Saskatchewan native and Washington Capitals' assistant general manager Ross Mahoney helped the franchise select Alexander Ovechkin in the 2004 NHL Draft with the first overall pick. At the time, he was the director of amateur scouting for the Capitals.
"Did I know he would end up scoring as many goals as he did? No. If he had 500 or 550 that would've been really good," Mahoney told the SportsCage.
"That's probably the hardest thing to do in the National Hockey League is score goals and then he brought this physicality that I hadn't really seen. I've seen guys who could score and I've seen guys who can play physically but not guys who can score with the same kind of physicality."
Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's record for most career goals in NHL history on April 6 against the New York Islanders. The superstar helped Washington end the 2024-2025 regular season with 55 wins and 22 losses on the way to first in the Metropolitan Division.
"We've had a lot of things go right. We've got some really good goaltending. Logan Thompson came in and played exceptionally well for us. Some of the free agents and trades we made... picking up Matt Roy on defence, Pierre-Luc Dubois had a tremendous year, Brandon Duhaime gave us a lot of energy and physicality," Mahoney said.
"We've had a couple of young players step up for us. Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael have really taken another step and both ended up with about 55-60 points. That's without Protas playing on the power play. To be honest with you, it's a combination of all those things."
Mahoney shared a story from when the team won the Stanley Cup in 2018 which showcased Ovechkin's kind heart.
"We won the Stanley Cup in Vegas and celebrated on the ice, there's some celebrating in the dressing room, then there's a function after at the hotel and security is pretty tight," Mahoney recalled.
"I get in there, there's three or four homeless gentlemen, they're at our after party and they're having a bite to eat. It was Alex who brought them in, he saw them on the street and it really bothered him to see where they were. He does little things like that people don't even know about."
Mahoney is optimistic about the Capitals' future when Ovechkin eventually retires. He believes players like Ryan Leonard, Ilya Protas and Andrew Cristall are the team's future.
"He's turned 40 years old and he has another year left on his contract after that," Mahoney said. "The cupboard isn't bare, we've got some players coming in and we must be patient with them. In time, I think we've got some players that will be able to replace the goal-scoring, not an individual more by committee -- that's a lot of goals to replace."
