{"id":468024,"date":"2026-02-23T12:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/468024\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T12:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T12:02:12","slug":"alex-ovechkin-undecided-on-playing-future-beyond-this-season-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/468024\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin Undecided On Playing Future Beyond This Season \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

With this being the final season of Alex Ovechkin<\/a>\u2019s contract, there has been plenty of speculation as to whether the future Hall of Famer would be hanging up his skates, returning to play in Russia, or staying in the NHL.\u00a0 At various times, it has been speculated that this would be it for him in the NHL while at others, some have suggested that an extension could be coming.<\/p>\n

Now several months into the 2025-26 campaign, it doesn\u2019t seem as if Ovechkin is any closer to making a decision on what comes next.\u00a0 Speaking with NHL.com\u2019s Tom Gulitti<\/a> earlier this week, the 40-year-old indicated that he doesn\u2019t know what comes next.\u00a0 He added that his family and the Capitals organization would be part of the decision-making process, with a final decision unlikely to come until after the season.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin has spent his entire 21-year NHL career with Washington after the Caps drafted him first overall back in 2004.\u00a0 He has set multiple league records along the way.\u00a0 On top of taking over the all-time goal record last season (he\u2019s up to 919), he\u2019s also the record-holder for power play goals (330), game-winning goals (140), and shots on goal (7,028).\u00a0 Clearly, there\u2019s nothing left to prove but he can certainly keep adding to his records.<\/p>\n

While Ovechkin clearly isn\u2019t the elite winger he was for many years, he\u2019s still a very capable contributor.\u00a0 He has 22 goals and 26 assists this season in 59 games while still logging nearly 18 minutes per night of playing time.\u00a0 His 48 points are one behind Tom Wilson<\/a> for the team lead.\u00a0 While a decline is likely to come given his age, Ovechkin could certainly contribute for another year.<\/p>\n

If Ovechkin decides to re-sign with the Capitals, it\u2019s fair to say that the AAV of the deal wouldn\u2019t check in at the $9.5MM that it\u2019s currently at.\u00a0 However, if he were to re-sign on a one-year pact, he\u2019d become eligible for performance bonuses, which would give Washington some extra flexibility and also give Ovechkin a chance to maximize his earnings.<\/p>\n

While the Capitals would undoubtedly like some certainty with Ovechkin\u2019s situation heading into the trade deadline to know if this is his final run or not, it appears that they\u2019ll have to wait a while yet to see what the captain plans to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With this being the final season of Alex Ovechkin\u2019s contract, there has been plenty of speculation as to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[426,5,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-468024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-alex-ovechkin","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-washington-capitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116119846633811685","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468024","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=468024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}