talk about that a bit later the end of an era what comes next uh listen there are a lot of pieces that are peeling away from this team players uh Nick Backstrom TJ Oshi in the future Alex Ovetkin and John Carlson what is next for the Capitals a bit later i’ll talk about Oshi’s legacy on and off the ice one of the most liked uh Capitals that I can think of you know you’d be hardressed to find anyone that has something negative to say about TJ Oshi just a really great hockey player but in general just a really great human being we’ll talk about that but just to get it going here the announcement um and we knew that there was going to be a press conference by TJ and I was on another podcast and they asked “What do you think the announcement was?” And I I I mean it’s not too surprising that uh that is what direction I thought it was going to go in um I guess there is the possibility that he could have said that he you know planned on pursuing his future in the NHL as there were some beat writers around the NHL that saw a match with TJ Oshi i I saw a piece by the Golden Knights for example that said that would be a good addition to the Golden Knights but um not too surprising as we know that TJ Oshi uh spent the final season under contract on the LTIR a tough thing for a guy that is the ultimate competitor uh a guy that uh you know even not the biggest guy out on the ice was never afraid of taking on some of the biggest uh players out on the ice and uh you know to see him live is to truly appreciate uh what he brings and I say that I’ve said that before on this show is sometimes it’s lost I think on television uh how dynamic a player is but uh I’ve had the opportunity to see TJ a couple times uh from press row up on high where you can kind of see everything lay out and he saw the ice very well just in my opinion a great playmaker a great teammate the Capitals I know they didn’t have him last season here but they’re still going to miss him uh in the locker room and on the ice um as I guess there was a bit of a question about uh his future was there the possibility that he’d want to come back um you know would take an extension but let’s dive into that in segment one the announcement and uh emotional TJ was emotional and I got to be honest with you I’m not afraid to admit it there were times um especially when they put the camera on Nick Brom and John Carlson and he was getting emotional and I felt like I could as well because I think of all the memories uh between those players Carlson Baxter Wilson Ovuchetkin though you know some people could say in my in my opinion maybe one of the greatest eras in Capitals history of course it’s an easy conclusion to jump to because they did the thing that they had not done before and that’s win a Stanley Cup and make zero mistake about it tj Oshi uh had a huge impact on this team and had a major uh you know impact on the roster and their ability uh to finally win a Stanley Cup that you know there’s there were a lot of players on the roster in 2018 uh but he was definitely one of the key pieces uh that finally helped push the Capitals over the top and do something they had not done before and that is uh win a Stanley Cup but uh quite a moment on Monday night uh at Georgetown waterfront uh it was 7 years to the day and the Capitals jumped into the fountain to celebrate their Stanley Cup tj Oshi stood up at that same spot uh the symbolism and kind of the the flashbacks if you will of you know seeing them you know all having a good time splashing around uh I remember Ovachkin and just all of them it was truly a high water mark as a Capitals fan and um you know especially now since it’s been some time since you know that they’ve won that you know I think the feeling was after they won the Stanley Cup that it’s just going to keep rolling but you didn’t realize how lucky in a lot of ways and how unique that group was in 2018 to do that and how huge TJ was uh TJ was in the mix now this time not as a champion but as a retiring Warrior saying goodbye um and it was a a cool ceremony all things considered um that we saw Spencer Carberry we saw Brian Mlen we saw Chris Patrick Backstrom Carlson um it was just a truly a great moment and a sad moment in a lot of ways as well uh Oshi spoke for about 20 minutes um he didn’t say the word retirement until the very end and um it’s one of the things that uh you know when I was watching the speech he said that you know when I was reading this back to myself uh I didn’t get emotional but now that I’m saying it out loud well it’s tough and uh you know Joby and Locker were there as well and Joby was a great uh host of the show if you will that even when his papers got scattered Joby was there uh to help him so just uh really a great core of capitals whether it’s the players uh or the broadcasters everyone associated with it it was truly something but uh from the moment he started speaking you knew it where it was going you knew that retirement was going to come at some point um but I don’t think that TJ wanted to dwell on it i think that uh he knew where it was coming it was just like he said his piece and at the very end he kind of dropped it in there and that was it i didn’t think he I don’t think he wants to dwell on it i don’t think that he’s in love with the idea of retiring uh it’s unfortunate in a lot of ways a premier talent uh just based on injury and those kind of things put him in the position that he’s in um but like I’ve said on the show about Backstrom now about Oshi is that they put the camera on his wife and his children and you kind of understand who they are as people you got to remove the hockey player from the situation and say he’s a father uh he is a husband and uh that is the most important thing in his life right now he spoke about how his wife took the backseat to his hockey career for so many years and how if it wasn’t for her you know kind of holding things down at home and being a really great support to him that he might not have been able to accomplish all that he was able to accomplish so um just a truly touching moment and to see the connection between Oshi his wife and his children and uh you know when Baxter was there and Carlson um it was it was just a very emotional moment especially uh as a Capitals fan but and then in true Oshi fashion like I talked about a breeze scattered the pages of his speech literally mid address and uh you know he was saying “I should have planned for this i probably should have stapled them together uh he was able to gather them quickly even though Jo’s like “I got it don’t worry about it TG.” Uh he was able to brush it off and everything was okay uh Oshi just smiled shook his head and said with a laugh quote “First timer,” unquote uh I’m glad uh that he didn’t let it rattle him too much and uh you know it doesn’t hurt to be prepared but uh you know it was one of those moments that I think was a bit stressful for him and that uh probably didn’t make things any easier uh he brought us all back to Warroad Minnesota where it all started for him and he thanked Warro Minnesota as a great place uh where he was able to work on his game and uh that is you know in those small towns and then going to college in North Dakota uh that hockey was definitely in the cards for him uh from a young age uh he also spoke about the support of his parents uh and his siblings as well uh and finally to DC where he became more than just a player he became a symbol of perseverance and uh you know just a tough guy not you know not a tough guy in in a fighter sense but a guy that played through a lot uh he was injured on and off throughout his career and a lot of times battled through it and you know sometimes he would say to himself you know I I I just need to stay in there for my team that sometimes you could tell he was playing injured when maybe he shouldn’t have been but he cared that much about the team and the players that played around him uh his moment his em emotional moments came when he looked at his teammates Baxter and Carlson uh he couldn’t hold it together he waved to his kids uh took sips of ginger beer to steady himself and pressed on um and again you know I’m not afraid to admit it it was tough even watching that um just because you could see uh what it meant to him he said quote “Today I will give all I have for this moment may never come again.” Let me say that one more time it was very powerful when he said it today I will give all I have for this moment may never come again internalize that a little bit uh tr try to make the most of your opportunities when given them uh whatever you know you can apply that to in your life uh you can tell that he definitely adhered to that now with that Oshi said quote to all my friends coaches teammates fans and to the game of hockey I promise you this the moment my skates skates touched the ice I gave you everything I had there’s there was never any doubt in in me that that was the case uh after 16 years in the NHL I’d like to officially announce my retirement.” And uh quite a career not only with the Capitals but with the Blues and um again you know I don’t need have to think about it for a moment one of the greatest Capitals players that I can think of i think that the Capitals will miss him i think they’ll miss his presence in the locker room on the ice and what he did in the community as well like I said off the top not just a great hockey player but a great human being in general sometimes you don’t find both of those in a hockey player uh TJ Oshi definitely exemplifies just that all right so coming up here after the break we’ll talk about Oshi’s legacy on and off the ice i’ll discuss straight ahead looking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious crack into a good source of protein with Wonderful Pistachios wonderful Pistachios is one of the highest protein nuts each 1oz serving has six grams of protein giving you over 10% of your daily value plus they’re packed with fiber and better for you unsaturated fats to help you keep feeling fuller longer and now listen I’m guilty of it myself sometimes in a rush to get to work so I grabbed for a snack maybe some sugary cereal or a a donut something of that nature and then I found wonderful pistachios and I found a great replacement for that sugar sugary food uh that I used to eat and for me personally I love the no shells variety it’s the perfect grab-and-go snack for busy days whether I’m snacking at my desk on a road trip or just need a quick protein boost they’re always my go-to snack and if you love cracking open every shell for that satisfying crunch well the in shell options are a classic favorite so get snacking and get cracking with a snack that packs a protein punch visit wonderfulpastios.com to learn more all right welcome back into this edition of Locked on Capitals part of the Locked On Podcast Network your team every day you can find me over on Twitter it’s Dan Caps 2 and8 you can find the show on Twitter it’s locked on Caps so in segment two the legacy of number 77 TJ Oshi both on and off the ice uh like I talked about in segment one just a truly great person and a hockey player quite the combo uh let’s talk about his legacy though tj played 1,010 regular season NHL games 567 of those as a cap he scored 32 goals tallied 695 points uh he was an Olympian a Stanley Cup champion in many ways the emotional engine of this team for almost a decade and uh one of the things that he mentioned as well as uh when he came up on free agency as a capital he had a napkin and he came up with a kind of a fake contract if you will saying that ITJ Oshi signed this for x amount of dollars and and for this x amount of years uh to let Brian Mlelen know uh that he was happy being a capital and he didn’t want to go anywhere else uh he talked about how often times players relish the opportunity uh that they can seek out the open market and you know get the king’s ransom that I think for TJ Oshi he was handsomely paid but I don’t think money was you know an exclusive motivator I think he loved being a capital I think he loved the teammates around him it was evident and uh sometimes those are things that are overlooked that you think that just cuz you’re a pro athlete you know hockeyy’s is great but give me the money uh listen TJ Oshi is not hurting for money but uh he made it quite apparent uh that he was happy uh being a Capital but if you want to take a look at the back of his hockey card uh quite impressive uh what he was able to do drafted 20 o 24th overall uh by the Blues in 2005 ranks among 2005 dra draft class uh only Sydney Crosby and An uh Copitar had more goals in the 2005 class uh again acquired by the Capitals uh July 2nd 2015 scored 192 goals 193 assists and 567 games and the accolades and the accomplishments go on and on and on um I don’t want to go over all of those right now but sufficees to say uh he walked it he talked it and if you look at the back of his hockey card well it’s going to have to unfold a little bit because the accomplishments keep rolling and rolling um and the thing of it is and I’ll talk about that in the final segment is who are these next pieces that are going to be on the Capitals he’s not an easy guy to replace but um GM Chris Patrick said it best he said quote “He changed the trajectory of this franchise we had great pieces but he was the final one,” unquote um and you know you take a look at it when he was first acquired and brought to this team uh I was familiar with him i didn’t know the impact that he was going to have and to say his impact was uh you know just a a great impact would be an understatement he changed uh in a lot of ways along with the players that played around him i’m talking Carlson and Backstrom and uh Ovatchka and these kind of guys wilson that at one time that was one of the best lineups out on the ice in my opinion uh but time flies he came to the Capitals all the way back in 2015 uh I’m here to tell you as a guy that is in his late 40s here that it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago and there’s a lot of truth to time goes a lot quicker uh the older that you get because if 2015 that long ago it just it doesn’t seem real in a lot of ways uh that team was on the cusp but couldn’t get over the hump uh Oshi helped change all of that when he came here uh his skill in the shootouts something that we kind of forget about but uh it was apparent you know this past season where they didn’t have a real shootout specialist his grit in front of the net and his never quit attitude brought this team its long- aaited cup in 2018 and uh like I said never a guy to to shy away from any big guy the ultimate competitor on the ice off the ice Oshi was as impactful a fan favorite a community leader and a teammate everyone leaned on uh Tom Wilson said quote “He has hasn’t taken a shift off in his entire career.” And that’s one of the things that you can say about TJ Oshi is there was never a time where I felt like he was mailing it in if there was ever a time that he was on the ice and I didn’t think he was giving 100% we found out after the fact that he was dealing with some sort of injury and the very fact that he was playing at all at that moment uh kind of defied expectation uh and he meant it the injuries they piled up back problems plagued him for years uh we heard about how he had to fly his specialist in uh from Minnesota that oftentimes uh he was in so much pain he had to urinate in a bottle he couldn’t he couldn’t sleep in bed and those take a toll on him uh he barely made it to the game time in V Vancouver after an emergency chiropractor visit he played anyway um so just and all the things he had to go through a double ablation in 2023 uh in his final season he missed 30 games some due to concussions but mostly his back uh because just of that when you’re the competitor you’re going to get injured sometimes i think that he probably could have taken it a little bit easier on himself but he’s just not wired that way um and that’s the interesting thing him with here like I like I talked about the 10,000th game uh he Oshi couldn’t even finish the morning skate the writing on was on the wall for quite some time with Oshi as that he was you know heading closer and closer to the end of his career and uh it’s one of those tough moments that uh you know it’s too bad that um you know he had to spend his last season on the LTIR uh but I don’t think that was going according to script for him either and then in the final playoff run in 2024 he fought through a broken hand in game three and four against the Rangers fought through a broken hand um and then you see about all the players in the NBA that are grimacing when they have their calf is a little sore uh that that just speaks volumes of the toughness of TJ Oshi and NHL players in general his quote “A broken hand is like a hangail compared to what I go through with my back.” Unquote um so that’s what I’m talking about that if you ever saw Oshi on the ice and say he didn’t look 100% it’s not because he wasn’t mailing it in he was just dealing with so much injury um so that’s the tough part for for Oshi is that uh when we look back on it that he didn’t get to end his career uh as triumphantly as he wanted to we know that he wanted to to play out his final season it just wasn’t right one of the things that he said is that before he played cuz he was kind of non-committal about playing his last season he said that he wanted some assuredness uh from his doctors or specialists that he wouldn’t have to go through what he went through uh the last several years and of course they wouldn’t be able to do that because hockey is physical and TJ Oshi said that you know in my day-to-day life in the offseason when I’m not playing hockey I’m pretty good it’s when I get back out on the ice and the toll it takes on your body to be an NHL player and play an entire season and then do it for as many years as he did it’s a testament to his strength his resolve and ultimately I I admire uh his motivation and for being able to do it uh for so many years all right so coming up here after the break we’ll talk about the end of an era what comes next i’ll discuss straight ahead all right welcome back into this edition of Locked On Capitals part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day the best way that you can help grow the show is to subscribe to Locked On Capitals on YouTube and comment anything down below so the end of an era as I talked about to start the show the key pillars of this team for so many years peeling away and the next wave the excitement but also the sorrow I guess to a certain extent is it was truly a great time in Capitals history and uh it’s something that I think maybe we took for granted is yeah you know take a look out on the ice right now you see Backstrom assisting on a Novetkin goal see John Carlson just being dominant on the blue line holy and Wilson it was truly a magical time in Capitals history and TJ Oshi was at the center of that uh every moment uh so let’s talk about that in segment three what comes next so you know with Oshi’s retirement the Capitals officially close a chapter in franchise history one that began in the mid2010s when guys like Oshi Backrom Holi and Carlson uh pushed Washington to the top of the hockey world and like I said to a certain extent sometimes I think we take it for granted just like you know the eventual uh time when when Alex Ovetkin retires that I think that we need to soak it all in savor it everything vanishes is something I heard once and it holds true to me now Backterm is gone oh she is retired ovetkin is chasing new goals off the ice as much as on it um so it’s just savoring the moments that we have um you know I expect uh Ovetkin uh Carlson to play the final seasons of their contract and then we don’t know after that but truly a special time and uh a change is afloat so who fills in Oshi’s shoes as a leader a grinder a power play netfront guy uh Tom Wilson certainly a veteran now uh but the young players that have stepped up and are going to be the future pillars i’m talking Conor Mcichael growing into a top six role uh that a lot of these young players are coming along ryan Leonard of course uh that’s the thing the future is coming fast you could also say Crystal in that mixenko that it’s not going to be too long from now that we won’t talk about Backrom Oshi uh and these kind of guys it will be the next page it’ll be Mcichael it’ll be Leonard it’ll be Mero uh times are a changing uh in this moment this transition might just open the door to a new identity for the Capitals the Capitals are always going to need their pillars and one of the key pillars will still be here in Tom Wilson uh the future captain of your Capitals uh but they still need other pillars and other players to rise up and take leadership roles i mentioned Conor Mcichael ryan Leonard has leadership qualities as well a bit of a younger man but a future leader on this team as well uh it’s also worth wondering what’s next for Oshi himself uh we saw him getting involved in broadcasting i think he did a very good job at that he expressed being very nervous guy knows the the sport very well could add some insight uh I think that he could get involved in coaching uh he knows the game very well uh the world is his oyster uh the one thing I know is he has appears to have a great wife a great children and more money than he knows what to do with he could just savor that and sail out into the sunset or he could you know keep going you know I think he would make an excellent broadcaster uh the broadcasters that broadcast with him said he did a good job seemed like a bit of a natural but again coaching would be an interesting thing for him as well we saw hints of that uh as well with Braden Holy perhaps uh he’s a smart guy a passionate hockey mind it wouldn’t be shocking to see him behind a Capitals bench one day wouldn’t that be something uh to have coach TJ Oshi uh behind the bench but for now he’s a dad he’s a husband he’s retired and he’s earned every second of that piece um so you know again like I I say he deserves it it was you know an award for a job well done for so many years uh is what kept him in the NHL a vital player one of the best players not just for the Capitals but the entire NHL so here’s to TJ Oshi for the hits for the goals for Sochi for the Cup for the guy who never quit even when his back gave out for the warrior who gave everything and then some here’s to you TJ Oshi all right hey once again I want to thank you for joining me on this edition of Locked on Capitals your only daily year- round podcast covering the Capitals and I want to thank all of you that listen on the audio side and watch this on YouTube you are what makes this show successful when you’re done here head on over to Locked on NHL as they have you covered five days a week available wherever you find your podcasts and on YouTube all right once again I want to thank you for joining me on this edition of Locked On Capitals part of the Locked On Network it is your team every day my name is Dan Holy and I’ll talk to you again next time

T.J. Oshie officially announced his retirement from the NHL during an emotional speech at the Georgetown Waterfront, seven years to the day after celebrating the Capitals’ Stanley Cup victory at the same location. Surrounded by teammates, family, and fans, Oshie reflected on his 16-year career with heartfelt gratitude and shared memories — from learning the game from his late father to battling injuries in his final seasons. As pages of his speech scattered in the wind, his humor and humility showed why he was so beloved.

Oshie played 1,010 games, recorded 695 points, and became a key piece of the Capitals’ Stanley Cup run in 2018. Known as a fierce competitor and consummate teammate, he pushed through chronic back injuries and even a broken hand during his final playoff games. His retirement marks the end of an era for Washington, closing the chapter on a core group that defined the team’s most successful years. Oshie’s legacy will be remembered not just in stats — but in heart, leadership, and character.
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