He might retire. He also might not. With his team\u2019s playoff hopes still alive after 81 games, the season isn\u2019t over. He has decided nothing. There\u2019s hockey to play. What\u2019s left to say?<\/p>\n
If he was ever going to crack and tip his hand regarding the situation, if the dam were ever to break, it would\u2019ve happened at that podium, particularly when Ovechkin was asked how he will want his sons to remember his career, and what it\u2019s been like to play in front of them as they\u2019ve grown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll remember this moment,\u201d he said as 8-year-old Sergei and 6-year-old Ilya flanked him. \u201cI\u2019ll remember playoffs. Obviously, it\u2019s a good thing we have lots of video cameras, cell phones. They\u2019re gonna watch it when they\u2019re growing up, and they\u2019re gonna remember it and they\u2019re gonna enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, he was gone.<\/p>\n
The Capitals have one game left to play, in Columbus on Tuesday, potentially with a playoff berth on the line. That, Ovechkin said, is his focus. There will be time to reflect on what we all saw on Sunday night \u2014 19,000 fans desperate to show a 40-year-old icon what he means to them and grateful for the opportunity to do just that. For Ovechkin, it\u2019s firmly in the future, whether a week, a month or a year from now.<\/p>\n
The Athletic spent six days around Ovechkin and the Capitals, chronicling what might be some of the final NHL days of the man who has scored more regular-season goals than any player in the history of the sport, navigating the intersection of his own uncertain future and his team\u2019s waning, waxing attempts to keep their season alive.<\/p>\n
Tuesday, April 7: \u2018Ovi is singular\u2019<\/p>\n
Ovechkin, who in April 2025 broke Wayne Gretzky\u2019s record of 894 career NHL goals, maintained throughout the 2025-26 season \u2014 the last of the five-year, $47.5 million contract he signed in 2021 \u2014 that he\u2019d made no decision on his next chapter.<\/p>\n
Returning to the Capitals remained a workable option for legitimate on-ice reasons. In his twilight, as his hair silvered and the rest of his game slipped, Ovechkin became a sort of specialist. In the way NHL teams once carried players solely for their ability to throw punches, the Capitals tasked Ovechkin almost solely with scoring goals. To wit, on March 26 against the Utah Mammoth, after 73 games, coach Spencer Carbery gave Ovechkin his first defensive-zone start of the season. Forty-two seconds later, Ovechkin beat Vitek Vanecek for the 924th goal of his career.<\/p>\n
Discussion about Ovechkin\u2019s future has been in the air for years, not months, and it returned to the forefront when the Capitals\u2019 8-1 loss to the New York Rangers on April 5 dropped their playoff odds from 27 percent to 9 percent. That day, ESPN cameras captured Ovechkin, in street clothes, gazing at the empty Madison Square Garden ice, and the clock began to tick more loudly.<\/p>\n
On this day, at an open practice at the team\u2019s facility in Arlington, Va., Ovechkin helped owner Ted Leonsis, clad in dress shoes, make his way across the ice for the team picture, their 20th together. Washington\u2019s rookies, including April 6 call-up Ilya Protas, were taking their first team photo.<\/p>\n
Fifteen minutes later, as Washington did special-teams work on an adjacent rink, Ovechkin was elsewhere. He\u2019d previously informed Leonsis and other key members of the franchise that he\u2019d delay his decision about next season until the summer.<\/p>\n
Capitals fan Charlie McManus, in a shirt featuring an old Instagram picture of a grinning Ovechkin cradling teammate Connor McMichael\u2019s head, watched practice from the boards. He\u2019d hoped to catch Ovechkin on the ice. He hoped more that the Capitals would find a way to push themselves more squarely into the playoff race, and that Ovechkin would delay the inevitable for at least another year.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of guys are great, but Ovi is singular,\u201d McManus said. \u201cHe\u2019s slowed down a lot, but that\u2019s expected. He\u2019s over 40 years old, for God\u2019s sake. What he can contribute, he does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wednesday, April 8: The announcement<\/p>\n
For months, members of the Washington organization maintained \u2014 publicly and privately \u2014 that they didn\u2019t know which way Ovechkin was leaning about the 2026-27 season, and that Ovechkin himself didn\u2019t know, either.<\/p>\n
At some point in early April, with home games dwindling \u2014 along with opportunities to suitably honor Ovechkin were he to decide on retirement \u2014 a balance was struck. Ovechkin would record a video interview with Capitals radio announcer John Walton and announce that he needed more time to decide. The team posted and publicized that video early on Wednesday, ahead of their morning skate at Scotiabank Arena, where they would face the Toronto Maple Leafs that night.<\/p>\n
Ovechkin doesn\u2019t regularly take morning skates. This time, as the Zamboni did laps around the arena, he sat on the bench next to linemate Dylan Strome, chewing green bubble gum and speaking minimally. When the Capitals hit the ice, Ovechkin visibly opened up, taking a few spins alongside Carbery \u2014 the type of casual, on-ice conversation that Carbery, now in his third season with Washington, said has helped him build a relationship with his captain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just grown together over the last three years,\u201d Carbery said. \u201c(I) just care deeply for him as a person, first and foremost. And then for what he\u2019s done for this organization, and for me personally as a head coach here the last three years \u2014 of just putting everything he possibly could from 38 years old, 39, and now 40, into this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carbery called the uncertainty \u201cno big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether he\u2019s back next year, he\u2019ll be welcomed with open arms from my standpoint as the head coach and as our captain,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cAnd 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
\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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The questions Carbery faced that day weren\u2019t new, but the context had shifted. Washington started the day with five points (and four teams) separating them from a playoff spot. Ovechkin\u2019s non-decision had also become public, and in a subsequent three-minute, 10-question session with reporters, he didn\u2019t offer much that wasn\u2019t covered in the social-media interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still fighting for a playoff spot, so we\u2019re gonna have to talk after the year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked why he didn\u2019t opt to announce his retirement ahead of the season, as outgoing Kings star Anze Kopitar did, his answer was simple: \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s the end or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
What about, Ovechkin was asked, choosing the Wayne Gretzky method and announcing his retirement with a few days left on the schedule?<\/p>\n
\u201cWayne is one person,\u201d he said. \u201c(Kopitar) is another person. If it\u2019s happening, it\u2019s happened. You guys\u2019ll probably find out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Strome, Ovechkin\u2019s center for four seasons, said he thought Ovechkin got his fill of the traveling-roadshow life during his pursuit of Gretzky last spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really cool to be a part of \u2014 and I don\u2019t think he wants to do that again, to be honest,\u201d Strome said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to put words in his mouth, but he did say he doesn\u2019t want the big send-off and things like that. But he deserves whatever he would want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Friday, April 10: \u2018Babe Ruth\u2019<\/p>\n
After a 4-0 win in Toronto on Wednesday and an off day on Thursday, the Capitals began practice three points out of a playoff spot. The crowd at MedStar Ice Capitals IcePlex had grown since Tuesday. Brian Kiviat, a Capitals fan since their inaugural season in 1974, brought a poster reading \u201cOVI, WANT THIS FOR YOUR MUSEUM?\u201d Taped to it was Kiviak\u2019s actual Virginia license plate: \u201cNOTB SUK,\u201d a reference to a remark Ovechkin made<\/a> ahead of the team\u2019s Stanley Cup-winning season in 2017-18.<\/p>\n Ovechkin has said that he intends to open a museum in Moscow next year to house his extensive collection of jerseys, sticks and other NHL memorabilia.<\/p>\n \n Brian Kiviat handed over his license plate to Alex Ovechkin. (Sean Gentille \/ The Athletic)<\/p>\n Being a hockey fan during the era of Ovechkin, Kiviat said, \u201cis like living with Babe Ruth.\u201d After practice, Capitals skills coach Kenny McCudden carried Kiviak\u2019s sign (and contact information) into the players\u2019 area.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, navigating uncertainty \u2014 around the team\u2019s postseason hopes, around Ovechkin\u2019s future and around the Saturday-Sunday home-and-home matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins \u2014 was on Carbery\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re so laser-focused on trying to make the playoffs and trying to win (Saturday). I found myself and I\u2019m sure our players (did the same), going, \u2018Oh jeez, this might be (Ovechkin\u2019s) last four days,\u2019\u201d he said, adding that it was important for the coaching staff to \u201ctake a second to acknowledge and reflect the fact that you\u2019re coaching one of the greatest players to ever play the game of hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n There are two autographed sticks above Carbery\u2019s desk that remind him of that: one signed by Ovechkin and one signed by Gretzky.<\/p>\n Other, younger members of the organization have Ovechkin memorabilia, too. Justin Sourdif, Washington\u2019s 24-year-old rookie center, owns a red No. 8 jersey. His parents bought it for him when he was 7 years old, a kid in British Columbia who\u2019d watched enough YouTube clips to pick a favorite player.<\/p>\n \n Young Justin Sourdif was a big fan of Alex Ovechkin. (Courtesy of Washington Capitals)<\/p>\n After Washington acquired Sourdif from the Florida Panthers in the offseason, new teammate Connor McMichael made the introduction. McMichael, like Sourdif, grew up a jersey-owning Ovechkin superfan.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was definitely nerve-racking meeting him for the first time, then slowly but surely you realize you\u2019re teammates with him and he\u2019s a completely normal guy,\u201d Sourdif said. \u201cEverybody just follows his lead out there.\u201d<\/p>\n As Sourdif spoke in the Capitals\u2019 locker room, Protas valiantly attempted to give an on-camera interview while Ovechkin remained in his sight line, laying belly-down on an equipment case, kicking his feet and batting his eyes at the 6-foot-6 Belarussian teenager. The day before, Protas had taken his first NHL shift between his brother, Aliaksei, and Ovechkin. It was tough to say which linemate he preferred.<\/p>\n \u201c(Ovechkin) accomplished so, so much,\u201d Sourdif said. \u201cI think when he\u2019s able to look back, whatever decision he makes, I don\u2019t think he\u2019ll have any regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n Saturday, April 11: \u2018Maybe it\u2019s a dream\u2019<\/p>\n A day without any NHL games on Friday meant no scoreboard watching for Carbery or his players. \u201cThe NHL hates Friday nights for some reason,\u201d the coach said on Saturday. \u201cWe know where we\u2019re at and what we need to do and the teams that are in this race with us.\u201d<\/p>\n As he spoke, news broke that in Saturday\u2019s game, the Penguins would rest Sidney Crosby \u2014 the other half of one of the league\u2019s greatest individual rivalries<\/a> \u2014 plus Evgeni Malkin, perhaps the second-greatest Russian player of all time; Erik Karlsson, possibly the best defenseman of his generation; and Kris Letang, a key part of the Penguins-Capitals rivalry for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/img_9015-1-scaled-e1776058680346-1024x683.jpg\")
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