ARLINGTON, Va. — Last season, Alex Ovechkin passed Wayne Gretzky to become the greatest goal scorer in NHL history. A few weeks ago during training camp, he reached another historic milestone: The Washington Capitals captain turned 40.

“Nothing’s changed. Just a different number,” Ovechkin said.

Someone asked Tom Wilson if his linemate had informed him about what 40 feels like.

“I told them that I didn’t need to ask, because I will not be playing hockey when I’m 40,” Wilson said with a laugh. “It’s so impressive. I’m 31 and it’s hard. [Hockey] takes a toll on the body. We all just play as long as we can. I don’t think anybody in that room will be talking about playing when they’re 40, let alone scoring 44 goals and having a broken leg and all that stuff last year. He’s a machine.”

Ovechkin entered the 2025-26 season with 897 career goals, having surpassed Gretzky’s mark of 894 goals. He scored 44 goals in 65 games last season, sitting out 16 games after breaking his left fibula in a Nov. 18 game against the Utah Hockey Club.

“He’s the GOAT. He’s still flying out there. It’s so pretty darn impressive,” Wilson said. “He can just keep playing and scoring. His mentality and his physical perseverance to just keep going and do what he’s doing is … I mean, there’s really no words to describe it.”

Here’s one word to possibly describe it: unexpected.

Ovechkin finished the 2023-24 season with a whimper that had many wondering if his tank had hit empty. He didn’t register a point when the Capitals were swept by the New York Rangers in the opening round of the playoffs, going without a shot on goal in two of the games.

But Ovechkin answered that uncertainty by expediting his record chase and passing Gretzky on April 6 at the New York Islanders. In the process, he fueled a 111-point Washington season — a 20-point improvement over 2023-24 — that saw the Capitals advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since winning the Stanley Cup in 2018.

“The goal chase last year energized our team. It helped us get through the dog days a bit. It was such a cool moment for the whole organization,” Capitals GM Chris Patrick said. “But I think Alex has always been team first. I think the way he’s handling this season just shows that he’s a team-first guy.”

FROM THE MOMENT Ovechkin arrived at Capitals training camp, there was speculation about this season being his last. He’s in the final year of a five-year contract extension he signed in July 2021. He broke Gretzky’s record. He hit the big 4-0. But Ovechkin was noncommittal about his future before the season.

“I don’t know if this is going to be the last. We’ll see,” he said at training camp.

Then, asked again on the eve of the Capitals’ first game: “I don’t know. I take it day by day, you know? You have to have fun. Enjoy yourself. Do the best that you can.”

Ovechkin hasn’t made up his mind. The Capitals say they don’t know which waywhere he’s leaning. They’re happy to give him the time he needs to figure it out.

“I want him to have the space. To have this season go how he wants it to go,” Patrick said. “If he wants to talk, we’ll talk. If not, we’ll figure it out later.”

Ovechkin deferred to Patrick when asked if there was a deadline of sorts this season in which he’d have to inform the Capitals about his future. “I don’t know. You should talk to him, not me. This is the time of the year when you just have to get ready emotionally and get ready physically. We’ll see how it goes,” he said.

Undoubtedly, a preseason announcement about this being Ovechkin’s retirement tour would have put the focus on him rather than his teammates for a second straight season.

“Definitely. It would bring that element to arenas, especially in the Western Conference where it would be the last time he ever goes into those arenas,” coach Spencer Carbery said.

Ovechkin said he welcomes a season without something like the Gretzky goals record chase overshadowing everything else. “You just get tired to hear, ‘When it’s going to happen, how you’re going to do it?'” he said. “Right now, we just focusing on the different things.”

One reason Ovechkin might stick around beyond this season is the Capitals’ resurgence. When he re-signed with Washington in 2021, it was with the understanding that the team wouldn’t go into a rebuild with him on the roster. Surrounding him with talent would keep him happy and support his pursuit of Gretzky’s record.

The retool around Ovechkin has produced two straight trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs and a Metropolitan Division title last season. It has been combination of solid prospect development and bold bets on trades and signings by management — hastened by the cap flexibility afforded the team as veteran Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie saw their NHL careers end — that were widely successful, such as the trades for forward Pierre-Luc Dubois, defenseman Jakob Chychrun and goalie Logan Thompson.

Under Carbery, who was hired two seasons ago, the Capitals haven’t just avoided a rebuild in Ovechkn’s twilight years. They’re a legitimate contender.

“We’ve created a standard now where we’re a team that’s expected to do well. We’ve got to make sure when teams come into our rink, we keep that expectation that it’s going to be hard playing the Capitals,” Wilson said.

Ovechkin says he appreciates that culture, and the fact that management brought back almost everyone from last season’s team.

“Yeah, I mean you go to locker room and you see the guy who was next to you from last year,” he said. “We have some additions, but they understand the culture. They understand where they’re at. I think it’s pretty good.”

Carbery says he believes it’s that joy Ovechkin feels with his teammates and playing the game that has kept him going.

“I think he loves the game. He loves to come to the rink, he loves to be around his buddies. He loves to go out and compete and try to win. I don’t think that’ll change one bit,” the coach said. “Even though he’s passed Wayne and now has the all-time goal record, I think he’ll be as hungry as ever to get to 900 and then 910 and try to help our team win games.”

CARBERY TALKS TO OVECHKIN every day.

“I won’t be, ‘Hey, do you feel good enough to play next year?’ I have a lot of conversations with him. Part of it is about him and part of it is that he’s the captain. I want to get a sense of what we need as a group. But I also check in on how he’s feeling as well,” he said. “A lot of [his decision] will have to do with how the year goes. At his age, coming back from an injury in training camp. He wants to see how he feels, mentally and physically, going through the grind. See where he’s at.”

Ovechkin’s primary motivation on the ice is bringing a second Stanley Cup championship to Washington. But as Carbery mentioned, Ovechkin still has personal milestones to hit too.

Ovechkin entered this season trailing Gretzky by 42 for the most goals scored between the regular season and Stanley Cup playoffs combined in NHL history. Gretzky has 1,016, and Ovechkin’s combined 49 goals last season gave him 974 for his career.

Ovechkin will also have a chance to set a record for most goals scored by a 40-year-old player. Gordie Howe holds that mark with 44 in the 1968-69 season. From a personal standpoint, Ovechkin is just a handful of games away from 1,500 in his career, a benchmark only 22 players in NHL history have reached.

“He’s got a couple milestones I think coming up right away and it’ll be fun to see him hit those,” Patrick said. “I’m just at a point where every time I see him play, I’m just appreciating it, because he’s 40 years old. We’re not going to have this forever. To get to witness it every night is a treat.”

Defenseman John Carlson, who also doesn’t have a contract beyond this season, said it’s been “a hell of a ride” with Ovechkin, whether or not this is his final season.

“I’m not going to get too nostalgic too early here. But, yeah, it’s been really cool to play with one of the game’s greats, and now the leading goal scorer of all time,” Carlson said. “Those are insane things that you can reflect on. Pretty special times.”

Carlson has been Ovechkin’s teammate since 2009-10. Wilson has played with him since 2013-14. Neither player has given much thought to this being their captain’s last season in the NHL.

“Not really, to be honest. I think he’s one of those guys where it doesn’t really matter. If he’s playing well and he wants to scoring goals and he wants to stick around, I’m sure they’ll figure a way to keep him around,” he said. “If he doesn’t want to play another year, then he won’t play another year.”

Perhaps Ovechkin will take inspiration with how Gretzky retired from the NHL. He also didn’t want a retirement tour. News about 1998-99 being his final season didn’t leak until very late in the season, creating hysteria around the Rangers’ April 15, 1999, game at the Ottawa Senators as Gretzky’s last stop in Canada. He would formally announce his retirement the next day in New York. Wilson understands that, in an instant, Ovechkin could also call it a career.

“No one will really think about him not being around here until it smacks us all in the face,” Wilson said. “He’s just a Capital. He comes to the rink every day and leads this group. He’s going to do that until he is done. We won’t really focus too much on that. It’s just so fun having him around.”

And so the Capitals wait as Ovechkin ponders whether if this is the season that the Russian Machine powers down.

“We respect Alex so much and everything he’s done for this organization. So when the time comes for him to make his decision on his future, he will,” Carbery said. “We don’t know what the future holds. He’s left it open. Certainly as an organization, we’re like, ‘Heck yeah, as many more years as you possibly can play.'”