Alex Ovechkin has collected just about every individual honor the NHL can hand out, but this week he added something a little more down-to-earth: a surprise visit with a group of fans in Moscow who had been meeting every Wednesday to raise a beer in his name.
A translated video from Russia showed the scene unfolding at a pub where the regulars had been gathering from 7 to 8 p.m. each week, hoping the Capitals captain would walk through the door. One person in the group said it was the seventh week they had tried, and that the people coming back each Wednesday had started to know each other.
Then the mood shifted. After the fans thought Ovechkin might be another week away, they began hearing, “he’s coming, he’s coming!”
Moments later, he arrived to chants of “Ovi the great! Ovi the great!”
Ovechkin shook hands with everyone, accepted a beer and responded, “Awesome!” He clinked glasses with the group, signed autographs and stayed to chat while sipping his pint.
The 40-year-old is set to return to Washington on a one-year deal with a cap hit of $4.25 million for 2026-27, which will be his 22nd NHL season.
He is coming off a 2025-26 campaign in which he scored 32 goals and added 32 assists for 64 points in 82 games. That season put him in rare company, making him the fourth player in NHL history to score 30 goals in a season at age 40 or older. It also marked the 20th 30-goal season of his career, another league record.
Ovechkin has only missed the 30-goal mark once, when he scored 24 times in 45 games during the COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season.
Across 21 NHL seasons, the Moscow native has piled up 929 goals and 758 assists for 1,687 points in 1,573 regular-season games. In 2024-25, he moved past Wayne Gretzky for the most regular-season goals in NHL history.
His playoff line is just as loaded: 77 goals and 70 assists for 144 points in 161 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
Ovechkin has also stacked up the milestones. He owns nine 50-goal seasons and has won the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy nine times, given to the NHL’s top goal scorer in the regular season. He has taken the Hart Trophy three times as league MVP.
He also holds the NHL record for power-play goals with 331.
Among the other highlights on his résumé: the 2006 Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, the only Art Ross Trophy of his career after leading the league with 110 points in 2007-08, and the Conn Smythe Trophy after winning his lone Stanley Cup in 2018.
On the international stage, Ovechkin has won the World Championship three times and set multiple records at different junior international tournaments with Russia.