{"id":556896,"date":"2026-04-20T20:43:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556896\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:43:41","slug":"chris-patrick-and-brian-maclellan-answer-questions-about-how-they-plan-to-handle-alex-ovechkins-impending-retirement-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556896\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Patrick and Brian MacLellan answer questions about how they plan to handle Alex Ovechkin\u2019s impending retirement decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington Capitals<\/a> general manager Chris Patrick and president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan\u00a0met with the media for their annual year-end availability on Monday.<\/p>\n

As expected, the primary topic that the two decision-makers were questioned about was the future of Alex Ovechkin<\/a>. The 40-year-old, future Hockey Hall of Famer, recently indicated that he doesn\u2019t believe he has played his last game in the NHL<\/a>, but he has not yet spoken with Patrick about specific plans. Those talks, which would typically have already happened in a regular year, have been put off out of respect for Ovechkin\u2019s decision-making process.<\/p>\n

In the final year of Ovechkin\u2019s contract, the Capitals missed the playoffs for just the fifth time during his 21-year stint with the club. The NHL\u2019s all-time leading goal scorer spoke about needing assurances that the Caps intend to return to the postseason and compete for a Stanley Cup if he is to be back for the 2026-27 campaign.<\/p>\n

Patrick and MacLellan discussed those plans and more, including Ovechkin\u2019s potential role with the team next year, owner Ted Leonsis\u2019 role in talks, and the flexibility the club has with its large amount of cap space this summer.<\/p>\n

Transcript<\/p>\n

Q: Alex Ovechkin seems to have indicated he may not have played his last game. What is the team\u2019s position on this? Do you have separate offseason plans for with Ovi and without Ovi?<\/p>\n

Chris Patrick: \u201cYeah, the team\u2019s position is we\u2019re giving him some time here to get away from the season a little bit and think things through and talk to his family. And then he\u2019ll meet with both Mac and I, and we\u2019ll continue to support him in however his decision process plays out. I think we\u2019ll be able to have a plan with or without him. It\u2019s no different than really any offseason where you have some players that are expiring, and you can go down different paths depending on what happens with them. So, same thing with him, even though he\u2019s the greatest goal scorer of all time. If he decides to stay, we\u2019ll go one way. If he decides that he wants to retire, we\u2019ll go a different way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: He made it pretty clear that wanting to play on a Cup contender is something that really matters to him. What are you going to tell him about that, and how do you do that?<\/p>\n

Chris Patrick: \u201cFor me, we\u2019re in a window where we\u2019re trying to win. We have a good team here, and we\u2019re hoping to add pieces to help it be a competitive team and a Stanley Cup-contending team. That\u2019s always our goal. It will continue to be our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Do you have a timeline? I know you don\u2019t want to put pressure on him, but do you need to know by the draft or for free agency?<\/p>\n

Chris Patrick: \u201cIdeally, we would know going into the draft, but again, I think he\u2019s earned the right to do the process how he wants to, and so we\u2019ll just work with whatever we get from him information-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Is there a conversation that has to be had about what his role is going to be next year? If he does decide to come back, what will it look like?<\/p>\n

Brian MacLellan: \u201cI think a lot of that happens between the coach. I think for us it\u2019s, what do you want to do? How do you want to proceed? What are the factors in your decision? What\u2019s most important to you? Ask him those types of questions, see what kind of comfort level he has with everything. And then the coach and him, and the team, will figure out what his role is going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: How would either of you evaluate his play this year? I mean, he led the team in goals, but there are other aspects to hockey.<\/p>\n

Brian MacLellan: \u201cI think his presence is huge, and I think when he decides to leave, it\u2019s going to be a big hole. Personality-wise, leadership-wise. You see he brings it to team plane, to team bus, to dressing room, to pregame warmup. He\u2019s got a big presence, and I think that\u2019s the main contributing factor for him now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: If he does decide to come back from a salary cap standpoint, are there any concerns that you\u2019d be able to resign Ovi and then also be able to get the other pieces you need?<\/p>\n

Chris Patrick: \u201cIt feels like you\u2019re walking me into a tough spot here, one way or the other. We\u2019re in a good spot cap-wise going into this offseason to have flexibility to do different things depending on what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Did you intentionally put off your meeting with him just because you wanted to give him space after this season? Would you have normally met with him by now?<\/p>\n

Chris Patrick: \u201cI mean, if it\u2019s normal, yeah. It just felt like we could have met with him the day after the season ended, but I don\u2019t think he was ready at that point to have that conversation. I think he needs to take some time and just get away from it, right? He just played 82 games in a really hard season. Just have a few days with his family and just kind of veg out a little bit, and then he can start thinking about what the future holds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Would Ted Leonsis be involved in talking to him?<\/p>\n

Brian MacLellan: \u201cYes. We\u2019ve had conversations not just at the end of the season, leading up to the end of the season. Ownership\u2019s talked to him. I\u2019ve talked to him just to get a sense of what he was feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: Is this something where the NHL is also kind of curious and asking you guys what\u2019s going on? If he does come back, that\u2019d be a big deal for them, too, in terms of planning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brian MacLellan: \u201cYeah, I think so. I mean, TV games, you know. We were on national TV quite a bit this year because of Ovi, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Q: There was a sense that maybe he wasn\u2019t announcing because he didn\u2019t want some big farewell tour. Has that been discussed at all? Does he care about that or not?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brian MacLellan: \u201cI don\u2019t know. I think he\u2019s probably mixed on it. Just my personal opinion, I think it\u2019s a difficult way for any player to end their career, let alone a player of his stature. How do you go out? How do you feel about it? I mean, it\u2019s got to be a hard thing to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questions are edited for brevity and clarity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington Capitals general manager Chris Patrick and president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan\u00a0met with the media for their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[191,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-556896","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\/116438987869093281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556896","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=556896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}