CNN
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As Alex Ovechkin closes in on what some considered one of the most unassailable records in NHL history – Wayne Gretzky’s 894 goals – let’s look back at how the wondrous winger ended up in the National Hockey League.
First, we have to look at his birthday.
Ovechkin was born on September 17, 1985, two days past the deadline to be eligible for the 2003 draft. How coveted was the then 17-year-old Moscow Dynamo forward? Coveted enough that the Florida Panthers tried picking him several times in the latter rounds of that draft, a year before he was eligible, claiming that – when Leap Years were factored in – Ovechkin was old enough to be drafted in ’03.
Yeah, it didn’t work. But it made for some great stories among team executives and scouts lined up at the Nashville Airport at the end of that year’s draft. You can’t blame then-GM Rick Dudley and the Florida Panthers for trying, and you certainly can’t question their assessment of the young Russian’s talent.
So, with NHL draft rules intact, it would be 2004 that Ovechkin would be drafted as the first overall pick by the Washington Capitals.
And it all started with a phone call.
The NHL draft hadn’t yet become a nationally televised event, so that’s how then Capitals general manager (and now Vegas Golden Knights president of hockey operations) George McPhee learned Washington won the 2004 NHL draft lottery, despite having only the 3rd-best odds.
In the next few weeks, conversations in the Caps’ offices centered around a pair of Russian-born players who would become two of the most talented forwards ever to skate in the NHL: winger Alex Ovechkin and center Evgeny Malkin. The choice, of course, was Ovechkin, whose blend of goalscoring skill, skating ability, physicality, unyielding compete level, and exuberance revitalized the franchise and interest among fans in DC.
But it wasn’t all smooth skating for the Capitals-Ovechkin era – at least not at the beginning.
Actually, there was no beginning, at least not in the year the Moscow-born winger was drafted. The NHL went dark for the entire 2004-05 season because of a labor dispute, so the then-19-year-old stayed in Russia and played a fourth season with Moscow Dynamo. Caps fans would have to be patient. And management would have to be fast.
I’ve known George McPhee for more than 20 years, and he once told me the story of how little time the Capitals had to secure Ovechkin when the NHL lockout ended in 2005: three days. And not only was time a factor for McPhee and his staff, but they also had to deal with the reluctance of Ovechkin’s parents, who preferred that their young son stay in Russia.
But it was Ovechkin’s desire to ply his craft in the NHL that won out, and in August 2005, he arrived in DC, first checking into a hotel, but then moving in with McPhee and his family for the first few weeks of his Capitals career. The Ovechkin era, finally, had begun.
He was worth the wait. Then 20, he scored 52 goals in his first season and won the Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year. Who finished second in the Calder voting that year? A kid from Nova Scotia by the name of Sidney Crosby, ironically the longtime teammate of one Evgeny Malkin.
Fast forward 20 seasons, and the kid who once told his GM McPhee, “The Russian machine never breaks,” is on the verge of breaking surely one of the most iconic marks in NHL history. The “Gr8” is on the cusp of surpassing the Great One.
Along the way, he has amassed nine seasons of 50+ goals, including a career-high 65 in 2007-08, been named an All-Star 12 times, league MVP three times, and in 2017 was honored as one of the best 100 NHL players of all time. A year later, he joyously lifted the Stanley Cup for the first time as his Capitals dispatched the incredibly successful expansion Golden Knights in five games. Vegas’ general manager in that memorable inaugural season was none other than McPhee.
When it’s all said and done – however many more goals from now – and they inevitably erect a statue in his honor in DC, surely the depiction of Ovechkin will be in the famed pose when he camps at the top of the left circle on a Caps power play, figuratively calling for the pass and primed for a one-time blast past an imaginary and helpless keeper.
McPhee happily witnessed an abundance of those goals for real and in real time, and years into Ovechkin’s Capitals career, I asked McPhee what stood out most for him in watching his Russian superstar on such a regular basis.
He said Ovechkin “makes scoring look easy” and quickly added: “It’s not.” He also said Ovi was “one of the greatest things to ever happen to the NHL.”
And when Ovechkin finally skates away, what would McPhee say to the dynamic Russian about that fateful draft day in June 2004?
He deadpanned: “It was a very good pick.”