How The Capitals Can Prepare For Life Without Alex Ovechkin

Nothing lasts forever. Not even the greatest goal-scorer of all time.

At age 41, Alex Ovechkin has officially announced that the 2026-27 season will be the final one of his career.

While his pending retirement will take center stage as the biggest storyline for the Washington Capitals this season, if they want to make the Stanley Cup playoffs next spring — and beyond — they need to start preparing for a world where he's no longer the active face of the franchise.

The good news is that there's some evidence they already started working on this plan last season. Coach Spencer Carbery gave Ovechkin only six starts in the defensive zone at 5-on-5 all of 2025-26, and none until the Capitals' 73rd game of the season (March 26 at Utah).

They also throttled back his time on ice significantly over the last two seasons, dropping from 19:13 to just 17:27, of which more than a quarter was on the power play. They also went out and acquired a couple of pure goal-scorers this summer in Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou to pick up the slack if Ovechkin's scoring rate continues to dip.

But there's more they can do to prepare for life without Ovechkin. Let's take a look at a few examples.

Despite playing only a little more than 17 minutes per game, Ovechkin led the Capitals in shots on goal (244), about 10 percent ahead of the next-closest guy (Jakob Chychrun's 221).

The problem is that 244 is the lowest total of Ovechkin's career for a full season by a decent margin, and you can't really ask him to do much more than he just did.

But because they went out and got Tuch and Kyrou, and also have developing young players like Aliaksei Protas or Ryan Leonard, the options for guys who can put the puck on goal — and in the net — are expanding in a way they haven't for the Capitals in decades.

Last season wasn't the first time the Capitals have had a weirdly ineffective power play, given the personnel, but the problem was a little more glaring than usual.

At 17.8 percent, the Caps' power play ranked 25th in the league, in part because either Ovechkin or a defenseman took more than half of all their shot attempts when up a man last season.

You can certainly say some of the problem was that Ovechkin had a suspiciously low PP shooting percentage (under 6 percent) but also if he's not scoring, and you feel like the next-best option is a guy who is typically farther away from the net, that's a problem.

Someone else has to be the trigger man, if for no other reason than to give opposing defenses something to think about besides Ovechkin or Chychrun.

The other big problem for Ovechkin is that, at 41, even playing roughly 17 minutes might be too much at this point. Clearly head coach Spencer Carbery thinks so too, as Ovechkin has averaged just 13:10 through the first two games of the season.

He's just not coming over the boards as much as you need a legit No. 2 left wing to play, and while Protas got more TOI per game last season, even that's not necessarily enough cushion. Maybe they also need to trade for another player on that side who can slot into the lineup ahead of him when you need a matchup to go your way.

Unless they're playing Kyrou or Tuch on their off wings, they just don't have another guy like that, with all due respect to Anthony Beauvillier. Not for nothing, but both Patrik Laine and Michael Bunting are natural left wings who, as of this writing, still don't have deals with the season underway.

None of this is to say Ovechkin, who scored 30 again last year, will fail to be a productive offensive player in his final season. But Father Time is catching up with him, and even if he's got another 30 up his sleeve at age 41, the Capitals have to start planning for a future without him.

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