If you have been a fan of the Great 8 since he joined the Capitals this is not shocking in the slightest. Ovi isn’t much for self acknowledgement he is a win first team guy. He exemplifies the motto “play for the name on the front not the back.”
From the reports I have seen it is unclear if Ovi will be back next season rocking the red jersey or if he will be playing in Russian like he has hinted at where he wants to finish is career where he started it for the Dynamo.
With less than 10 games left in the season the 40yr old Ovechkin is about to finish the last season on his contract. As mentioned previously he has been pretty quiet on his future plans. Ovechkin has stated he liked the way Wayne Gretzky finished his career where he announced two days prior to the last regular season game that this would be he is final season.
Gretzky was stated in saying “I didn’t want to do a retirement tour, I didn’t want to go from city to city with people knowing I was going to retire, so we kept it really quiet. It kind of leaked out that the game against Ottawa could be my last game in Canada.” He and Ovi are very similar in that if they went the retirement tour route it would be a large distraction each game and it would take away from the team’s gameplan that day.
The most recent interview Ovi had with former teammate TJ Oshie. Ovi mentioned that his decision will be based on how his body feels after this season. On the bright side Ovi has been one if not the healthiest super star in NHL history especially the way he plays the game.
Whenever Ovi decides to hang it up it will be a sad day not just for Capital’s fans but for all the fans of hockey, because he plays the game like a kid even still at 40. The guy loves the game and his teammates and you can see that the way he is around the new guys the Caps bring in or call up.