- Ovechkin admits he worried Washington wouldn’t have the cap room to bring him back
- The one-year deal came together on a 10-minute video call after July 1
- Read below for the terms and where the Capitals sit now
Alex Ovechkin wasn’t sure the Capitals could squeeze him under the cap.
The 40-year-old opened up about his re-signing during an interview on FONBET’s “FONtour 2026 World Cup,” sitting down with former Russian soccer star Andrey Arshavin. Washington had just gone on a spending spree, and Ovechkin said all that money going out the door made him nervous about his own future in D.C.
Arshavin asked whether the holdup had been about the size of the contract:
“I was worried. What if they didn’t give me [the contract]?” Ovechkin said, per RMNB’s translation. “No, I was worried that there wouldn’t be enough cap space to sign me.”
You could see why. Washington took on a pile of new salary over the summer, adding Alex Tuch ($10.5M), Jordan Kyrou ($8.125M), Boone Jenner ($5.75M) and Vincent Desharnais ($4.2M).
That’s $28.575 million in fresh money, and it left the Capitals with only about $5.2 million before they even sat down with their captain.
Ovechkin said he and general manager Chris Patrick agreed after the season to push the decision to free agency. Once July 1 arrived, it moved fast.
He talked about how quickly the two sides closed it out:
“I was texting the general manager, and he said, ‘Let’s do a video call tomorrow.’ We talked for 10 minutes,” Ovechkin said. “They just said we want you for a year and named the amount.”
His new deal is a one-year contract with a $4.25 million cap hit. Ovechkin can push that to $9 million total with a $4.75 million bonus if he suits up for at least 10 games.
After the ink dried, Washington had just $975,000 in cap space left. Here’s PuckPedia with the math:
The fit was tighter than Ovechkin would have liked, but Washington found the room. Rasmus Sandin’s $4.6 million hit can open on long-term injured reserve to start the year, giving Patrick another lever.
Now the biggest name in the sport is back for his age-41 season, and he’s not coming back to coast. Ovechkin is chasing 1,000 career goals:
He starts the year 72 goals shy of the milestone. Ovechkin has also mapped out how his career ends, so this Washington run has a clock on it. For one more season, though, the worry is behind him and the captain is staying put.
