Alexander Ovechkin tells Capitals this season is last run

Alexander Ovechkin said his 22nd NHL season will be his last, closing a Capitals career that made him Washington’s defining hockey figure.

Carbery gives him the room

Coach Spencer Carbery asked Ovechkin to address the Capitals in the locker room this morning, putting the announcement first before Washington’s home-opening week. Ovechkin hugged Carbery and kept the message brief, according to the account of the meeting.

"This is going to be my last year," Ovechkin said. "It’s hard, but let’s enjoy it and let’s do some special things this year."

The decision gives the Capitals a defined farewell season for the player most closely tied to the franchise’s modern identity. Ovechkin led Washington to the 2018 Stanley Cup, the club’s first, and turned a team that had often sat outside the center of D.C. sports into a regular part of the city’s winter calendar.

A 929-goal record

The announcement follows Ovechkin’s April 2025 move past Wayne Gretzky’s career goals record, the statistical pursuit that had framed the late stage of his career. He enters the season with 929 goals, putting him 37 above Gretzky’s former mark and 274 ahead of Sidney Crosby, the next highest active player cited in the source material.

His contract is also due to expire after the season, giving the timing a practical edge beyond the record book. The Capitals had already stirred expectations when season-ticket holders received an email that mistakenly pointed to this campaign as his final run.

Washington opened the season with a split against two Eastern Conference opponents. The Capitals beat the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes 5-2 on Friday, then lost 3-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

Ovechkin’s early usage shows how his role has already narrowed. After averaging above 20 minutes a game across his career, he played about 13 minutes a night through the first two games of this season.

His 12:46 against Carolina was identified in the source material as the lowest ice-time total of his career outside games affected by injury or ejection. That number is a small sample, but it gives Washington a visible marker for how Carbery may manage a 40-year-old scorer over an 82-game schedule.

Crosby visit frames farewell

The next date on the Capitals’ calendar is Wednesday’s home opener against Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The matchup carries a familiar frame: Ovechkin and Crosby were selected first overall in consecutive drafts and both made their NHL debuts in 2005, after the lockout wiped out the prior season.

For the Capitals, the announcement changes the tone of the season without changing the standings math. A team with high expectations now has to balance a final celebration of its franchise player with the shorter shifts and lineup decisions needed to stay competitive.

If Ovechkin’s ice time remains near opening-week levels, Washington’s scoring load will have to move further toward other forwards, and the league gets a farewell tour built more around moments than volume. If his minutes rise and the Capitals remain in playoff position, the final year becomes a competitive test of whether a record-setting scorer can still shape a postseason chase.

The wider NHL effect is simpler and harder to replace. When Ovechkin leaves, the league loses its active goals standard, the Capitals lose the player who defined their most successful era, and Washington sports loses one of its longest-running civic fixtures.