Alex Ovechkin to enter 20th season

The Washington Capitals enter their 50th season and your captain, Alex Ovechkin enters season number 20. We all know he's 42 goals away from the record but what's he been up to besides playing charity hockey over in Russia?

Before we get to that let's visit the gala match called the Ovi Cup tournament that's in Russia. Ovi starred in the game along with his son Sergei who turns six later this month. Other NHL stars included Evgeni Malkin and Kirill Kaprizov where they faced off against Ilya Kovalchuk and other KHL stars in a friendly match.

It was a 6-6 final score and lil Sergei even had a goal of his own on a breakaway. He wore yellow laced skates just like his father. Another cute moment.

Ovechkin said on MatchTV, per a DeepL translation by Sammi Silber from The Hockey News:

"We'll work, I think he's improved a little bit this year."

The Ovi Cup is an annual youth tournament in Moscow and the great eight is also opeing the Alexander Ovechkin Academy in 2026, per Championat. Ovi added this:

"We want to make it the best academy. We will do our best... there are head coaches and team coaches who will bring up kids so that they will come to other clubs and get an opportunity to play in the KHL or even the NHL"

With 853 goals and needing 41 to tie and 42 to pass Wayne Gretzky the world will be watching with anticipation for the great eight to see if he can close in on the history books. He is expected to return to the area ahead of training camp in September.

Ovechkin made his league deubt in 2005 and he turns 39 next month. It's crazy to even think we are in sort of the last dance for the great eight who has dazzled us for that long.

Nick Horwat of SI noted the sensitive topic that Ovechkin said to rsport.ru:

"I still have two years left on my NHL contract. I want to play my last game for Dynamo, where I started my career. But there's no point in raising this topic right now."

Ovechkin was of course selected first overall 20 years ago and played three seasons with his hometown team the Moscow Dynamo. The 2004-05 lockout happened and sadly we had to wait a year. But this year is a strong possability that Ovi can eclipse the Great One.