Alex Ovechkin picked the date on purpose.
Twenty-one years to the day after he first stepped onto NHL ice, the Washington Capitals captain announced Monday that the 2026-27 season will be his last in the league.
“My family and I decided this summer that this will be my final year in the NHL,” Ovechkin said. “I love this game so much, but I know in my heart it’s the right decision. It was important for me to make this announcement before our first home game, so I have the chance to thank all the people around the game, everyone who has been so important to me and my family and helped me through good times and tough losses.”
He closed the way only he could: “See you Wednesday, babes!”
The farewell tour starts at home Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 7:30 p.m., when the Capitals open at Capital One Arena against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Fittingly, the night could bring Ovechkin’s 101st career meeting with Sidney Crosby, counting the playoffs.
The greatest goal scorer the game has seen
Ovechkin, who turned 41 on Sept. 17, enters the home opener with 929 regular-season goals, 759 assists and 1,688 points in 1,575 games, all with Washington. No one in NHL history has scored more goals.
He passed Wayne Gretzky’s 894 on April 6, 2025, ripping a one-timer past New York Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin at UBS Arena. A record many thought would never fall had stood since 1999. He has added 34 more since.
The records go well beyond the headline number. According to the Capitals, Ovechkin holds the NHL career marks for:
- Power-play goals: 331
- Game-winning goals: 141
- Overtime goals: 27
- Road goals: 476
- Game-opening goals: 154
- Game-tying goals: 155
- Go-ahead goals: 297
- 40-goal seasons: 14
- 30-goal seasons: 20
His nine 50-goal seasons tie Gretzky and Mike Bossy for the most ever.
What sets him apart is how long he did it. Ovechkin scored 52 goals as a 20-year-old rookie in 2005-06 and won the Calder Trophy. He scored 65 in 2007-08, a total no one has matched since. He scored 50 again at 36, in 2021-22. He scored at least 20 in every one of his 21 completed seasons, including a 24-goal campaign in the pandemic-shortened 56-game season of 2020-21.
Along the way he won three Hart Trophies as league MVP, nine Rocket Richard Trophies as the top goal scorer, and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2018. That spring he finally lifted the Stanley Cup, the first in Capitals history.
What’s left to chase
The final season comes with milestones still in reach, according to the Capitals and TSN. The biggest is the last Gretzky scoring record still standing:
- 11 goals from passing Gretzky’s 1,016 combined regular-season and playoff goals. Ovechkin has 1,006, counting his 77 playoff goals.
- 4 assists from passing longtime teammate Nicklas Backstrom’s franchise record of 762.
- 12 points from 1,700.
- 25 games from 1,600.
- 36 points from passing Mario Lemieux for ninth on the NHL’s all-time points list.
- One more 20-goal season to tie Gordie Howe’s record of 22.
He’s also already in rare company. This season, Ovechkin and Crosby joined Howe, Alex Delvecchio, Stan Mikita and Steve Yzerman as the only players to spend 22 seasons with one NHL franchise. When he took the ice in Carolina on Oct. 2 to open the season, he passed baseball’s Walter Johnson, who pitched 21 seasons for the Washington Senators from 1907 to 1927. That made Ovechkin the longest-tenured athlete in Washington pro sports history.
How we got here
Washington drafted Ovechkin first overall in 2004, but the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 season pushed his debut to Oct. 5, 2005. He scored twice that night against Columbus.
He nearly didn’t come back this season. Ovechkin signed a one-year, $4.75 million deal on July 2 after the Capitals missed last season’s playoffs, saying, “I’m back, babes.”
“Ever since we drafted him, there have been two constants: his love for the game and his relentless drive to win,” Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said at the time.
The Ovechkin Effect in Maryland
Ovechkin’s impact reaches well past Capital One Arena, including into rinks across Maryland.
The Capitals say the number of USA Hockey-registered players in Washington, D.C., has grown more than 220% since his rookie season. Across D.C., Maryland and Virginia it has grown 78%, and the number of girls and women playing has risen 225%. In Maryland alone, registered players rose from 6,450 in 2005-06 to 9,929 in 2024-25, according to USA Hockey figures reported by NHL.com. That’s an increase of about 54%.
“He totally turned D.C. into a 100 percent hockey town where maybe that wasn’t the case,” former Capitals goalie Olie Kolzig told NHL.com.
A farewell built around giving back
The Capitals and Ovechkin are turning his last season into a giving campaign. Starting in November and running through the end of the regular season, the team will announce a new charity initiative or event on the 8th of each month, a nod to his No. 8, and Ovechkin will take part in each one.
The campaign builds on causes he has supported for years:
- Pediatric cancer research: Ovechkin has donated to THE GR8 CHASE for Victory Over Cancer for every goal since his 885th, with Monumental Sports & Entertainment matching his gifts. The campaign has raised more than $256,000, which will fund the Alex Ovechkin GR8 CHASE Pediatric Cancer Research Grant through The V Foundation and Hockey Fights Cancer.
- Special hockey: Ovechkin has been an ambassador for the American Special Hockey Association since 2014. ASHA serves athletes with developmental and intellectual disabilities and has grown from 45 programs to 140 during his involvement. He helped cover ice costs for 136 teams and more than 5,260 athletes. Maryland teams include the Baltimore Saints, Montgomery Cheetahs and Frederick Gargoyles.
- Ovi’s 8’s: since 2006, Ovechkin has bought Capitals tickets for underserved children and families, more than 6,000 so far. He now also donates eight season tickets each year to ASHA families.
“I am excited about this season with my teammates, and we will do everything we can to make this year special,” Ovechkin said. “I am going to enjoy every moment with my family, my boys, our fans and everyone who has been part of my hockey career.”
