Alex Ovechkin could lose sponsors over his affiliation with Russian President
Alexander Ovechkin is one of the NHL's biggest stars. Not only in North America but he is considered a national hero in Russia. Due to his stardom, Ovechkin makes a lot more money in endorsements than the majority of NHL players do. Ovechkin has been under fire recently because of his past support for Vladimir Putin.
According to Rick Westhead, Ovechkin makes around 500K per year off of his CCM partnership alone. Many of Ovi's sponsors are currently looking at how they can move forward with him because of his past support for Putin and with everything currently going on in Ukraine. Westhead said it "may be complicated for companies to use Ovechkin in ads for some time."
We have seen many sanctions put place on Russia including within sports. Russia and Belarus have been indefinitely banned from all IIHF competitions and now we are seeing how these sanctions may affect Russian players, especially those who've shown support for Putin.
Ovechkin spoke about the war but gave a non-answer. Likely both due to his past support of Putin and the Russian political landscape because criticizing the government in Russia has very different consequences than it does in North America.
It seems like these sanctions are going to affect Ovechkin but it is unknown how this war will affect the rest of the Russian NHL players.
Can't blame Ovi's corporate partners for not wanting to put his face on their product when it's a face that a lot of people aren't too fond of right now - especially since his Instagram photo is a picture of him and Putin.
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