Alex Ovechkin made the decision to return to the Washington Capitals for a 22nd season on July 1, clearly pleased with the offseason moves the team made.
“When you look at our roster, it’s—how I say it—it’s Stanley Cup contender,” he texted general manager Chris Patrick while vacationing in Turkey, per Barry Svrluga of The Athletic, an indication he wanted at least one more year with the Capitals.
There were some concerns over whether the Capitals could afford to pay him market value, however.
“As we were leaving, the guys were like, ‘Good luck, Chris. I’ll be thinking of you,'” Patrick said. “I was concerned if we go and pay a guy like Alex Tuch $10.5 million per year, does [Ovechkin] say, ‘Well, you’re paying him that, so you gotta pay me something like that’? I was anxious about that call.”
Instead, he said the negotiations took about 10 minutes, with Ovechkin signing a one-year, $4.2 million deal that should ultimately pay him around $9 million with performance bonuses factored in.
It may be quite the bargain for Washington, who not only get a club legend back but a player who just scored 32 goals and 32 assists at the age of 40. At some point Ovi will retire, but he didn’t look anything like a player who needed to call it quits last year.
