{"id":551874,"date":"2026-04-13T17:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/551874\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T17:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:30:19","slug":"evgeni-malkin-makes-bold-prediction-on-alex-ovechkins-nhl-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/551874\/","title":{"rendered":"Evgeni Malkin Makes Bold Prediction on Alex Ovechkin\u2019s NHL Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evgeni Malkin<\/a> and the Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> faced Alex Ovechkin<\/a> and the Washington Capitals<\/a> on Sunday afternoon. With retirement rumors swirling, it might have been Ovechkin\u2019s last home game in Washington. However, does Malkin believe the Washington forward will retire from the NHL after the season is over?<\/p>\n

The Penguins forward believes Ovechkin will be back for the 2026-27 NHL season, the player told reporters<\/a>. Malkin said Ovechkin will be \u201cback next year for sure\u201d because he is \u201cstill hungry.\u201d As of now, the 40-year-old Washington forward plans to make his retirement decision following the season, but his close friend believes he won\u2019t be done yet.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin is the best goal scorer in NHL history, and he is still peforming at a high level. The Capitals star has 32 goals, 31 assists, and 63 points in his 21st NHL season. While Ovechkin isn\u2019t performing at a 50-goal-per-season level, he still provides much-needed offensive production for Washington.<\/p>\n

Since Ovechkin\u2019s contract expires at the conclusion of the 2025-26 NHL season, he will need to sign a new one with the Capitals if he continues playing in the NHL. The end of this season has long been viewed as a potential retirement point for Ovechkin, since his contract is up.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old forward has previously expressed a desire to retire in Russia and potentially play a final season with\u00a0Dynamo Moscow. If Ovehckin retires from the NHL, it wouldn\u2019t be shocking to see him play in Russia this year. However, the Capitals would love to have him back in the organization for one more campaign.<\/p>\n

After all, it is hard to replace Ovechkin\u2019s offensive production. Malkin believes Washington won\u2019t have to worry and that Ovechkin will be back for at least one more season.<\/p>\n

Read More: Alex Ovechkin Drops Major Update on NHL Retirement Plans<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tAustin Konenski is a sports writer at Sportsnaut, covering the NHL, MLB, NFL, NBA, and College Football. His work … More about Austin Konenski<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins faced Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals on Sunday afternoon. With retirement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[426,191,1495,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-551874","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-evgeni-malkin","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-washington","14":"tag-washington-capitals","15":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116398590966846259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551874","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=551874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}