WASHINGTON (AP) – Alex Ovechkin is returning for a 22nd NHL season after re-signing with the Washington Capitals on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m back!\u201d Ovechkin said.<\/p>\n
The league\u2019s career goal-scoring record holder inked a deal with a $1 million salary and bonuses worth an additional $8 million. He receives a $3.25 million signing bonus and makes the additional $4.75 million if he plays 10 games, but the contract structure allows him to count just $4.25 million against the cap. Ovechkin turns 41 in September.<\/p>\n
Ovechkin has 929 goals after scoring 32 last season. The Russian superstar passed Wayne Gretzky\u2019s mark of 894 goals in April 2025, completing the so-called \u201cGR8 Chase\u201d that captivated hockey.<\/p>\n
He had said in recent months he was waiting until the offseason to decide whether to return or retire, and management was working on contingency plans either way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to everyone for giving me and my family the time to make this decision,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cI\u2019m healthy. I love playing hockey and competing to win. I\u2019m excited to come back and join my teammates so we can fight for a playoff spot and have a chance to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Capitals missed the playoffs this spring but qualified 16 times in a stretch of 18 years, which included winning the franchise\u2019s only Stanley Cup in 2018 when Ovechkin was playoff MVP. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (AP) – Alex Ovechkin is returning for a 22nd NHL season after re-signing with the Washington Capitals on Thursday. \u201cI\u2019m back!\u201d Ovechkin said. The league\u2019s career goal-scoring record holder inked a deal with a $1 million salary and bonuses worth an additional $8 million. He receives a $3.25 million signing bonus and makes the … Continue reading Alex Ovechkin returning for a 22nd NHL season after re-signing with the Capitals<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1519957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-04 12:35:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1519957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1519958,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519957\/revisions\/1519958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1519957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1519957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1519957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}