{"id":189173,"date":"2025-08-31T10:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T10:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/189173\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T10:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T10:23:13","slug":"alex-ovechkin-isnt-pondering-his-retirement-yet-i-understand-that-hockey-is-not-forever-but-im-not-thinking-about-it-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/189173\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Ovechkin isn\u2019t pondering his retirement yet: \u2018I understand that hockey is not forever but I\u2019m not thinking about it now\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everything\u00a0Alex Ovechkin<\/strong> does during the 2025-26 NHL season could be the last of his illustrious career in North America, but the Washington Capitals captain told Russian magazine \u201cPsychologies\u201d he\u2019s not dwelling on the potential finality of the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that hockey is not forever but I\u2019m not thinking about it now,\u201d he said in an interview published Friday, via a Google Translation of Peterburg2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whenever he does decide to hang up his skates, which Ovechkin has publicly stated he\u2019ll consider after the upcoming season<\/a>, he plans to return to Moscow to open a sports academy and memorabilia museum. He told \u201cPsychologies\u201d his post-playing goal is to give back to the youth of his home country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to pass on my experience to young people and inspire them to play sports,\u201d Ovechkin said.<\/p>\n

The soon-to-be 40 year old has already gotten a head start on influencing the next generation, literally, by teaching his two sons everything he knows about hockey. Though he noted if either of Sergei, 7, and Ilya, 5, decide the sport he dedicated his life to isn\u2019t for them, he and his wife Nastya will let them choose their own paths.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is that they have their own desire,\u201d Ovechkin said. \u201cIf they want to [play hockey], they will do it, if not, no one will insist.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Sergei seems well on his way to following in his dad\u2019s footsteps. He\u2019s demonstrated his early on-ice skills on multiple occasions from scoring at the 2023 NHL All-Star Game Breakaway Challenge<\/a> (assisted by Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby no less) to netting four goals this summer during the Ovi Cup gala match.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ovechkin is officially the NHL\u2019s all-time greatest goal scorer, passing Wayne Gretzky for that title in April<\/a>. He\u2019ll be entering his 21st season with still multiple other milestones within reach. Ovechkin completed the 2024-25 campaign with 897 career goals, leaving him just three shy of becoming the first player in league history to score 900. He also needs just nine games to become the 23rd player in NHL history to play in 1,500 career games<\/a> and 19 points to pass Joe Sakic for 10th-most all-time (1,641)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe defies logic and Father Time and everything else,\u201d Capitals general manager Chris Patrick said in an interview earlier in August<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s got [a] couple more milestones right off the hop here early in the season that are within reach, so I\u2019m sure those are in the back of his mind, and it will be fun to see when he hits those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin is expected to return to the United States from Russia in early September for training camp ahead of his final season under contract with the Capitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is fine, we are preparing with a positive attitude and a good mood,\u201d Ovechkin said earlier this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everything\u00a0Alex Ovechkin does during the 2025-26 NHL season could be the last of his illustrious career in North…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":189174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-189173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115122890988009994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}