Alex Ovechkin enters final NHL season, St-Louis and Canadiens pay tribute

Alexander Ovechkin has told his Washington Capitals teammates that the upcoming campaign, his 22nd in the NHL, will be his last. The news that the league’s most prolific goal scorer is winding down his career quickly travelled through dressing rooms across the NHL, including that of the Montreal Canadiens in Brossard.

Ovechkin has amassed 929 goals in 1575 regular-season games, a total that ensures he will retire as the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer once he steps away. For Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis, who faced him repeatedly during his playing days, the announcement brought back memories of years spent trying to contain the Capitals captain.

St-Louis reflects on long-running battles with Ovechkin

Over the course of their careers, St-Louis and Ovechkin met 55 times in the regular season and 11 times in the playoffs. The Russian winger dominated the head-to-head numbers in the regular season with 73 points, including 37 goals, and 33 wins, but St-Louis ultimately held the edge in the spring, winning both playoff series against the Capitals.

St-Louis first helped the Tampa Bay Lightning sweep Washington in four games in the second round of the 2011 playoffs, at a time when the Capitals were still searching for post-season success to match their strong regular seasons. He then met Ovechkin again in 2015 while with the New York Rangers, closing out his own NHL career by winning a tight second-round series in seven games.

Now behind the bench in Montreal, St-Louis views Ovechkin’s body of work with the perspective of a former opponent and current coach. He praised not only Ovechkin’s elite finishing ability, but also the physical edge and passion he brought to every shift, noting that defenders always had to be aware of where he was on the ice. St-Louis described his career as "extraordinary" and tipped his cap to a rival who could change games in multiple ways.

Recent memories for Hutson, Carrier and a family connection

While St-Louis’s on-ice duels with Ovechkin are now more than a decade in the past, some current Canadiens players have encountered him much more recently. Defencemen Lane Hutson and Alexandre Carrier have both had to protect their zone against him, most notably during the first round of the 2025 playoffs.

That spring, Ovechkin and the Capitals, Stanley Cup champions in 2018, eliminated Montreal in five games, cutting short the Canadiens’ run as the organization moved through a rebuilding phase. For Hutson and Carrier, the series underscored how dangerous Ovechkin remains every time the puck finds his stick.

Both blueliners point first to his goal-scoring instincts, but they also emphasize that his impact extends beyond raw numbers. They speak of the aura Ovechkin carries, both in the room and on the ice, and how that presence shapes a game. Hutson, who has already faced him several times early in his NHL career, is also pleased that his brother Cole, who joined the Capitals late last season, now has a chance to experience first-hand what Ovechkin means to that organization.

As Ovechkin embarks on his final tour around the league, tributes are expected to multiply in every building he visits. In Brossard, the Canadiens have already added their voices, recognizing a career that those who faced him closely consider out of the ordinary.