“To be honest with you, I haven’t thought about it yet. But we’ll see what’s going to happen. Obviously, I’m going to do my best to be able to do well next year and … we’ll see,” he said.

Ovechkin made history this season by passing Wayne Gretzky’s seemingly unbreakable record for goals during his career. He ended the season with 897 career goals, scoring 44 on the year. It’s an even more remarkable number when factoring in his lengthy time off the ice due to a leg injury.

He has never scored fewer than 31 goals in a full season – he scored 24 in the Covid-19-shortened 2020-21 season – and has scored more than 40 goals in 14 seasons. Ovechkin won the Stanley Cup with the Capitals in the 2017-2018 season.