{"id":550506,"date":"2026-04-11T18:47:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/550506\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T18:47:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:47:18","slug":"alex-ovechkin-has-been-signing-a-lot-of-autographs-behind-the-scenes-for-his-capitals-teammates-and-other-nhl-stars-theres-always-something-waiting-in-his-stall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/550506\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin has been signing a lot of autographs behind the scenes for his Capitals teammates and other NHL stars: \u2018There\u2019s always something waiting in his stall\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Ovechkin autographed a lot of keepsakes for his Washington Capitals teammates after breaking the NHL goals record last season<\/a>. The practice has continued into 2025-26, his last year under contract with the Caps, where even young stars like Ilya Protas<\/a> are asking for favors.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, yeah. I asked for a jersey, and he signed it,\u201d Ilya said on Friday after the team\u2019s practice. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be with me forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone does it,\u201d Brandon Duhaime<\/a> said while being interviewed by 106.7 The Fan\u2019s Sports Junkies<\/a>. \u201cYou come to the practice rink, there\u2019s probably five to ten Ovi jerseys sitting in everyone\u2019s stalls. Guys just buying jerseys, getting them signed, whether it\u2019s for friends and family or for yourself. He gives away sticks all the time. He takes care of everyone. Anytime you ask him to sign anything, it\u2019s no problem at all. And, yeah, just a true class act.\u201d<\/p>\n

The practice isn\u2019t just reserved for Capitals players either.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter every game, jerseys, sticks, pucks, whatever,\u201d Dylan Strome<\/a> said. \u201cThere\u2019s always something waiting in his stall for guys on other teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very generous with this stuff,\u201d he added. \u201cAt the end of every year, he\u2019s giving away sticks to guys and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some players are bold enough to make memorabilia requests, Tom Wilson<\/a> admitted he struggles asking for things like this as Ovechkin\u2019s longtime linemate and teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever asked O for an autograph,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cHe\u2019s given me a few things over my career that I obviously cherish. But I won\u2019t start now. I mean, his friendship is the most important thing to me and his leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson has felt the same awkwardness with Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I can ask for anything from Sid just because of the rivalry over the years,\u201d Wilson added. \u201cBut I mean, it\u2019s incredible what [he and Ovi] have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery has some Ovechkin memorabilia, which he added onto after his prized pupil broke the NHL goals record, and he also has plans to ask the Caps captain to autograph a special photo at some point.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I\u2019ve got, I have a stick sitting next to Wayne\u2019s stick in my office right now,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cSo those, once he broke the record, I put his signed stick right next to Wayne\u2019s. And then I have a picture that was hanging in the dressing room, that was taken down of him and John, that I\u2019m going to get them to sign for me. It\u2019s just John and O hugging after, I think it was Columbus my first year overtime when O scored the overtime winner. It was that game that was really heated. Did Willy get into it with Merzlikins? Yes, that game. So there\u2019s a great picture that we had in our locker room of just John and O basically jumping and hugging each other after the OT. So those are a couple of the souvenirs I got.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ovechkin enters what could be the final week of his NHL career, Strome, the centerman that assisted on Ovechkin\u2019s milestone 895th<\/a> and 1000th (combined) career goals<\/a>, revealed that he\u2019s been hesitant to ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t gotten too much personalized for myself,\u201d Strome said. \u201cHe signed a couple pictures for my dad, and I got the assist stick for 895. But he took the 1,000th assist stick. He said that\u2019s going in the museum, so I don\u2019t have that one. No, it\u2019s something that I\u2019m sure there will be a time after he\u2019s done playing that he\u2019ll be generous enough to sign stuff, which he always is, but just haven\u2019t asked for too much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin autographed a lot of keepsakes for his Washington Capitals teammates after breaking the NHL goals record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[5],"class_list":{"0":"post-550506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116387567210001300","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550506","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=550506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}