NHL: The best captain in each team’s history (Updated 2023)

Best NHL captain from each franchise: Washington Capitals – Alex Ovechkin

There is a reason why hockey fans call left winger Alex Ovechkin The Great Eight. A human scoring machine, Ovechkin started his journey back in 2005 when he debuted with the Washington Capitals as a red-hot rookie with surreal speed, shooting skills, and the ability to score at will. He dropped 52 goals with 54 assists that year and led all other rookies in points as well. At the time this was unheard of as the hockey world definitely started to take notice.

It was at that moment that the Capitals knew they had a player with the words “future star captain” written all over him if he continued at such a pace. Ovechkin became captain back in 2010 and for over a decade, has done so much to prove why he’ll go down as one of the best in franchise and even NHL history.

As captain, Ovechkin has won so many awards, it will be quite the long list once he eventually calls it quits. He’s won everything from the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy to the Art Ross Trophy while proving time and time again that whenever he’s on the ice, he can score quickly and easily whenever his Capitals need it.

Winning the Stanley Cup for his Capitals back in 2018 proved that he would silence the naysayers that he’d never win a championship which has only further cemented his legacy. Ovechkin is always dangerous anytime he’s been in the Stanley Cup playoffs and even as he’s in his mid-30s, is proving that age is just a number. He’s playing as well as he ever was and is only getting better with time leading his Capitals into being serious contenders every year.