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It looks like Alex Ovechkin will remain a Washington Capital for life.
The 35-year-old signed a five-year, $47.5 million contract extension, which will run through the the 2025-26 season, Washington announced Tuesday.
With 730 career goals – his 700th career goal coming last season against the Devils – Ovechkin will have the chance to break Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894 during his deal.
Ovechkin is currently sixth on the all-time goal-scoring list and would need to average 32.8 goals per season to reach Gretzky – a total he has reached in every season but the last, when he scored 24 games in 45 games during the pandemic-shortened campaign.
The Moscow, Russia native led the NHL in goals for three straight years before 2020-21.
Ovechkin – the franchise leader in games played (1,197), goals (730) and points (1,320) –does not have an agent and represented himself in contract negotiations, just like he did when he signed his 13-year, $124 million in 2008.
He broke news of the deal, which had been expected, on Twitter.
Ovechkin has won the NHL’s Rocket Richard Trophy, given to the league’s top goal scorer, a record nine times and led the Capitals to their first Stanley Cup in 2018. He is the only player in hockey history to win a Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe, Calder, Art Ross, Hart, Ted Lindsay and Maurice Richard trophies. The 2004 first-overall pick has also formed an iconic, NHL-defining rivalry with Penguins center Sidney Crosby, the 2005 first overall pick who has two more Stanley Cups than his contemporary.
With the Capitals checking off their biggest priority of the 2021 offseason, leaving them with just under $5 million in salary cap space, they will now focus on re-signing goalie Ilya Samsonov, choosing his backup and deciding what to do with Evgeny Kuznetsov.v.
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