Hello,

As part of the Capitals offseason, I will be doing an individual blog about each player on the roster and analyzing their regular season and post season performances. In addition, I will be looking at what their year in review means for themselves and the organization moving forward. Who else to start with other than Alex Ovechkin?!

Player Name: Alexander Ovechkin
Age: 34. Birthday is September 17th 1985
Current contract: $10 Million per year. Entering final year of deal of his 13-year deal. As of July 13th, 2020, he is eligible to sign a new deal with the Capitals.
2019-2020 Regular Season Stats: 48-19-67 in 68 games played.
2019-2020 Post Season Stats: 4-1-5 in five games played

The Russian Machine Never Breaks!!! Seriously though, WHAT…A…YEAR!! People keep expecting Ovi to slow down and he just keeps lighting it up every night all season long. It felt like every other game, Ovechkin was breaking a record of some sort. Some notable season highlights and accolades (in no particular order) include:

1. Scored 48 goals in 67 games to earn a share of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard trophy. Ovechkin has won the award 9 times out of his 15-year career to date. I think its safe to say Ovechkin would have scored 50 goals this season had it not been for the pause. He is third all-time with “8” 50-goal seasons and only one behind Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky. It would have been awesome to see him get 50 this year as it will likely get more difficult ever year moving forward as he continues to age.

2. Four “Hat-tricks” in one season. This was tied with David Pastranak for the league lead in hat-tricks for the season. This is also Ovechkin’s second season in a row with four hat-tricks in one season. He has 27 total hat-tricks in his career which puts him at 8th All-time. To think that eight of the 27 hat tricks came in the last two seasons at the age of 33 and 34 is pretty wild.

3. On February 22nd, 2020, Ovechkin hit the 700 Career Goals Milestone. This goal moved him to #8 all-time. It was a very special moment for Ovi that was celebrated mutually around the league. He finished the season at 706 total career goals, still 188 behind Gretzky.

4. 13 power play goals on the season. While this only ranked 5th in the league, this did push Ovechkin ahead of Luc Robitaille and Teemu Selanne for #3 all-time in career power play goals with 260 total career power play goals. He is 14 goals behind Dave Andreychuk for most power play goals in the NHL of ALL-TIME. He could break that record next year.

5. 14 goals in seven games. During the month of January, Ovechkin may have been the most on fire he has ever been in his career. In a seven game stretch he scored 2,3,3,1,2,0,3 goals. Yea, that’s also three hat-tricks in seven games. Just unthinkable for a 34-year-old.

Big picture here is that Ovi is still the best goal-scorer in the league and he continues to keep proving all the doubters wrong. He may not be as fast as he used to be but there is no reason to think this goal-scoring success cannot continue for the next five years.

So, what do the next five years look like? Ovechkin is entering the final year of his deal but as already vocalized he plans on re-signing with the team. When addressing his future with Capitals in various interviews, he has informally discussed his want for two things: 1. To catch Gretzky's goals scoring record and 2. To retire with Backstrom. By my calculation, if Ovi scores 38.5 goals per year, it would take him five years to catch Gretzky. Considering Ovi basically just put up back-to-back 50 goal seasons, it’s an attainable record to chase if he wants to try. After this season, Backstrom is on the books for a 5-year deal at 9.2 million per year. I anticipate Ovechkin signing for a deal that lines himself up to be a UFA and/or retire the same year as Backstrom (end of the 2024-2025 season). With the Caps likely not re-signing Holtby this offseason and having a little extra cap space as a result of it, I expect the team to offer Ovechkin about $10-11 million per year for 4 years (on top of the last year of his deal). They may front load the contract. Does he deserve that money? Absolutely. Is it a good deal for the Caps to pay a guy that much when he will be 35 at the start of the season? Its debatable but considering Ovi’s career with the Caps, give the guy whatever the heck he wants. I think Ovi does want to win another cup so he may take a team friendly deal. By team friendly I mean taking 10 mil per year, not 12.

There is one thing we Caps fans know for sure, its that the Capitals will always be one of the best offenses during the regular season. With its current core, they should continue to be a very competitive offense for years to come. Ovi will continue to have high quality scoring chances and opportunities that make him a real threat night in and night out. We are witnessing the great goal scorer in NHL history. Let's all just sit back and watch him chase record after record for the next five year.

Thanks for reading!

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