{"id":548128,"date":"2026-04-08T22:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548128\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:10:17","slug":"alex-ovechkin-reveals-that-he-will-decide-his-future-after-this-season-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548128\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin Reveals That He Will Decide His Future After This Season Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Could these be the final games for the Great 8?<\/p>\n<p>PublishedApril 8, 2026 4:15 PM EDT\u2022UpdatedApril 8, 2026 4:15 PM EDT<\/p>\n<p>FacebookTwitterEmailCopy Link<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Washington Capitals captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/category\/alex-ovechkin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Alex Ovechkin<\/a> will turn 41 next September, and there&#8217;s a big focus on what he will do about his future.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">There are rumblings that this season could be the last for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/category\/national-hockey-league\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NHL&#8217;s<\/a> all-time leading goalscorer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">However, none of us will know if this is his last season until after it&#8217;s over.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">READ: <a class=\"decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/sports\/nhl-point-system-flaws-kings-playoff-race-overtime-losses\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">HERE IS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF WHY THE NHL NEEDS TO KILL OFF THE LOSER POINT<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">The Great 8 did a sit-down interview with Caps radio broadcaster John Walton, and in a teaser for the full interview, which is slated to air Wednesday night, Walton asked if he had decided on his future.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">&#8220;Not yet,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re going to decide in the summer. I have to talk to my family, with Ted (Leonsis, Caps owner), with (GM Chris Patrick), (President of Hockey Ops Brian MacLellan), and have to decide in the summer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">When asked about the most important part of this decision, Ovechkin talked about his health.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">&#8220;Healthwise, I&#8217;m going to be 41 in September, so we just have to be smart about it,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">READ: <a class=\"decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/sports\/buffalo-sabres-new-york-jets-postseason-drought\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">BUFFALO SABRES MAKE NEW YORK JETS OFFICIALLY THE SADDEST FRANCHISE IN PRO SPORTS<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/category\/washington-capitals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Capitals<\/a> are currently five points out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference and the third spot in the Metropolitan Division. So, they&#8217;re not out of the playoff race, but they would need a lot to go right for them and a lot to go wrong for several other teams to play beyond mid-April.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Which is to say that Ovechkin will soon have the time to kick around his options beyond this season.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Ovechkin has 31 goals and 30 assists this season in 78 games played, which tells you that he&#8217;s still productive and appears to be healthy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">He&#8217;s also in the final year of his current deal, meaning that he&#8217;ll become a free agent in July unless he retires or re-signs in Washington.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">But, honestly, even if he doesn&#8217;t decide what he&#8217;s going to do until August, it seems hard to imagine him signing anywhere else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Could these be the final games for the Great 8? PublishedApril 8, 2026 4:15 PM EDT\u2022UpdatedApril 8, 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[191,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-548128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-capitals","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-capitals","13":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116371378991317983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548128","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=548128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}