For the first time in a very long time, the Washington Capitals might not need Alex Ovechkin to score 40 goals in order to make the playoffs.

After acquiring Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou and Boone Jenner in the past week, you can make an argument they probably don't even need the 40-year-old at all. 

It's why at least one NHL insider (wrongly) predicted Ovechkin wouldn't be back next season. But now that he has signed a team-friendly contract for one more year, what are the expectations for the NHL's all-time leading goal-scorer?

Is Ovechkin still a top-line player? Is he even a top-six forward? Or, like Corey Perry and Claude Giroux and so many other veteran superstars who have aged in front of us, will he accept a lesser role if it means finishing his Hall of Fame career on a Stanley Cup-winning team?

"Ovie's a pretty level-headed guy," Capitals reporter Tarik El-Bashir told The Sheet. "I think he's also a pretty realistic guy, and I have to imagine that they hit him with the 'you know what, 18-20 minutes a night, two minutes on the power play, that's just not going to fly.

"That's not going to work for us going forward. And if that didn't work for him, he wouldn't have re-signed. I have to imagine that they presented their vision of how he fits into next year's plan, and he said, 'OK, I can do that.'

"He wants one more kick at the can, and if he looks at what this team has done over the past eight days… this is going to be his next, best maybe last opportunity to take one more swing at it."

This past season, Ovechkin led the Capitals with 32 goals and 64 points in 82 games. The problem was that it still wasn't enough to get Washington into a playoff spot.

Looking forward, you probably don't want Ovechkin leading the team offensively anymore. Not at this stage of his career. And not with all the other talent that Washington has at its disposal.

The Capitals now have Tuch, who scored 33 goals and 66 points, as well as Kyrou, who has scored 30 or more goals in three of the last four seasons. They also have a growing group of forwards who are ready to push Ovechkin down the depth chart.

Ovechkin averaged 17:27 this past season while mostly playing on the top line with Dylan Strome and Anthony Beauvillier. It was a combination that resulted in 108 even-strength points — 11 more than Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon had on his own — and a 53.06 shots-for percentage when the trio was on the ice, according to naturalstattrick.com.

But now that the team has Ovechkin, Aliaksei Protas and Ryan Leonard on the left side, with Tuch, Kyrou and Tom Wilson on the right side, there are a myriad of combinations that Washington could employ.

One of those combinations could have Ovechkin on a top line with Strome and Protas or on a second line with Tuch and Pierre-Luc Dubois. But at this stage of his career, a more sensible option could be to limit Ovechkin's minutes and usage, and have him on a third line with 19-year-old Ilya Protas and the 21-year-old Leonard.

In doing so, the Capitals would have a more balanced offense, while also employing a big and physical unit that could make life miserable for opposing teams. The only question is whether Ovechkin would be happy to do it.

Again, bringing back Ovechkin was the easy part. Convincing him to take a back-seat role is where things get tricky.

But if he truly wants to win a second Stanley Cup and go out on a high note, then limiting his minutes might be the best thing for him and the Capitals.

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