Ovechkin, Capitals agree to 13-year, $124 million contract extension

Necro

VIP Room Moderator

WASHINGTON -- Alexander Ovechkin agreed to a $124 million, 13-year contract extension Thursday with the Washington Capitals, working out the details himself in negotiations with owner Ted Leonsis and general manager George McPhee.

The Capitals scheduled a news conference for 8:30 p.m. to officially announce the deal.

The 22-year-old Russian star was in the final season of a three-year, entry-level deal. His salary-cap number for this season, taking into account bonuses, is $3.83 million.

If he had become a free agent at the end of the season, the Capitals would have had the right to match any offer from another team. Leonsis long maintained he intended to make sure Ovechkin remained with the Capitals.

Ovechkin has led the Capitals in scoring in each of his seasons. He entered Thursday tied for second in the NHL with 32 goals, helping Washington surge from the league's worst record to the fringe of playoff race. He also had 20 assists.

The winger had 52 goals and 54 assists in 2005-06, when he edged Pittsburgh forward Sidney Crosby in the voting for the Calder Trophy as the league's top rookie. Ovechkin followed that up with 46 goals and 46 assists last season.

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Not bad. Around $13M/year for one of the best players in the NHL whom happens to be 22-years old.

Freak

It's actually a little under $10M/year, if you're any good at arithmetic.

Kidding. Reactions to the deal have been mixed: on one hand, if you're the Capitals you're basically gambling that Ovechkin remains amongst the NHL's elite for the next 13 years, which is a hard thing to do (though AO is about as sure a bet as there is); on the other, the cap will likely continue to go up for a while, and in Ovechkin's late 20s, when he's in his prime making 10 million per year, that could look like a bargain.

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Agreed. Uh.. yeah, I don't know where I came up with that number.

Spinoff360

Very close to what is currently the max salary and expected. Feel sorry for him being stuck in Washington for all those years and feel sorry for Washington that he wasn't willing to take less like Crosby to try and build a team around him.

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Freak

Keep in mind he sacrificed a lot more than Crosby in terms of Unrestricted Free Agent years. Crosby's new deal only eats into ONE of his UFA years, and then he's on the open market (if he doesn't resign again before then); Ovechkin won't get to be a UFA until he's 35 years old.

Twist of Lemon

MMA Moderator

Gay, >.>

Its good to see Ovechkin getting paid hes probably one of the reason I still watch hockey now with Teemu being gone and Paul Kayria playing for St.Louis. I still would have liked to see him shop around and try and land on a good team where he can have a #2 player like Malkin is to Crosby.

Anti-Cena

I don't understand this at all. People in Washington have told me they are a little worried now that since Ovechkin has signed this big of a deal, that it will be difficult for the Capitals to re-sign players and build a good team come the end of the season.

The way I see it is, is that it's only one player that makes this ammount of money. It's not the like Tampa Bay where you have Lecalvier, St. Louis, and Richards making all in the 6 million range. The Capitals have approximately 40 million left to work with. Which isn't bad in my opinion.

The Rickareal

DAMN!!!!!! 13 YEARS!!!!!!!! NOT EVEN A-ROD COULD GET THAT MANY YEARS AT ONE TIME!!!!!