Will teams give Alex Ovechkin retirement gifts?
The 2026-27 NHL season will be the last one that Washington Capitals winger Alex Ovechkin plays in the NHL.
The NHL’s all-time leading goalscorer made that official with an announcement earlier this week, and now a big question looming over his final NHL season is whether or not he will join the likes of Derek Jeter and Kobe Bryant to be showered with gifts from opposing teams as he embarks on a retirement tour for the rest of the year.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, host Tyler Yaremchuk was joined by the host of The Sheet, Jeff Marek, to discuss whether or not Ovechkin will get the true Jeter-style retirement tour and send-off.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Last one I wanted to touch on with you before we let you go: Obviously Alex Ovechkin announced last week that this is going to be his final season. So we’re going to get the retirement tour, and I have no problem with Ovi getting a retirement tour because he is a Mt. Rushmore goalscorer, the greatest of all time. Do you think we’re going to get the whole thing where everyone gives him a gift at every turn? Is he going to go to Calgary and get a pair of cowboy boots?
Jeff Marek: [Laughs]. I’m trying to draw a historical reference, like when have we seen this before. Gretzky held it to the end. Denis Potvin with the Islanders. Potvin got that when he did his last season, and then interestingly enough, the Rangers tried to bring him out of retirement for their Stanley Cup run. He got the whole before every game, the bouquet of flowers at center ice. I don’t think that Ovechkin wants that. To be honest with you, Tyler, I think teams are going to do what other teams do. Now, Washington has, I want to say like seven of their next eight or eight of their next nine at home. So we’re not really going to get an answer for this for a while… I think their next road game is against Carolina. So I wonder if other teams are going to take the lead that Carolina does. If Carolina does something big and over-the-top as a thank you and congratulations, then I think other teams will follow, right? The minute one team does something above and beyond, then the other teams have to because they don’t want to be seen as being classless.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…
