Leonsis laments deal with Ovechkin
‘My regret is that it wasn’t a 15-year contract,’ says Capitals owner, who inked star to lucrative pact
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After that January day a decade ago, one of the more memorable phone calls Ted Leonsis received was from then NBA commissioner David Stern.
“Boy, you are going to live to regret this,” Leonsis recalled Stern saying. “‘I thought you were a smart guy and that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals, had just signed superstar winger Alex Ovechkin to a 13year, $124-million extension, a deal that wouldn’t even be possible in today’s NHL because the collective bargaining agreement doesn’t allow contracts longer than eight years.
Stern asked Leonsis how Ovechkin would stay motivated with that kind of security. Leonsis said he had faith in the franchise-changing player Washington drafted first overall in 2004.
“Time will tell,” Leonsis told Stern. Ten years later, with a 32-year-old Ovechkin having played his 1,000th NHL game Sunday in Pittsburgh, he was once again leading the league in goals with 45 before facing the Penguins. He was the Capitals’ top scorer with 83 points, poised for his most productive season since 200910, when he was 25. Since his arrival, Washington’s downtown arena has gone from mostly empty to consistently sold out.
“Do I have any regrets? Yeah, my regret is it wasn’t a 15-year contract,” Leonsis said.
Ovechkin’s $9.538-million cap hit is currently the fourth highest in the NHL behind Chicago’s Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and Los Angeles’ Anze Kopitar. Pittsburgh centre Evgeni Malkin and Dallas Stars winger Jamie Benn both have contracts with average annual values of $9.5 million. Nashville defenceman P.K. Subban is the highest-paid blue-liner with a $9-million cap hit. Edmonton’s 21-year-old Connor McDavid will be the highest-paid player starting next season, when he jumps to a $12.5-million cap hit after signing an eight-year, $100-million deal last summer.
Ovechkin’s 83 points are more than both Kane (74) and Toews (52), who have matching $10.5-million cap hits. Kopitar has comparable production, with seven more points than Ovechkin at 90, and he’s two years younger.
Since Ovechkin signed his 13-year deal, he has scored at least 50 goals six times and led the league in goal-scoring six times. He’s won the Hart Trophy twice since the start of the 2008-09 season. His presence ushered in the “Rock the Red” era in Washington, a rebrand for a fan base where the home attendance is ranked third in percentage to capacity this season, according to ESPN. com.
“I think that by doing (the contract) gives permission for the fans to say, ‘We deserve this and he’s not going anywhere,’” Leonsis said. “That to me was the most important thing, that we were accustomed as a community — we weren’t a hockey market at the time — and it was always, ‘We’ll lose our best players.’ And when Alex said, ‘No, this is where I want to be and I’ll make a long-term commitment,’ I think it really was the tipping point for the organization, for the fan base to say we’ve got something here and he’s delivered in every way.”
Nicklas Backstrom was at the season-ticket party in 2008 as Leonsis walked on stage and announced Ovechkin’s 13-year deal. “The whole building was just rocking,” Backstrom said. Two years later, Backstrom signed a 10-year extension that pays him $6.7 million a season, a bargain compared to what top centres get now.
“I’m happy about that today, that we got that secured,” Backstrom said. “I wanted to stay on the same team, too. Obviously, when Alex signed that 13-year deal, that opened up (a) 10-year (deal) for me.”
Backstrom has two more seasons left on his deal after this one. Ovechkin has three more years left. The one stain on a pair of otherwise sterling careers is the duo has yet to advance past the second round of the playoffs. Washington is poised to win the Metropolitan Division for a third straight season.
Asked about the possibility of a next contract for Ovechkin, Leonsis said, “It’s probably a little too early to start to worry about that.”