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T.J. Oshie announces retirement after 16 NHL seasons
T.J. Oshie, a foundational player for the Washington Capitals during their Stanley Cup run in 2018 and the years that surrounded it, announced his retirement on Monday after 16 NHL seasons.
Oshie was traded to Washington in the summer of 2015 after seven seasons with the St. Louis Blues, who drafted him at No. 24 in 2005. He was a productive player with St. Louis, putting up 110 goals and 200 assists in 443 games and also scoring a memorable shootout goal at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. With Washington, though, he established himself as a clutch playoff performer and a core piece for one of the league's best teams.
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In 2015-16, Oshie's first with the Capitals, they won the Presidents' Trophy, and he followed that with 10 points in 12 postseason games. In 2017, he had 12 points in 13 playoff games. By 2018, he was the fourth-leading scorer (eight goals, 13 assists) on a team that beat Columbus, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay and Vegas on its way to the first Stanley Cup victory in franchise history. In a five-game Final against Vegas, Oshie had one goal and six assists.
That run, combined with the idea to celebrate the Cup by jumping into fountains at the Georgetown waterfront, helped make Oshie a franchise icon. He fittingly made his announcement on Monday near those fountains. Oshie, 38, missed the 2024-25 season with recurring back issues that cost him 92 games over his final three seasons.
'We were waiting to get some beverages over there. I don't know how hot it was, but it felt like it was scorching outside,' Oshie said in February 2025, when a plaque commemorating the swim was unveiled. 'I had just a little idea to jump in the fountain and tried to grab all the guys I could. I thought it was a couple feet deep, because you can't tell when you're running up to it. It was only a couple inches.'
Outside of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and John Carlson, not many Capitals played a bigger role in winning the Cup. Oshie, along with Backstrom, also was in the building when Ovechkin set the NHL's career goal record on April 6 — and Ovechkin made sure to note that on the ice after scoring for the 895th time
'For him to call my name in that moment was incredibly, incredibly special and honestly very emotional for me inside, to have him mention me and give me a little shoutout during the biggest accomplishment that the world of hockey has seen in a very long time,' Oshie said in the New York Islanders' visitors' locker room after the game.
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During his six-season prime with the Capitals (2015-21), he had 150 goals and 150 assists, scoring 22 goals or more five times. The eight-year, $5.75 million AAV deal he signed for the 2017-18 season expired this season.
Work as a TV analyst seems like Oshie's next logical step. He made an appearance as part of ESPN's studio crew during the Western Conference final and acquitted himself well.
