Alex Ovechkin — hockey (nhl) with roots in the USSR
Alexander Mikhailovich Ovechkin was born in Moscow on 17 September 1985, the youngest son of two Soviet athletes. His mother, Tatiana Ovechkina, was the playmaker of the Soviet women's basketball team that won Olympic gold in 1976 and 1980 and the world title in 1975; his father, Mikhail, was a footballer. He has two older brothers. He grew up on the outskirts of Moscow, attended School No. 596 and entered the Dynamo Moscow sports school, where at eleven he broke a club youth record by scoring 56 goals in a season.
At sixteen, in 2001, he made his debut for Dynamo Moscow in the Russian Superleague, and at seventeen he led Russia to the world junior championship. Chosen first overall by the Washington Capitals in the 2004 NHL Draft, he stayed in Moscow for one more season because of the NHL lockout and helped Dynamo win the Russian Superleague title. His first NHL season, 2005–06, brought 52 goals, 106 points and the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year.
Over the next two decades, all of them with Washington, he became the most prolific goal scorer in the history of the league. He won the Maurice Richard Trophy as top goal scorer a record nine times, the Hart Trophy as most valuable player in 2008, 2009 and 2013, and the Art Ross Trophy in 2008. As captain he led the Capitals to their first Stanley Cup in 2018, leading the playoffs with fifteen goals and receiving the Conn Smythe Trophy. He represented Russia at the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics and won the 2008 world championship with the national team.
On 6 April 2025 he scored his 895th goal, passing Wayne Gretzky's record of 894, which had stood since 1999. He also holds NHL records for power-play goals, game-winning goals, overtime goals, empty-net goals and 30- and 40-goal seasons. After a 2025–26 season in which, at forty, he led the Capitals with 32 goals, he signed a one-year contract in July 2026 and on 5 October 2026, entering his twenty-second season with 929 goals, announced that 2026–27 would be his last in the NHL.
"Drafted by the Capitals in 2004, he stayed with Dynamo Moscow for the 2004–05 season because of the NHL lockout and signed with Washington on 5 August 2005."
Migration storyTracing the roots — Moscow (Russia)
Born in Moscow in 1985, the son of the footballer Mikhail Ovechkin and Tatiana Ovechkina, twice Olympic basketball champion for the USSR, he came through the Dynamo Moscow system and played for Dynamo before joining the Washington Capitals in 2005.
Moscow (Russia). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.
A career defined by ambition
""I am Russian. I will always be Russian. It's my blood, my heart.""