Alex Ovechkin is hard at work preparing for his 21st season in the NHL with personal trainer Pavel Burlachenko. The two recently got back in the gym after Ovechkin returned to Russia from his month-long vacation in Turkey.
During one of those recent gym sessions, the Washington Capitals captain chatted with Kamil Gadzhiev, founder of AMC Fight Nights, a Russian mixed martial arts organization. The fisticuffs-focused Gadzhiev was able to ask Ovechkin a couple of questions about fighting in the NHL, including whether it would be beneficial for players to train in a martial art discipline.
“It depends on the person, whether he likes it or not,” Ovechkin told Gadzhiev, per a sports.ru transcription and translated by Google Translate. “For example, wrestling – I don’t know if hockey players need it. Boxing, probably yes. There’s a lot of cardio there, too.”
Gadzhiev then asked Ovechkin, the owner of four career NHL fights, how he personally learned to fight. “Street,” Ovechkin responded.
Ovechkin’s best display of those “street” tactics came during the 2019 postseason when he absolutely flattened and knocked out Carolina Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov. He also holds bouts against Mike Richards, Paul Gaustad, and Brandon Dubinsky on his career fight card.
“Donald Brashear, [Georges] Laraque,” Ovechkin quickly replied.
Ovechkin was teammates with Brashear on the Capitals for three seasons (2006-2009), during which Brashear accumulated 36 fights and 396 penalty minutes. Brashear, one of the most feared enforcers of the late 1990s and early 2000s, was initially brought in by general manager George McPhee to provide some protection for a young Ovechkin.
However, per former Capitals assistant coach Dean Evason, Ovechkin would consistently tell Brashear not to look after him and would handle his own conflicts.
“There were some days when we had Donald Brashear here and guys were taking runs at him, like crazy runs at him,” Evason said in 2022. “He’s the best player, and Brash would go, ‘Ovi, you want me to look after you.’ And he says, ‘No, no. I’ve got it.’ And he would just go out and be more physical than the people that were trying to be physical on him.”
Ovechkin later told Tarik El-Bashir in 2022 that he’d pick Brashear to play with him and Sidney Crosby on a line if the two legends were ever to play together. Brashear, now 53, actually returned to pro hockey for the 2023-24 season after a seven-season absence, playing 24 games for the Jonquiere Marquis in Quebec’s LNAH.
Laraque, Ovechkin’s other pick, was a frequent opponent of Brashear’s whenever the two crossed paths. The former second-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers played 14 years in the NHL with the Oilers, Phoenix Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Montreal Canadiens.
When pressed for a third choice by Gadzhiev, Ovechkin jokingly agreed to include Penguins legend and close friend Evgeni Malkin. Like Ovechkin, Malkin has rarely dropped the gloves in the NHL, owning nine career fights since debuting during the 2006-07 season.
Notably, Ovechkin did not select longtime teammate Tom Wilson, who has earned his own feared reputation in the league as one of its premier combatants.
