He's a real building block for this organization, a major injection of talent into this team, ... He's an exciting player that the fans are going to enjoy watching. He sets the tone for the entire team with the way he plays.

Alexander is an incredibly gifted young player, and we are excited to have him join our club.

Simply put, he's one of the finest athletes and gentlemen that you can find on any team in any sport. This sends a great message to his teammates and our fan base. The message is: We're going to do this right, we're going to build it right and get the right people here. Certainly Olie is that kind of person.

The thing we have to understand is that Alex was in the homeland, playing for a professional team over there, he was in training camp and was earning a substantial amount of money. So the decision was not easy for him. But he wanted to come to Washington. He's a terrific young man who is going to be here for a long time.

Alexander Ovechkin will be here, ... He made a commitment to us when he opted out of his Russian contract. Our fans will see Alex in a Capitals uniform next season.

Some teams are going to regret [the long-term free agent] deals in a few years. The salary cap could go down next year. That would put some teams in quite a bind. We're committed to playing our young players next season.