Alexander Ovechkin poses Thursday in Toronto, where he is promoting the NHL2K10 video game picturing him on the cover. (Neil Davidson/Canadian Press)Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin, the NHL's most valuable player the past two seasons, intends to play for Russia in the 2014 Sochi Olympics — even if the league forbids it.
"It is what I want and what I'm going to do," he told reporters Thursday in Toronto.
The NHL has halted play in mid-season to permit the world's top players to take part in the Olympics since 1998, but has hinted it won't for 2014.
"Everybody wants to go over there," Ovechkin said. "The Russians want to go, for sure, over there — [Ilya] Kovalchuk, [Evgeni] Malkin, I know that."
Ovechkin, 24, acknowledged that select NHL owners remain opposed to shutting down in mid-season because they consider it bad for business.
But he countered by claiming it is the players taking the hit in the pocketbook.
"I think right now we're losing money, not the NHL," Ovechkin said, pointing out the collective bargaining agreement mandates "escrow" payments be drawn from players' paycheques to ensure an even split of revenues between the league and the NHL Players' Association.
Ovechkin will make $9 million US this season, the second in a 13-year, $124-million US contract extension he signed with Washington on Jan. 10, 2008.
Considered the NHL's most exuberant and flamboyant superstar, he is the first back-to-back MVP since netminder Dominik Hasek in 1997 and 1998, and the first forward to capture the Hart Trophy in consecutive seasons since Wayne Gretzky won eight straight between 1980 and 1987.
With files from
