{"id":496969,"date":"2026-03-10T19:07:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/496969\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T19:07:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T19:07:45","slug":"alex-ovechkin-reveals-key-factor-in-retirement-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/496969\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin Reveals Key Factor in Retirement Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Capitals<\/a> are playing out the final stretch of the 2025-26 season with 17 games remaining in their schedule and still having some postseason hope, sitting five points outside of the wild-card seeds.<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin, now in his 21st NHL<\/a> season, is in the final season of his five-year, $47.5 million contract<\/a> and will turn 41 before the start of next season.<\/p>\n

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Despite his age, Ovechkin has 24 goals and 26 assists in 65 games this season and 921 goals and 752 assists in 1,556 career games through Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the nationally televised matchup against the Boston Bruins<\/a> played on Saturday, Ovechkin sat down with former teammate T.J. Oshie and addressed<\/a> what will determine his decision to retire and leave the game he’s played for more than two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes time for you to hang them up, what are the factors that will go into your decision?\u201d Oshie asked.<\/p>\n

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\"Washington<\/p>\n

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) looks on during a stoppage of play.Amber Searls-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(Amber Searls-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cHow my body gonna feel,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cBecause right now, hockey is so hard, it\u2019s so fast. I\u2019m 40, and it\u2019s hard to keep up with young guys. You know? But most important thing is health-wise. I don\u2019t wanna be like, I don\u2019t wanna play hockey, and then after one or two years, my knee or my elbow or my back is gonna be hurting. So I\u2019m not gonna feel comfortable for the rest of my life. So I have to be smart about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin fractured<\/a> his left fibula on Nov. 18, 2024, and missed 16 games, one of the most serious injuries of his career.<\/p>\n

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The winger is one of only four active players<\/a> age 40 or older, but his production is still great league-wide compared to that of much younger forwards across the NHL.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still love the game,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cI still enjoy come here in the locker room, like hang out with the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capitals next face the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Related: Elliotte Friedman Shares Update on Auston Matthews and Maple Leafs<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Matthew Knies Addresses Maple Leafs Trade Speculation<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 10, 2026, where it first appeared in the NHL<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals are playing out the final stretch of the 2025-26 season with 17 games remaining in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[426,95,191,5,4,56,299,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-496969","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-alex-ovechkin","9":"tag-boston-bruins","10":"tag-capitals","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","14":"tag-t-j-oshie","15":"tag-washington","16":"tag-washington-capitals","17":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116206453717499559","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496969","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=496969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}