Alex Ovechkin on Capitals struggles, trade deadline sell-off: Its a hard situation

June 28, 2024

LOS ANGELES — Alex Ovechkin’s clock is ticking.

He’ll be 38 prior to next season’s opener and, at the moment, the club he leads seems as far from competing for a championship as it has in recent memory.

The Washington Capitals captain told The Athletic that he’s frustrated with the team’s position in the standings but understands why Brian MacLellan decided to sell at the NHL’s trade deadline for the first time in his nine years at the helm.

The veteran general manager decided to break up the current roster after listless performances against Carolina in the Stadium Series on Feb. 18 and Detroit on Feb. 21 — the fourth and fifth losses inside of a season-defining 0-6-0 slump. In the days that followed, MacLellan explained to Ovechkin in a series of conversations the direction he was leaning and why.

On Feb 23, the sell-off began, with Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway getting shipped off to Boston.

“We all know it’s a business,” Ovechkin said. “But it’s a hard situation to lose friends and very good hockey players.”

In a span of six days, MacLellan dealt Orlov, Hathaway, Lars Eller, Marcus Johansson and Erik Gustafsson as a part of his retool-on-the-fly strategy. That was step one, flipping 30-something veterans on expiring contracts for younger players and draft picks to be dangled in trade discussions this summer.

Takeaways from #Caps GM Brian MacLellan’s post-deadline presser:
🏒Reasons for keeping TvR and Sheary
🏒The “tough” decision on Orlov and Hathaway
🏒Plans for prospect Ethen Frank
🏒Extending Jensen, NAK
🏒Carlson’s latest timeline
🏒Much more ⬇️: https://t.co/gjzttFvEWR

— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) March 4, 2023

Ovechkin didn’t want to get into the specifics of his meetings with MacLellan — he said the conversations will stay in MacLellan’s office — but he acknowledged he gained a much better grasp of the plan during their chats.

“I understand why it’s happening,” Ovechkin said. “The whole team understands why it’s happening.”

It’s happening because the playoff math has gotten extremely difficult for the Caps, who got off to another slow start and lost, 4-2, to the Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Monday night.

Washington remains tied with Buffalo, Ottawa and Florida with 68 points — three behind Pittsburgh for the second wild-card spot. Adding to the level of difficulty: The Caps have played more games than all of the aforementioned teams.

“We have to keep grinding,” Ovechkin said, “and we will see.”

After going 11-2-2 in December, the Caps went a combined 8-14-1 in January and February, the worst stretch in the league during that span. It wasn’t one thing that led to the downturn; it was a confluence of them, including but not limited to top-six forwards Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson returning from long-term injures, No. 1 defenseman John Carlson getting hurt and the secondary scoring that had buoyed them all but drying up.

“Obviously, it’s not how the team wants it or the fans want it,” Ovechkin said.

MacLellan hinted during an interview on “DC101” that the one-on-one conversations with Ovechkin were difficult but necessary.

“Ovi wants to win,” MacLellan said Monday on “Elliot in the Morning.” “He wants to be competitive. I don’t think he’s happy that Orlov and Hathaway went out. I just went over the reasons for doing what we did, and what we thought we were going to have to do.

“It’s important to communicate to him what we’re trying to accomplish. I don’t know that he’s happy about it. He’s more, ‘Let’s see what happens now.’”

Ovechkin agreed with MacLellan’s perception of how he digested the news.

“You always think, ‘OK, what’s the next step?’” he said. “Who’s going to be on the team? Who’s going to be traded? Who’s going to be signed?”

“But,” he added, “I’m not a GM.”

Don’t mistake Ovechkin’s comment for aloofness; he’s as dialed in as he’s ever been, people close to him said. With three seasons left on his contract after this one, he’s motivated by his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s goal record but, above all else, he’s driven by a desire to contend for a second Stanley Cup.

Ovechkin is also a big believer in the chain of command.

Unlike some superstars, Ovechkin mostly stays out of the Caps’ personnel decisions, unless his input is sought out. To him, general managers manage, coaches coach and players play.

It’s a stance that he reiterated Monday.

“I don’t know what they are going to do,” he said with a shrug. “First we’ll see how our season ends.”

Asked if he believes MacLellan’s plan is the right one to get the Caps back on track, Ovechkin said, “I hope so. I’m pretty sure Backy feels the same — Osh, Carly, Kuzy, Willy.

“It’s all about trust,” he added, “and what’s going to happen.”

The “what’s going to happen” is a reference to the offseason and, specifically, the free-agent and trade markets, both of which MacLellan intends to aggressively use to reshape the roster. The veteran GM figures to have cap space to add free agents. He also possesses 11 picks in Rounds 1-3 over the next three seasons, draft capital that he can use in trade discussions.

In the meantime, Ovechkin said his focus will be on the ice and helping the Caps do the improbable: earn a ninth consecutive playoff berth after auctioning off important pieces.

“We’re still in the playoffs mix,” he said, almost defiantly. “We’re still trying to make it, and you don’t know what’s going to happen. If you look at our lines, yeah, we lost key D, key forwards, but we picked up a couple of very solid players, too.

“We just have to try to win games and make the playoffs.”

As long as the Caps are still in the race, Ovechkin said he’s not going to expend much energy thinking about what could happen this summer.

And besides, that’s MacLellan’s domain.

His job, he cracked, is to remain a top goal scorer because it doesn’t get easier with age.

“The clock,” he said, “is always ticking.”

(Photo of Alex Ovechkin: Kiyoshi Mio / USA Today)

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