The Washington Capitals are gearing up for the 2023-24 season with their eyes on the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Alex Ovechkin and company will work toward winning the franchise's second championship in less than 10 years. However, there is a chance they do so without veteran forward Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Rumors around Kuznetsov's future in the nation's capital have run rampant this summer. The veteran Capitals forward is coming off a down season in which he scored 55 points in 81 games. As of now, however, Kuznetsov remains in Washington.

Ovechkin recently spoke about this with a state-owned Russian news outlet. He was rather straightforward with his thoughts on the matter. “He's a close friend of mine, a great person, a great teammate. So I wouldn't like that,” Ovechkin said, via The Hockey News. “But it doesn't depend on me.”

Kuznetsov is certainly a candidate for a bounceback season. In 2021-22, he scored 24 goals and 78 points while helping the Capitals into the Stanley Cup Playoffs once again. It's not entirely out of the realm of possibility that the 31-year-old Russian forward can get back to a similar pace.

That said, Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan wants to shake up the team's top-six forwards. In that case, one of the obvious courses of action to take involves trading Kuznetsov out of Washington.

At the end of the day, the situation remains unclear. Training camps across the NHL begin in less than a month. And we are no closer to a resolution on the matter. However, Kuznetsov is confident he can find his game once again. “There's a lot of time to think about [it] and refocus, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to find a solution,” the Capitals forward said, via The Hockey News.