From Alexeyev to Wilson, we’re taking a look at and grading the 2023-24 season for every player who laced ‘em up for the Washington Capitals for a significant number of games during the campaign, with an eye towards 2024-25. Next up, Alex Ovechkin.
The Bio:
#8 | Left Wing | Shoots: Right
Height: 6’3” | Weight: 238 | Born: September 17, 1985
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia | Acquired: Drafted in 2004, 1st round (1st overall)
Cap Hit: $9,500,000 | Signed Through: 2025-26 | Expiry Status: Unestricted Free Agent
The Scouting Report (via CapFriendly):
Report: November 2023 | Rating: 84 | Projection: Franchise Player
- No secrets at this stage of his career.
- Elite shooter. Remains difficult to defend on the weak side flank on the PP.
- Pushes the pace on occasion. Shift length effects how quick he plays the game overall. Heavy in the trenches. Big, strong, hard to move off the crease and push off pucks along the wall.
- Defensive detail / commitment has always ranged.
- Offense will always win out.
- Competes his own way. Averages over 20:00 TOI – ES and PP#1 – Does not PK
The Stats:
The Charts:
The Key Stat: Ovechkin finished the regular season with 853 career goals, second-most in NHL history behind Wayne Gretzky (894).
The GOAT: Ovechkin topped 30 goals for the 18th time in his career (the only time he failed to reach that round number was the shortened 2020-21 season, when he posted 24 goals in 45 games, a 43-goal 82-game pace), passing former Cap Mike Gartner for the most 30-goal seasons in NHL history.
On April 5 at Carolina, Ovechkin became the only player in NHL history to score 850 goals with one franchise. Back in February, he scored his 57th career empty-netter to pass Gretzky for the most all-time, and now has more empty-net goals, power-play goals (312), game-winning goals (129), game-opening goals (144) and road goals (434) than Gretzky.
But Ovechkin doesn’t just score goals, and he now sits 13th all-time in points with 1,550 (he’ll likely need to get to 1642 to break into the top-10 in his career, which seems doable).
Lastly, Ovechkin hit the 1,400-game plateau in February, becoming the 41st player in NHL history to do so (only Ryan Suter among active players has reached that milestone), and only the tenth to do it with one franchise. Even more impressive, Ovechkin has now played in 1,426 of the Caps’ 1,485 regular-season games since the start of the 2005-06 season, a remarkable 96 percent.
The Good: Ovechkin led the Capitals in goals (that’s 19 times in 19 seasons, for those of you keeping score at home) and posted the second-most assists he’s had in a campaign since 2018-19, doing most of his damage when the Caps needed it most – over his last 36 games, Ovechkin tallied 23 goals (tied for fifth-most in the League) and 36 points, a 52-goal/82-point pace over nearly a half-season at 38 years old.
On the season, Ovechkin had a half-dozen multi-goal games and 15 multi-point outings, and registered a point in 49 of his games (62%).
The Bad: There’s no sugar-coating it – 2023-24 was a tough season for Alex Ovechkin and his fans. Maybe not “2010-11/Dale Hunter existential crisis” tough, but definitely “this is the beginning – or maybe the middle – of the end” tough. Over his first 43 games of the campaign, he only lit the lamp a not-great eight times, and endured a 14-game drought that made the eight- and six-game dry spells he also had prior to the All-Star Break seem like nothing. Yes, some of that was bad luck. But that lack of production lined up with what everyone was seeing on the ice in terms of stick-handling, stamina… maybe interest. That level of play mercifully disappeared right around the Break, but, unfortunately, returned for the Playoffs, a blink-and-you-missed-it four-game span that saw Ovechkin go pointless in a series for the first time in his career and shotless twice, something that had only happened three times prior. (Interestingly enough, the only other times that Ovechkin went four-straight playoff games without a point in a single playoff season were also against the Rangers – the last five games of the series in 2013 and four in the middle of the 2015 matchup.)
As up-and-down as Ovechkin’s offense was in 2023-24, his defensive play was quite consistent…ly bad. Like, worst on the team bad?
More like worst in the League bad:
Out of 879 skaters, none had a worse expected even-strength defensive impact than Ovechkin (and actual impact tells the same story). Now, sure, this is a total and not a rate stat (but there’s not much comfort to be had there either), and Alex Ovechkin was never going to win a Selke (despite three top-50 finishes in his third-through-fifth seasons!), but this is… well, bad. More importantly, it’s a massive net negative at this point in a way it generally has not been throughout his career, no longer offset by offensive totals:
That’s a minus-six expected goal differential, roughly two wins over the course of a regular season in which the Caps made the playoffs by the slimmest of margins.
And not to pile on, but Ovechkin was 0-for-7 in shootout attempts, running his current drought there to ten (and you can throw a missed penalty shot this year in there if you want to as well).
The Video:
The Discussion: What does Ovechkin need more out of 2024-25 linemates – a defensive presence to mitigate his shortcomings there or a playmaker to help him avoid lengthy droughts? Which was the “real” Ovi – the one we saw in the first half or the second half? Is there a realistic chance that he scores 42 next season to break the record? And finally, what would it take for you to give Ovechkin a 10 next season?
The Vote: Rate Alex Ovechkin below on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) based on his performance relative to his potential and your expectations for the season – so if he had the best year you could have imagined him having, give him a 10; if he more or less played as you expected he would, give him a 5 or a 6; if he had the worst year you could have imagined him having, give him a 1.