Alex Ovechkin will miss the next 4-to-6 weeks with a fractured left fibula, the Washington Capitals announced on Thursday.
The Capitals captain and current NHL leading goal scorer suffered the injury during Monday night’s win over the Utah Hockey Club. Ovechkin had a leg-to-leg collision with Utah forward Jack McBain and fell to the ice immediately. He tested the leg out with a brief skate minutes later, but later exited the game and did not return.
The Capitals, who are second in the Eastern Conference with 28 points, will be without Ovechkin for the longest period of his career since he entered the NHL in 2005-06. The 39-year-old has only missed 35 games due to injury and other absences were due to suspensions and being in Covid protocol.
Ovechkin’s previous longest stretch of missing games was six due to an upper-body injury in Nov. 2009.
“Everyone’s bummed out,” said Capitals forward Tom Wilson, a teammate of Ovechkin’s since 2013. “We were sitting there saying: ‘This is weird. Like, it’s unbelievable that he’s actually hurt.’ It’s one of those things where like, he’s going to miss games? I’ve been around a long time, and it’s new to me.”
Ovechkin has had a red-hot start to the season and had scored five goals in his previous two games before the injury. His 15 goals this season puts him at 868 for his career, 26 behind the NHL record of 894 held by Wayne Gretzky.
Many had believed Ovechkin could catch The Great One sometime during the 2025-26 season, but his play early on was changing minds to believe the record could be broken this season.
Now Ovechkin’s pursuit for history will have to wait.