Alex Ovechkin would go back to his old mirror-tinted visor if the NHL let him, still bitter about change spurred on by Martin Brodeur
Not only did Alex Ovechkin’s skill draw fans’ attention when he first arrived in the league, but so did his style. The 20-year-old Russian brought a unique flair to arenas across North America, including yellow skate laces, tucked jersey, and a mirror-tinted visor that made him look like RoboCop.
However, that signature visor did not last long, as the league’s general managers voted to outlaw it the summer after Ovechkin’s freshman campaign. One of the major culprits behind its ban was a future Hall of Fame goaltender, who Ovechkin identified again during his recent sit-down interview with Jeff Marek and Bruce Boudreau on the Hockey Lifers Podcast.
“Yeah, I think it was Marty Brodeur said, like, he can’t see my eyes, and I was like, ‘What the heck? See my eyes? I’m at the blueline, you’re gonna look at my eyes?’” Ovechkin said. “You know, it’s weird thing, but Gary (NHL commissioner Gary Bettman), I think, said, ‘Okay, no more tinted visor for Ovi.’ Okay, whatever.”
Ovechkin is on record as saying that the mirrored visor is his favorite he has used in his career, choosing it over the smoky-tinted visor he was forced to use early in his career and the clearer visor he currently uses. He told Marek that he would love to go back to the mirrored visor in his age-40 season if the league would let him.
“Yeah, for sure,” Ovechkin said. “Why not? Okay, NFL – they still have tinted visors. Nobody look in their eyes, right? Everybody look where’s the ball, nobody cares. So, you have to look at the puck, not in your eyes.”
Despite Brodeur’s complaints, Ovechkin continued to fool goalies despite the change. Without his mirrored visor, Ovechkin scored a career-high 65 goals during the 2007-08 season, his third year in the league. Ovechkin has kept scoring, even after Brodeur retired in 2015, racking up an all-time best 899 career goals through 1,501 career games.
While the mirrored visor was technically banned in a 29-1 vote, with then-Capitals general manager George McPhee the only dissenter, the NHL has never explicitly included a prohibition on its use in its rulebook. The league is also leaning towards accepting more personal style choices, abolishing its dress code ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.
With the Capitals wearing alternate jerseys adorned with the Screaming Eagle logo from Ovechkin’s first two seasons in the league, a return for the visor could be a good nostalgic throwback in what could potentially be The Great 8’s final year in the NHL.
