Alex Ovechkin told his Washington Capitals teammates on Monday that the 2026-27 season will be his last in the NHL. He is 41, and he has played all 22 of his seasons in Washington.
“This is going to be my last year, I’m pretty sure,” he said, according to NHL.com. He added that “my family and I decided this summer that this will be my final year.” He also told the room, “Let’s make the playoffs, let’s have fun and enjoy the moment because time flies.”
What he said and what he did not
The announcement came before practice on Oct. 5. Ovechkin said the decision was made over the summer, and he signed a one-year deal on July 2. The phrase “I’m pretty sure” leaves a sliver of room, but everything else points to a final lap.
He enters the season with 929 regular-season goals, the most in NHL history. He passed Wayne Gretzky’s 894 in April 2025.
The records still on the table
The big one is a combined one. Counting playoffs, Ovechkin has 1,006 goals, 929 in the regular season and 77 in the postseason. TSN reports Gretzky’s combined total is 1,016, which leaves Ovechkin 10 goals short of that mark.
That is very reachable. He is already ahead of every other player in the regular-season column, so this is the last big number he can attach his name to.
There are smaller markers too. He sits at 1,688 career points and needs 12 to reach 1,700, per TSN. He is 75 behind Sidney Crosby for seventh all-time. He is also 4 assists shy of Nicklas Backstrom’s Capitals record of 762.
On games played, he is 25 short of 1,600 and 32 away from Patrick Marleau’s 1,607 with one team. Another 20-goal season would tie Gordie Howe’s record for such seasons at 22, per TSN.
What it means
I think the record book is about to be redrawn, and then locked for a long time. A 929-goal total, plus whatever he adds this season, is a mark no active player is close to threatening. His 331 power-play goals, listed by NHL.com as an NHL record, sit in similar territory.
The lasting effect is that the debate over Gretzky’s untouchable numbers now has a clear answer for the goal column. For everything else, Gretzky’s assists and points totals remain in a different universe.
Ovechkin has 82 games left to finish this. If he reaches the combined mark, he will have rewritten a record book that nobody thought he could reach.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.