Alex Ovechkin Makes His Decision On Playing Future
"I'm back babes"
— BarDown (@BarDown) July 2, 2026
(via: @Capitals) pic.twitter.com/uqhKlnSjQ0
Breaking: Alex Ovechkin is returning to the Washington Capitals on a one-year contract, the team announced Thursday.
— ESPN (@espn) July 2, 2026
The deal includes a $1 million salary, a $4.75 million games-played bonus after appearing in 10 games, and a $3.25 million signing bonus. pic.twitter.com/XPOraSUTFy
His contract with the Capitals for next season comes with a $1 million base salary, a $3.25 million signing bonus, and an easy-to-reach $4.75 million games-played bonus after he appears in 10 games. Overall, a $9M deal. But because of the structure of the contract, the cap hit is only $4.25 million. The team now has less than a million in cap space.
'I'm back! I'm healthy' says Ovi as he signs a deal for the 2026-27 season
In his statement on returning to Washington for his 22nd NHL season, Ovi had this to say:
“I’m back! Thank you to everyone for giving me and my family the time to make this decision. I’m healthy. I love playing hockey and competing to win. I’m excited to come back and join my teammates so we can fight for a playoff spot and have a chance to win. See you in September, DC!"
The Capitals did their part of the 'giving him a chance to win' thing, by making a couple of exciting additions to their top-six over the past week. They traded for both Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch, adding potentially around 60 goals to their lineup.
And while Ovi holds the regular-season all-time goals mark of 929, he's also just 10 shy now of Wayne Gretzky's combined regular-season plus playoff goals mark of 1,016.
Whether or not THIS will be his final season has not been confirmed, but Alexander the Great will head into the 2026-27 campaign at the age of 41. He still managed to pot 32 goals last season at age 40, and has never scored less than 30 goals in a full NHL season (not counting the 56-game shortened season of 2020-21).
