{"id":464643,"date":"2026-02-20T16:02:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/464643\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T16:02:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T16:02:26","slug":"washington-capitals-captain-alex-ovechkin-unsure-about-nhl-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/464643\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin unsure about NHL future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/alex-ovechkin\/8471214\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/alex-ovechkin\/8471214\" target=\"_blank\">Alex Ovechkin<\/a> is playing on the last year of his current contract, but is he also playing in his last year in the NHL?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/washington-capitals\/15\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/washington-capitals\/15\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Capitals<\/a> captain and the league\u2019s all-time leading goal scorer says he isn\u2019t sure yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cNo, I don\u2019t know yet,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/news\/alex-ovechkin-ready-for-washington-capitals-to-resume-playoff-chase\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/news\/alex-ovechkin-ready-for-washington-capitals-to-resume-playoff-chase\">Ovechkin told NHL.com\u2019s Tom Gulitti.<\/a> \u201cWe have to make a decision. We have to talk with the family, with [Capitals owner] Ted [Leonsis], [general manager Chris Patrick], and then we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Moscow native is in his 21st NHL season and the final year of a five-year, $47.5 million deal. He has 22 goals and 24 assists in 59 games played, taking his all-time goals total to 919. Ovechkin tells Gulitti that he \u201cprobably\u201d won\u2019t make a final decision in-season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ovechkin\u2019s goal-scoring form has not been consistent this season, experiencing long droughts. He headed into the Olympic break with only two goals in his past 13 contests and five straight without a goal. He hopes the break will rejuvenate not only himself, but the rest of the Caps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s not about me,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cYou can see everybody was maybe a little struggling because last year, we scored like five, six goals in a game and it was easy. Right now, it\u2019s a kind of a [struggle] to find a way to find the net and I hope this break is going to help us, and now we\u2019re going to play much better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">With 23 games to play, the Caps find themselves on the outside looking in in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. On 65 points, the Caps trail the final Metropolitan Division postseason spot and the second wild card by four points. Ovechkin knows his team\u2019s margin for error is slim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to win almost every game to make the playoffs,\u201d Ovechkin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Caps return from the break on Wednesday when they host the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/philadelphia-flyers\/4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/philadelphia-flyers\/4\" target=\"_blank\">Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin is playing on the last year of his current contract, but is he also playing in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[34388,4759,5,4,35805],"class_list":{"0":"post-464643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alex-ovechkin-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8471214","9":"tag-apple-news","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-washington-capitals-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-15"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116103803465503097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}