How Washington spent the past 20 years recruiting Alex Ovechkin - ESPN

It's no longer enough to draft a franchise player. Now you have to keep him.

Across hockey, you'll often hear the adage: «Even Wayne Gretzky was traded.» But today's NHL has entered a new era — one in which stars have more influence and more tools than ever to shape where they play. Brady Tkachuk forced his way to Florida. Quinn Hughes' future dominated league conversations before he landed in Minnesota. Dylan Larkin's trade request from Detroit is the latest reminder that franchise players expect a say in how their careers unfold.

«I think some organizations aren't lining up with the timeline of certain players,» said Brian MacLellan, president of hockey operations for the Washington Capitals. «You have a little bit of a mismatch and I think people are more assertive about going about it now. I think sometimes it's fair for a player to decide that.»

Which makes Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin feel increasingly like exceptions.

Twenty-one seasons after arriving as the No. 1 pick, Ovechkin signed another one-year contract this summer, extending one of the longest player-franchise relationships in modern professional sports.

How do you build an organization a superstar never wants to leave? From the outside, the explanation seems simple: loyalty, and of course, winning.

But after talking with the people who built that relationship, another answer kept surfacing: trust.

«In the beginning we had to earn his trust,» MacLellan said. «I think we have it now.»

WASHINGTON WASN'T SEARCHING for its next superstar in 2004; the franchise was desperate for relevance. The Capitals had just torn down their roster after a failed attempt to shortcut contention with Jaromir Jagr.

«He was the highest-paid player in the league and he didn't