Image
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin has dropped the gloves on a handful of occasions, but when it comes to who the best fighter is, he gives the credit to one of his former teammates.
Ovechkin sat down with MMA fighter Kamil Gadzhiev to discuss the art of fighting and where he learned to go toe-to-toe.
Advertisement
The 39-year-old admitted that he learned the art of fighting naturally in his neighborhood growing up, and when it comes to how to prepare for fights at the NHL level, training depends on the player.
“It depends whether he likes (to fight or not),” Ovechkin said, per a DeepL translation. “Fighting, I don’t know if hockey players need it. Boxing, I guess (you could do). It’s a lot of cardio.”
When it comes to the best fighters he’s seen over the course of his 20-plus year NHL career, Ovechkin was quick to first name one of his former teammates in Donald Brashear, who finished his NHL career with 2,634 penalty minutes and thousands of hits, though they weren’t recorded until 2007.
Brashear, who spent three years with Washington from 2006 to 2009, was one of the NHL’s most feared enforcers at the time and would try to look out for a young Ovechkin, who had a target on his back entering the league. However, Ovechkin would tell Brashear not to look out for him, as Dean Evason told reporters back in April 2022.
Advertisement
Ovechkin also said a couple of seasons ago that if he and Sidney Crosby ever played on the same team, he would want Brashear on their line to protect them on the ice.
When it came to picking his other top two fighters, Ovechkin went with Georges Laraque, and before he could name a third, decided to take Evgeni Malkin upon Gadzhiev’s suggestion.