{"id":872245,"date":"2026-10-06T01:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T01:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/872245\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T01:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T01:32:09","slug":"washington-capitals-captain-alex-ovechkin-says-his-22nd-nhl-season-will-be-his-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/872245\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin says his 22nd NHL season will be his last"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Va. — Alex Ovechkin said Monday that his 22nd season in the NHL<\/a> will be his last, beginning the farewell tour for the longtime Washington Capitals captain who holds the league’s career goal-scoring record.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin addressed teammates to deliver the news before the team posted a message from him on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad, but it is what it is,\u201d Ovechkin said in his locker room address. \u201cIt\u2019s hard, but let\u2019s enjoy it and let\u2019s do some special things this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin signed a one-year contract this past summer and turned 41 on Sept. 17. All signs pointed to this being the end, and he said he and his family decided as much in recent months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this game so much, but I know in my heart it’s the right decision,\u201d Ovechkin said in a statement released before the Capitals’ home opener Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s goals record<\/a> in April 2025 and entered this season at 929. The front office acquired Jordan Kyrou<\/a> and Alex Tuch<\/a> in trades and signed fellow forward Boone Jenner and defenseman Vincent Desharnais in free agency to add around a young core in the hopes of making another long playoff run and contending for the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an unbelievable team this year,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cLet\u2019s make the playoffs, let\u2019s have fun and enjoy the moment because times fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin has spent his entire career with Washington, winning the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2005-06, the Hart Trophy as MVP three times and leading the NHL in scoring nine times. He was playoff MVP in 2018 when he led the Caps to the first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full NHL coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Va. — Alex Ovechkin said Monday that his 22nd season in the NHL will be his last,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,13145,99,452,453],"class_list":["post-872245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-nhl-hockey","tag-sports","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872245","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=872245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}