{"id":850245,"date":"2026-09-16T22:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T22:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850245\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T22:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T22:02:10","slug":"alex-ovechkin-all-time-nhl-goal-scorer-appears-in-ad-supporting-vladimir-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/850245\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin, all-time NHL goal scorer, appears in ad supporting Vladimir Putin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington Capitals forward and NHL all-time leading goal scorer Alex Ovechkin appeared in an ad backing Russian<\/a> President Vladimir Putin, bringing renewed attention to the player\u2019s controversial, longtime support for the authoritarian ruler.<\/p>\n

The TV spot came to light just this week, showing Ovechkin standing in a group that included Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and retired Detroit Red Wings defenseman Viacheslav \u201cSlava\u201d Fetisov, professing their support of Putin\u2019s United Russia party.<\/p>\n

The Capitals confirmed that Ovechkin appeared in the spot and said the player\u2019s off-the-ice political work will have no impact on the upcoming NHL season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex Ovechkin is a Russian citizen who lives in Moscow with his family during the offseason and will live there following his retirement,\u201d team spokesman Sergey Kocharov said in a statement to NBC News on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis summer, while in Russia, he was asked by his country to participate in a video campaign. As the longest-tenured athlete in Washington, D.C. and a pillar of the community, his focus and ours is on the season ahead and the continued impact he makes on the ice and in our city.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ovechkin has had a long, close relationship with Putin. Back in 2017, Ovechkin launched the \u201cPutin Team\u201d social movement.<\/p>\n

Russia has been an international pariah since Putin \u2014 who has run the country as president or prime minister since 2000 \u2014<\/a> launched the invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022<\/a>. Over 250,000 Russian soldiers<\/a>, up to 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers<\/a> and nearly 14,000 Ukrainian civilians<\/a> are estimated to have been killed in the war.<\/p>\n

Hall of Fame goaltender<\/a> Dominik \u2018The Dominator\u201d Ha\u0161ek has been particularly outspoken against the Putin regime and its supporters.<\/p>\n

Ha\u0161ek called Russia\u2019s ongoing invasion \u201can imperialist war in Ukraine\u201d and circled Ovechkin\u2019s face in a picture of campaign supporters in an X posting this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of each of them, many Ukrainians and Russians will be killed,\u201d wrote Ha\u0161ek, a native of Pardubice, Czech Republic, who played 16 seasons in the NHL, 9 with the Buffalo Sabres.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin, who turns 41 this week, has tallied 929 goals in<\/a> 21 NHL seasons, all with the Caps. <\/p>\n

The three-time Hart Trophy winner<\/a> overtook Wayne Gretzky on the all-time goal scoring list when he found the back of the net during an April 6, 2025 game against the New York Islanders.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ovechkin has hoisted the Stanley Cup once, leading Washington to the title in 2018. He also won the Conn Smythe Trophy that year, as playoff MVP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Caps open training camp on Thursday, ahead of the 2026-27 campaign. Washington\u2019s regular season opener<\/a> is set for Oct. 2 against the Stanley Cup champion <\/a>Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington Capitals forward and NHL all-time leading goal scorer Alex Ovechkin appeared in an ad backing Russian President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-850245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}