Nominal vs present value
Local display: $18.3m · Rebased to 2024 USD via US CPI-U
How the total breaks down
Washington Capitals salary. Average annual value of a 13-year, $124m contract that was the richest in NHL history when signed in 2008.
Endorsements. CCM, Gatorade and Bauer deals built around his goal-scoring highlight reel and Russian-market appeal.
Impact 89
- Signed the richest contract in NHL history at the time, a 13-year, $124m deal
- Built one of hockey's largest international endorsement followings outside North America
- Sustained elite scoring output long enough to eventually break Gretzky's all-time goals record
Ovechkin's 2008 Capitals extension reset the NHL's contract-length and total-value benchmarks, part of a wave of long, front-loaded deals teams used to lock in franchise players under the cap. His continued dominance deep into his 30s, culminating in surpassing Gretzky's career goals record, retroactively made the contract look like one of the best value deals in modern NHL history.
Ovechkin's 13-year, $124 million extension with Washington, signed in 2008, was the richest contract in NHL history at the time, and by 2009 his total earnings — salary plus a CCM and Gatorade-anchored endorsement portfolio with real reach into the Russian market — reached roughly $12.5 million. The deal became one of the cap era's most consequential long-term bets, one Ovechkin was still repaying with elite production more than a decade later.