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Alex Ovechkin will return to the game just 40 days after breaking his left leg.
Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery has announced that Ovechkin will play in the Caps’ road game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. Elliott Friedman from Sportnet.
Ovechkin returned to full practice on Friday, according to NHL.com Tom Gulitti.
Carbery said later the team would determine Ovechkin’s availability depending on how his leg responded to training.
Ovechkin will now rejoin Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas on the Capitals’ top line as he joins Strome, John Carlson, Jakob Chychrun and Tom Wilson in the club’s top power.
Ovechkin has missed 16 games since suffering a broken left fibula following a leg-on-leg collision during a Nov. 18 game against the Utah Hockey Club.
The play marked one of the longest injury absences of his career. Prior to the split, Ovechkin had missed only 35 games due to injury, and 59 total, over the first 19 seasons of his NHL career.
The Capitals have historically struggled with their captain being sidelined, with the franchise marking a 26-28-5. file without Ovechkin prior to the season.
This time, offseason additions including Strome and Chychrun helped the Caps stay atop the Metropolitan Division with a 10-5-1 mark in Ovechkin’s absence.
The return of Ovechkin, who scored 15 goals and 25 points in 18 games to start the season, will make the Capitals a legitimate challenger to beat top teams including the New Jersey Devils, Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs in the race to the top of the East.
His comeback also marks the resumption of his attempt to surpass Wayne Gretzky for the NHL goals record. Gretzky currently holds the all-time title after scoring 894 times between 1979 and 1999.
Ovechkin had scored twice against Utah before getting injured, bringing his career total to 868 goals. He trails Gretzky’s record by 26 with 48 games remaining in the Capitals’ season heading into Saturday.