{"id":547922,"date":"2026-04-08T19:41:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547922\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T19:41:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:41:21","slug":"alex-ovechkin-drops-major-update-on-nhl-retirement-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/547922\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin Drops Major Update on NHL Retirement Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/alex-ovechkin\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"948\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Alex Ovechkin<\/a> could be in the final days of his NHL career. With four games left in the 2025-26 NHL season, the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/washington-capitals\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"1531\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Washington Capitals<\/a> sit five points out of a Wild Card spot. More than likely, Washington is going to miss the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and it could be Ovechkin\u2019s final four games in the NHL.<\/p>\n<p>Ovechkin will make his NHL retirement decision during the offseason, the <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/capitals\/status\/2041878227216658927?s=46\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Washington captain said in an interview posted by the team on social media<\/a>. The 40-year-old forward\u2019s contract is set to expire after the 2025-26 NHL season, so retirement always made sense when it concluded.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Ovechkin has put a timeline on his decision. There was debate on whether the Capitals forward would announce his retirement in the days before the end of the regular season, but he is taking a different approach. Therefore, Washington fans won\u2019t know if Ovechkin\u2019s final game will come this season.<\/p>\n<p>The Capitals will host the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-penguins\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"1646\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> on Sunday, April 12, at 3:00 p.m. ET at Capital One Arena. Washington will play its final game of the regular season against the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/columbus-blue-jackets\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"4946\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> on Tuesday, April 14, but Sunday could be the last home game of Ovechkin\u2019s 21-year NHL career.<\/p>\n<p>The 40-year-old forward is still producing in his 21st NHL season with 31 goals and 30 assists for 61 points. Ovechkin is still scoring goals and helping the Capitals, so a return wouldn\u2019t negatively impact the team. In fact, it would be hard to replace Ovechkin\u2019s offensive production on the ice.<\/p>\n<p>Ovechkin won\u2019t make a retirement decision until the offseason, but these could be the final games of his NHL career. The Capitals star is leaving the door open, as the team continues pushing for the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nhl\/washington-capitals\/capitals-alex-ovechkin-nominated-for-masterton-trophy\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">Read More: Capitals\u2019 Alex Ovechkin Nominated for Masterton Trophy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img alt=\"avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775677281_403_890c5868b73e0b3eb0ba5d30aab6dd9b9c27bf6d7cbaaede74bc35673fba816a.png\"  class=\"avatar avatar-70 photo\" height=\"70\" width=\"70\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\tAustin  Konenski  is  a  sports  writer  at  Sportsnaut,  covering  the  NHL,  MLB,  NFL,  NBA,  and  College  Football.  His  work  &#8230; More about <a class=\"more-bio\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/author\/austink2020heat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Austin Konenski<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin could be in the final days of his NHL career. With four games left in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[426,191,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-547922","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-capitals","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-washington","13":"tag-washington-capitals","14":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116370793863075196","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547922","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=547922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}