Alex Ovechkin Day-to-Day After Leaving Capitals Practice with Lower-Body Injury

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin left Thursday's opening practice of training camp to be evaluated for a lower-body injury, NHL.com's Tom Gulitti reported.

Head coach Spencer Carbery said after practice that Ovechkin's early departure was "precautionary" and that he is considered "day-to-day," per Russian Machine Never Breaks' Katie Adler.

Carbery described Ovechkin's injury as "nothing significant," per The Hockey News' Sammi Silber.

Martin Fehervary and Justin Sourdif were meanwhile wearing no-contact jerseys during Thursday's practice, Adler reported.

Sonny Milano, who missed almost the entirety of the 2024-25 season with an upper-body injury, was taking full contact, according to Adler.

Ovechkin, who celebrated his 40th birthday on Wednesday, is looking to extend his all-time NHL goalscoring record during his upcoming 21st season with the Capitals.

The Capitals star broke Wayne Gretzky's record of 894 regular-season goals last season despite the longest injury absence of his career.

After suffering a fractured left fibula in a game of Nov. 18 of last year, Ovechkin missed 16 straight games before returning on Dec. 28.

Before that stretch, Ovechkin had only missed 35 total games in 20 NHL seasons due to injury, per Gulitti. His previous longest injury absence had been a six-game stretch in November 2009.

Ovechkin still finished season with 44 goals, tying for the third-most in the NHL despite being limited to 65 games.

He broke Gretzky's record by scoring career goal No. 895 against the New York Islanders on April 6, and had extended the record to 897 goals by the end of the season.

Ovechkin is now heading into the final year of his current contract with the Caps. He will be looking to become the first player in NHL history to score 900 regular-season goals when the Capitals open the regular season on Wednesday, Oct. 8 against the Boston Bruins.