Over the course of 21 NHL campaigns in Washington, Ovechkin has lined up beside a staggering number of gifted teammates wearing the Capitals sweater.
So how would he assemble an elite squad limited to a trio of forwards, a pair of defenders, and a single goalie? That question surfaced during a recent Fonbet interview on YouTube, conducted by Nikita Filatov, a former NHL player, alongside the retired soccer star Andrey Arshavin, and Ovechkin obliged with his answer.
Via a Google Translate rendering of his remarks, the captain listed five skaters — Backstrom, Semin, then Carlson and Green, plus Fedorov — and named Holtby as his goaltender of choice.
Nicklas Backstrom
This marks the second occasion this season that Ovechkin has put his close friend and longtime pivot at the head of such a list. Back in November, when podcast hosts Bruce Boudreau and Jeff Marek asked him which former Capitals he most misses sharing a roster with, Backstrom was again his leadoff choice.
The duo skated together for 17 campaigns, stretching from 2007-08 through 2023-24, and shared a line for much of that span. Backstrom has fed the captain more than anyone, with 279 helpers on Ovechkin's 923 career markers; no Washington teammate has ever come within reach of even 200.
A first-round pick in 2006, Backstrom sits second only to the captain in franchise scoring, having amassed 1,033 career points over 1,105 contests on 271 goals and 762 assists. He remains the club's all-time assist king, though Ovechkin (753) needs only nine more to draw level. Looking across every Swedish skater, Backstrom counts among a half-dozen members of the 1,000-point club, and his .935 points-per-game pace trails just a single name on that short list — Mats Sundin, at 1.002.
Alex Semin
Following Backstrom, the captain turned to another standout from those electric Washington teams of the late 2000s, Russian winger Alex Semin. Already in the organization before Ovechkin landed in 2005, the mercurial Semin had logged the bulk of his 2003-04 schedule in the capital before crossing back over for 2006-07.
Over six combined seasons skating with Ovechkin, Semin peaked statistically in 2009-10, when he racked up 84 points — 40 goals and 44 assists — across 73 outings. He set up 45 of Ovechkin's goals, a figure held in check because the pair usually operated on different lines.
Now retired, Semin sits 18th on the franchise's career scoring chart, his 408 points coming on 197 goals and 211 assists over 469 games. That goal total ranked seventh until this season, when Tom Wilson reached 204 to slip past him and bump Semin down a rung.
Sergei Fedorov
Rounding out the captain's forward trio, Sergei Fedorov spent only two campaigns alongside Ovi in Washington, yet those two years left a deep imprint on the franchise as well as the player himself. A Russian icon, Fedorov took on a mentoring role for Ovechkin, in effect passing his torch along to a fellow countryman before leaving the league and heading back home.
Fedorov played a central part in turning the club into a steady playoff threat, guiding it to a first-ever postseason series triumph in 2009 over New York's Rangers. That same series produced his last NHL tally, the third-period winner in the deciding Game 7.
By the time he retired, Fedorov's résumé featured six All-Star selections, an MVP-winning Hart Trophy, a Pearson Award, a pair of Selke Trophies, along with a trio of Cup championships. The Hall welcomed him into its 2015 induction class.
Mike Green
For the back end, Ovechkin tapped fellow Young Gun and offensive dynamo Mike Green. Selected by Washington in 2004's opening draft round, Green wound up spending a decade in the capital skating beside Ovechkin.
Green's peak arrived over back-to-back seasons in Washington: a haul of 31 goals from the back end in 2008-09, then a personal-best 76-point season the year after, on 19 goals and 57 assists. He wound up Norris Trophy runner-up both times, edged in the earlier vote by Zdeno Chara and, a season later, by Duncan Keith.
Historically he sits sixth in scoring among every Washington defender, his 360 points built on 113 goals and 247 assists over a span of 575 outings. Green set up 70 of the captain's goals, frequently delivering point feeds during a Washington power play that once terrorized opponents. He also still owns the league mark for the lengthiest goal run by a rearguard, lighting the lamp across eight consecutive games.
John Carlson
Completing Ovechkin's two-man blue-line selection was John Carlson. His entire 17-year NHL run unfolded in Washington next to Ovechkin, right up until Anaheim's Ducks acquired him at this month's trade deadline.
Carlson hit his ceiling in 2019-20, when he paced the club with 75 points — 15 goals, 60 assists — over 69 games. Since Ovechkin broke in, only four skaters have paced Washington in scoring across a full season: Carlson himself, plus Backstrom, Dylan Strome, and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Among the franchise's blueliners, Carlson leads every all-time category: a high of 1,143 appearances, 166 goals, 605 assists, and 771 points overall. He also recently climbed to the summit of the league's career list for blocked shots, reaching 2,187.
Braden Holtby
Between the pipes, the captain went with Braden Holtby. The Holtbeast suited up across portions of 10 Washington seasons after breaking in during 2010-11. He backstopped the 2018 championship run, delivering his legendary "The Save" on Vegas in the final's second game — a stop that triggered four straight Washington victories.
Holtby earned five All-Star nods as a Capital, claimed the Vezina in 2016 as the league's top goalie, and a year later took home the Jennings Trophy, named for William M. Jennings. During that Vezina campaign he matched Martin Brodeur's single-season league mark for goaltender wins, going 48-9-7 while posting a 2.20 GAA to go with a save mark of .922.
On the club's career goaltending charts (minimum 100 games), Holtby ranks runner-up for both appearances (468) and victories (282), third by goals-against average at 2.53, and second in save percentage, at .916. His .926 mark in postseason play across 97 outings sits eighth all-time, yet every one of the seven netminders ahead logged a minimum of 46 fewer games in the playoffs.
By October of 2025, Ovechkin had been a teammate to roughly 39 percent — and counting — of every skater to wear the franchise's colors going back to its debut contest, staged on Oct. 9 of 1974. That stretch could close out come April, given the mere 11 games that remain in the concluding season of his Washington deal.
Tellingly, every player from the half-dozen Ovechkin offered up to his two interviewers is gone from the current roster. Carlson stands as the lone pick still active in the league today, while the only other one still going is Backstrom, suiting up for Brynäs of the SHL.