- Ovechkin drafted Sapporo, Tsingtao, Stella Artois, Baltika and Guinness as his top five beers
- The question came in a Q&A with Artemi Panarin, Mikhail Sergachev and Ilya Kovalchuk before the July 25 Match of the Year
- Read below for the full board and Ovechkin’s long history with a cold one
Alex Ovechkin just ran a draft board for beer.
The Capitals captain sat for a Q&A ahead of the Match of the Year charity game and got handed a hypothetical: you’re on the clock at a beer draft, name your first five picks. He didn’t need a scouting staff.
“Sapporo, Tsingtao, Stella Artois, let’s take our Baltika, and Guinness,” Ovechkin said, per a transcription from sports.ru of a video posted to Telegram.
That board covers some ground. Sapporo is Japanese, Tsingtao is Chinese, Stella Artois is Belgian and Guinness is Irish, with Baltika the lone Russian pick.
Four of the five are lagers. Guinness, a stout, is the only ale he took.
Stella already has a place in his career. Ovechkin got showered in it after his 894th goal tied Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record, and again after he scored his 900th. Take a look at the night he pulled even with Gretzky:
None of this is a new bit for him. Ovechkin revealed in 2024 that the Capitals keep a stocked beer fridge in the coaches’ room, and former defenseman Matt Irwin spent two seasons as his personal beer guy. He has said he can’t imagine a player who doesn’t drink.
He’s been proving the point all summer. Last week he turned up at a Moscow bar where a group had been pouring him a beer every Wednesday for seven straight weeks, hoping he’d walk in. Watch how that one landed:
The Q&A was part of the buildup to the July 25 game at SKA Arena in St. Petersburg. Ovechkin landed on Team Sergachev in that draft, the one with actual hockey players, and he’ll line up with Capitals teammate Aliaksei Protas.
Panarin, Sergachev and Kovalchuk sat in on the same session.
Sapporo went first overall. Baltika, somehow, slipped to fourth.
