Alex Ovechkin: A jumping trick could have changed the hockey history, because captain of the capitals closes on Wayne Gretzkys inaccessible goal record

CNN
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While Alex Ovechkin is in which some people have considered one of the most indisputable records in NHL history Wayne Gretzkys 894 goals have considered, let's look back on how the wonderful wing player 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 design. How coveted was the then 17-year-old Moscow Dynamo Vooruit? Enough coveted that the Florida Panthers tried to pick him several times in the final rounds of that design, a year for He was eligible and claimed that when jumping years were processed in Ovechkin, old enough was to be drawn up in 03.

Yes, it didn't work. But it provided a number of great stories among team managers and scouts drawn up at the Nashville Airport at the end of that year design. You cannot blame then-GM Rick Dudley and the Florida Panthers to try it, and you certainly cannot question their assessment of the talent of Young Russians.

So, with NHL Draft Intact, it would be 2004 that Oveechkin would be prepared as the first general choice of the Washington Capitals.

And it all started with a phone call.

The NHL concept had not yet become a national television event, so that is in any case head manager of the capitals (and now Vegas Golden Knights President of Hockey Operations) George McPhee heard that Washington won the NHL Lottery of 2004, even though he only had the 3rd best ODDS.

In the coming weeks, conversations in the CAPS offices concentrated around a few players born in Russia who would be two of the most talented attackers ever to skate in the NHL: Wing player Alex Ovechkin and Center Evgeny Malkin. The choice was of course Oveechkin, whose combination of goals in the goals, skating capacity, physicality, unyielding competitive level, and exuberance breathe new life into the franchise and interest among fans in DC.

But it was not all flexible skating for the Capitals-Invechkin era at least not in the beginning.

In fact, there was no beginning, at least not in the year that the wing player born in Moscow was drawn up. The NHL became dark throughout the 2004-05 season due to a labor dispute, so the then 19-year-old stayed in Russia and played a fourth season with Moscow Dynamo. Caps fans should be patient. And management should be fast.

I have been known for more than 20 years, George McPhee, and he once told me the story about how little time the capitals had to secure Oveechkin 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 restraint of Oveechkins parents, who preferred that their young son remained in Russia.

But it was Oveechkins who won his craft in the NHL who won, and in August 2005 he arrived in DC, first checked in a hotel, but then moving in at McPhee and his family for the first few weeks of his career in the capitals. The Oveechkin era had finally started.

He was worth the wait. Then 20, he scored 52 goals in his first season and won the Calder trophy like NHL Rookie of the year. Who finished second in the Calder who voted that year? A child from Nova Scotia with the name Sidney Crosby, ironically the old teammate of One Evgeny Malkin.

Quick Vooruit 20 seasons, and the boy who once told his GM McPhee, the Russian machine never breaks, is about to break one of the most iconic signs in the NHL history. The GR8 is about to surpass the big ones.

Along the way he collected nine seasons of 50+ goals, including a career-high 65 in 2007-08, three times an All-Star, League MVP, and was honored in 2017 as one of the best 100 NHL players of all time. A year later he lifted the Stanley Cup for the first time for the first time when his capitals sent the incredibly successful expansion Golden Knights in five games. Vegas General Manager in that memorable inaugural season was none other than McPhee.

When it all said and has done and has done many more goals and they inevitably set up a statue in honor of DC, the image of Oveechkin will certainly be in the famous pose when he camps at the top of the left circle on a Power Play of Caps, who calls figuratively for a one -off custodian.

Fortunately, McPhee witnessed an abundance of those goals for real and in real time, and for years in the career of Oveechkins Capitals, I asked McPhee which was most striking for his Russian superstar on such a regular basis.

He said that Oveechkin makes scoring easy and quickly added: it is not. He also said that OVI was one of the biggest things that had ever happened to the NHL.

And when Ovechkin finally skips away, what would McPhee say to the dynamic Russian about that fateful concept day in June 2004?

He deadpanned: it was a very good choice.