The era of Alex Ovechkin is not over for the Washington Capitals after the future Hall of Famer signed a five-year contract for $ 47.5 million on Tuesday.
Alex Ovechkin’s contract structure:
2021-22
$ 1 million salary
$ 4 million signing bonus
2022-23
$ 1 million salary
$ 9 million
2023-24
$ 1 million salary
$ 11.5 million
2024-25
$ 5 million salary
$ 6 million sb
2025-26
$ 5 million salary
$ 4 million sb
@TSNHockey @TheAthletic
The 35-year-old continued to deliver on the ice in his 16th season and led the caps in goals (24) to provide 18 assists in just 45 games.
Ovechkin is the greatest player in franchise history and the Capitals all-time leader in terms of games played (1,197), goals (730) and points (1,320). His role in the 2018 Stanley Cup triumph cemented his status among Washington, D.C. sporting legends.
However, the state of the Caps raised serious questions about its long-term future in the country’s capital earlier this year. After Washington lost in Game 5, the Russian was in no mood to talk about his next deal.
« We just lost in a playoff series, » he told reporters. “Let’s talk about my contract and all that stuff later.”
Since winning that title, Washington hasn’t left the first round of the playoffs and has lost five games in each of the last two seasons.
General Manager Brian MacLellan faces the same problems that arise for any NHL team that has an ongoing streak of success. The most important veterans are getting older and more expensive, and adapting in the blink of an eye is even more difficult.
The team’s goalkeeping situation was a microcosm of the situation. Braden Holtby signed with the Vancouver Canucks ahead of the 2020-21 season, leaving the Capitals with no playoff experience to rely on a pair of goalkeepers (Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov). Samsonov scored 10 goals in three playoff starts.
The Capitals can’t exactly rebuild with an aging Ovechkin still in the roster, so they need to break their championship window open as much as possible. That won’t be easy when they have an estimated salary of $ 77.4 million in 2021-22.
Caps GM Brian MacLellan and his staff have many decisions to make this summer as the Ovechkin era comes to an end sooner or later goes. Given his story, I’d bet some brave ones.
Samantha Pell of the Washington Post also explained how MacLellan must grapple with other considerations, such as what to do with Samsonov and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Samsonov, a restricted free agent, played well in the regular season and finished with a savings rate of 0.902 and 2.69 goals against the average. But he didn’t do everything possible to leave the Caps with an easy decision about his possible return.
Kuznetsov, on the other hand, didn’t deliver. Twenty-nine points in 41 games is not a good return on investment for a $ 31.2 million player over four years. Pell reported that « there is frustration in the organization over his lack of on-ice production coupled with off-ice issues. »
Recruiting Ovechkin is better than the alternative because it would be great to have him seeing him start and finish his career in DC has achieved all he has.
But MacLellan still has a lot of work to do to bring the team much closer to a title in 2022.
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