{"id":548271,"date":"2026-04-08T23:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548271\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T23:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:44:20","slug":"capitals-grapple-with-alex-ovechkins-potential-retirement-its-going-to-be-a-sad-day-whenever-he-decides-to-hang-them-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/548271\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitals grapple with Alex Ovechkin\u2019s potential retirement: \u2018It\u2019s going to be a sad day whenever he decides to hang them up\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

With four games remaining in Washington\u2019s regular-season schedule, the Capitals know they may be playing some of their final games with franchise legend Alex Ovechkin<\/a>. Ovechkin, now playing his 21st NHL season at age 40, announced Wednesday<\/a> that he would wait until the summer to decide whether or not to continue playing, neither opting to announce his retirement ahead of time nor committing to another season in DC.<\/p>\n

Whatever Ovechkin decides, head coach Spencer Carbery says the team will be behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to support O,\u201d Carbery said<\/a>. \u201cHowever he wanted to go out, he\u2019s earned that right. And him taking time, and wanting to make the best possible decision for him and his family, totally supportive of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd whether he\u2019s back next year, he\u2019ll be welcomed with open arms, from my standpoint as the head coach, and as our captain. And if this is it, we\u2019ll support him that way. And I\u2019ll celebrate him, and give him a big hug, and have a cold beer with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin has said that his health will be the biggest factor when he weighs his options in the offseason: he has played in all 78 Capitals game this season but has taken regular maintenance days off from practice, and more than two decades of NHL hockey has certainly taken a toll on his body.<\/p>\n

Still, Ovechkin leads the team with 61 points (31g, 30a), becoming the first player in NHL history with 20 30-goal seasons. If he wants to come back, his teammates note, he\u2019s certainly capable of producing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone in the room knows he can still play if he wants,\u201d said<\/a> Logan Thompson<\/a>. \u201cI mean, he\u2019s got 30 goals this year, so he\u2019s still producing at such a high rate. But, yeah, it\u2019s going to be a sad day whenever he decides to hang them up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carbery, now in his third season as Capitals head coach, knows better than to underestimate Ovechkin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the best compliment I can probably pay him, which you guys have all witnessed over the years, is anything that you don\u2019t think Alex Ovechkin can do, you\u2019re sorely mistaken,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it just happened once again this year. It happened last year. It happened this year where, you think maybe the goals have dried up and maybe, you know, \u2014 all of a sudden he scores nine goals 12 games. Next thing you know, you look at the stat pack and he\u2019s got 30 goals on the season, and he\u2019s 40 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you just shake your head. I mean, it\u2019s hard enough to score 10 goals in the National Hockey League, and Ovi at 40 has 30. He defies all logic when it comes to \u2014 as fast as the league has gotten, as good as the league\u2019s gotten, he\u2019s still productive at this point in his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin had already helped define an era of hockey even before he broke the all-time goals record last spring, a crowning achievement in a historic career. Many Capitals players grew up watching Ovechkin play \u2014 Cole Hutson<\/a> and Ilya Protas<\/a> hadn\u2019t even been born when he made his NHL debut \u2014 and now they may be by his side when he hangs up his skates. The weight of that legacy, and their part in it, isn\u2019t something members of the team take lightly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tried to keep it focused on being the head coach, and helping our team prepare and win games, but I can\u2019t help but, at times, just sit back and appreciate and soak it in: a little bit of, potentially this is the last season of the greatest goal scorer in the history of the game,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve had the opportunity to be the head coach along this ride, when he broke the record and now in the final years of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it is pretty special, and I know I\u2019ll reflect on it a lot, but I\u2019ve just pinched myself every day to have the opportunity to be able to coach O and be able to be along for this ride over the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capitals would miss Ovechkin\u2019s goal-scoring talents, sure, but more than that, they\u2019re mourning the potential loss of a longtime teammate and friend. Ovechkin has been Washington\u2019s captain since before any of his current teammates came to DC, a constant positive presence in the Capitals locker room.<\/p>\n

Thompson has cherished his time with Ovechkin since joining the team last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d he said. \u201cI say it all the time: it\u2019s just a privilege to be his teammate and to be able to call him a friend. Since coming here two years ago now, he\u2019s been nothing but amazing to me. He makes coming to the rink a whole lot of fun. Just really special to be here with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what he\u2019d learned about Ovechkin in that span, Thompson pointed not to anything he\u2019d seen on the ice, but to the man he\u2019d gotten to know off of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying against him, he would joke with you on the ice, but you never got to see the other side of him,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd now, since coming here, he\u2019ll text you whenever. If you want to go for dinner, he\u2019s always reaching out. If you ever want to come over and have a beer, he\u2019ll be the first guy to say, \u2018Yeah, come on by.\u2019 He\u2019s just a good person, and I think that\u2019s definitely gone a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as he\u2019s entered his third decade of NHL hockey with no record left to chase, Thompson says Ovechkin still has that child-like glee for the sport \u2014 joy that rubs off on those around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the same,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cHe\u2019s still having fun, right? I think that\u2019s the biggest thing, is he still loves playing hockey, loves coming to the rink, loves hanging out with his teammates. You can tell every time he scores a goal, just the joy he has and the celebrations, that he still loves doing it, and we love being a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capitals will stand behind whatever choice Ovechkin makes this summer, but that doesn\u2019t make it any easier to grapple with his potential retirement \u2014 whether it comes next season or down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in the room obviously wants him to come back,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cHe\u2019s been a special player in this league for so long, and now he\u2019s just a good friend. So you never want to \u2014 it\u2019s sad that his time, you never know, is coming to an end here, maybe soon. We don\u2019t know that. But, yeah, it\u2019s sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be different, when he no longer is wearing that C and wearing the Capitals crest,\u201d Carbery added. \u201cAgain, I\u2019m going to support everything that he wants to do from a decision standpoint, but, yeah, it\u2019ll be a tough day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With four games remaining in Washington\u2019s regular-season schedule, the Capitals know they may be playing some of their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[191,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-548271","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\/116371748575480838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548271","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=548271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}