SAN JOSE – Forward Will Smith – still just 20 years old – is enjoying a solid sophomore year in the NHL and is already up to 12 goals this season as the Sharks get set to host the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.
At some point during the game at SAP Center, Smith will come across Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer, who has also scored a dozen times this season. The only difference is that Ovechkin is twice Smith’s age.
“Yeah, it’s crazy,” Smith said of the 40-year-old Ovechkin, who has 909 career NHL goals. “Being that age, being able to score that many goals, and especially in his career, it’s pretty crazy, and it’s cool to see.”
Now it’s a matter of whether this will be the last time Sharks fans will get to see Ovechkin play in San Jose, outside of a meeting with the Capitals in the Stanley Cup Final.
The Capitals only visit the Sharks once per season, and Ovechkin is in the final year of a five-year, $47.5 million contract. He has not indicated at any point that this will be his last year in the NHL, but he’s also not definitively said that he’ll return in 2026-27 for a 22nd season.
“I just take day by day,” Ovechkin said in October before the Capitals began their season. “You have to have fun, you have to enjoy yourself, and try to do it as best as you can.”
Certainly, Ovechkin hasn’t slowed down much.
Ovechkin scored 44 goals last season – tied for third-most in the NHL — on his way to breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894 goals in April.
Except for the pandemic-shortened 2020-2021 season, Ovechkin has scored at least 31 goals every year he’s been in the NHL. A nine-time winner of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as the NHL’s leading single-season goal scorer, Ovechkin has scored at least 50 goals nine times.
This year, after a somewhat tepid start with two goals and seven points in the Capitals’ first 12 games, Ovechkin has 10 goals and 20 points in his last 15 games, tied for the 11th-most in the NHL in that span.
“It’s truly amazing,” said Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky, who is good friends with Capitals coach Spencer Carbery. “I watch their games quite often, and it seems like every time you turn it on, Ovechkin is scoring.”
When the Capitals visited San Jose in March of last season, Ovechkin scored his 34th goal of the year and the 887th of his illustrious career in what became a 5-1 win over the Sharks.
“Last year was something fun to watch him chasing and then breaking the record,” said Sharks winger Tyler Toffoli, who has 297 career goals. “We were hoping that he wasn’t three or four goals away coming into here, just in case. You never knew what he was going to be able to do. So obviously, extremely impressive, and last year was definitely something that I was paying attention to.”
Ovechkin, a Stanley Cup champion in 2018 and a three-time Hart Memorial Trophy winner, has 17 goals and 30 points in 29 career games against the Sharks, his favorite NHL team as a kid growing up in Russia.
Now, after more than two decades in the NHL, this might be his final game at the Shark Tank.
“He’s the best all-time goal scorer in the NHL,” said Sharks defenseman Dmitry Orlov, who was drafted by the Capitals in 2009, played 11 years with the team, and won the Cup with Ovechkin in 2018. “Nobody was thinking he was going to beat Gretzky’s record, but he did it, and he’s still scoring. You never know when he’s going to stop playing.”
MISA, SKINNER RETURN
Forwards Jeff Skinner and Michael Misa could be available to play on Wednesday. However, Misa could also be assigned to the Barracuda if he agrees to begin a conditioning stint in the AHL.
Misa and Skinner, now on injured reserve with lower-body ailments, both took part in Tuesday’s practice at Sharks Ice, with Skinner taking reps with the second power play unit.
Skinner, 33, was injured in the first period of the Sharks’ game against the Calgary Flames on Nov. 13, and Misa, 18, was injured during the team’s morning skate on Nov. 5 before a road game against the Seattle Kraken.
The Sharks already have 23 players on their active roster and would need to assign someone to the Barracuda to clear a spot for Skinner if he’s available to play against the Capitals.
If Misa agrees to join the Barracuda on a short-term basis, it could work as a natural bridge to Hockey Canada’s training camp for the IIHF World Junior Championship, which begins later this month in Minnesota.
The Barracuda hosts the Tucson Roadrunners on Friday and Saturday at Tech CU Arena. Hockey Canada will announce its World Juniors training camp roster on Dec. 8, and the team’s camp begins on Dec. 12 in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
“Obviously, coming from (the AHL), I think it’s very beneficial to play there and have success there, and get your feet wet there and go through it,” said Warsofsky, who spent three seasons as a head coach in the AHL, winning the Calder Cup in 2021-2022 with the Chicago Wolves.
DESHARNAIS WEEK TO WEEK
The Sharks are now at eight healthy defensemen, as Vincent Desharnais is now considered week-to-week with an upper-body injury. Desharnais played his most recent game on Nov. 26 when the Sharks lost 6-0 to the Colorado Avalanche. Warsofsky said Desharnais had been dealing with the injury for some time.
PRACTICE REPORT
Center Alexander Wennberg did not practice on Tuesday with an upper-body injury and is questionable to play on Wednesday.