- Alex Ovechkin told FONBET at the Russian Cup Superfinal he’ll decide on his NHL future in July
- His current five-year, $47.5M Capitals deal expires July 1, with GM Chris Patrick saying Washington will wait as long as Ovi needs
- Read below for the full exchange, video from Luzhniki, and what the July clock means for the Capitals’ offseason
Alex Ovechkin has put a month on it.
The Capitals captain told FONBET at Sunday’s Russian Cup Superfinal that his NHL future will get sorted in July, leaving Washington’s offseason plans on the clock. The exchange with Russian soccer legends Vladislav Radimov, Dmitri Alenichev, and Andrey Tikhonov was short and direct:
“You’ll play there for another year, right?”
“I haven’t decided.”
“When will you decide, if it’s not a secret?”
“It’s not a secret. What’s a secret? In July, for sure.”
Capitals beat reporter Sammi Silber pulled the quote out of the Russian-language sit-down:
Ovechkin took in the Spartak-Krasnodar final at Luzhniki with his family and fellow Russians Dmitry Orlov and Mikhail Sergachev. The FONBET conversation happened on the same trip home.
Here’s the FONBET clip, with Ovi in the stands at Luzhniki:
That July timeline means Ovechkin’s five-year, $47.5 million deal will expire before he announces anything. He technically becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, though he’s already brushed off the idea of playing anywhere besides Washington. GM Chris Patrick gave him plenty of runway back in April:
“He’s earned the right to do the process how he wants to, and we’ll just work with (when) we get information.”
Ovi has said the deciding factor is whether the Caps look ready to chase a second Stanley Cup. Reporting from earlier this week pegged him as choosing between a one-year contract and retirement, with the recent Evgeni Malkin extension floating around as a likely blueprint: one year at $5.5 million, performance bonuses stacked on top.
Washington owns $31.3 million in cap space per PuckPedia, and the NHL Draft on June 26-27 will come and go before Ovi puts pen to paper. The Caps will either move first or sit on their hands. Ovi already knows when he’s answering. July.
