Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin said he will wait until this summer to determine his NHL future, as the five-year, $47.5 million contract he signed in July 2021 expires at the end of the season. Ovechkin, 40, is playing in his 21st NHL season and his 20th scoring at least 30 goals.

"I still have game. I still have passion," Ovechkin said. "You just enjoy it because you never know when you're going to get hurt—or when you're going to be retired."

Ovechkin has surpassed Wayne Gretzky to become the NHL's all-time goal-scoring leader and has missed less than 5% of his 1,570 career games due to injury. He scored seven goals over seven games in late March.

Capitals coach Spencer Carbery described what he has observed from Ovechkin during that stretch. "You've noticed an uptick in his game. The thing that I watch for is the physicality. He's getting way more involved, two or three big hits a game where he's running through people and he's scoring a little bit, this is kind of his time of the year where he feels like, 'All right, it's playoff time,'" Carbery said. He added: "If O scores, we're winning this hockey game."

Carbery also pointed to Ovechkin's conditioning habits away from the ice. "There's a few stories of late night, and we're wrapping up work as coaches, and then all of a sudden, the music will start blaring in the weight room," he said. "It will be Ovi in there with three other Russian guys, and they're doing power lifting."

Longtime teammate Tom Wilson described Ovechkin's drive on the ice. "When he scores one, he wants another one. When he scores two, he wants three," Wilson said. "When he skates on the ice, you hear him coming. And when you see him squat, his numbers are through the roof. He's strong as an ox."