D.C.’s most valuable

If Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin wins the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player, the 22-year-old Russian will join a club so exclusive that its recent members can be counted on one hand.

Since 1972, Washington franchises in the four major sports have produced only three MVPs, all of them with the Redskins. The last was quarterback Joe Theismann in 1983, during the first Reagan administration.

Ovechkin would be the first MVP for the Caps, who began play in 1974. Entering tonight’s season finale against the Florida Panthers at Verizon Center, he leads the league in goals (65) and points (112). Beyond that, hockey’s most dazzling offensive player has energized the entire organization and carried the team to the verge of its first playoff appearance in five years.

According to the NHL, the closest any Caps player came to winning the Hart was defenseman Rod Langway, who finished second to Wayne Gretzky in 1984.

No Bullets or Wizards player has been named league MVP since the team left Baltimore in 1973. The franchise has had just one, Wes Unseld, who played for the Baltimore Bullets when he was named MVP and NBA Rookie of the Year in 1969. The best MVP finish by a Washington player was Elvin Hayes, who was third in 1975 and 1979.

Baseball? Shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh had the last MVP season for any Washington player, and that was 83 years ago. Not having a team for 34 years might have something to do with that.

In the NFL, amid several honors handed out by different organizations and media outlets through the years, the Associated Press MVP award is considered the bellwether achievement. The first Redskins winner was Larry Brown, who rushed for 1,216 yards in 1972 and led Washington to its first Super Bowl. Brown’s total is especially impressive because he played in just 12 of the 14 regular-season games.

After the strike-shortened 1982 season, Mark Moseley became the first and only kicker to earn MVP honors. It was a somewhat controversial decision. Moseley made 20 of 21 field goal attempts as the Redskins (8-1) went on to win Super Bowl XVII, but the limited schedule might have had something to do with it.

The next season, Theismann was named MVP. Leading the Redskins to a 14-2 record and Super Bowl XVIII, he completed 60.1 percent of his passes for 3,714 yards, 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. But he said he couldn’t really enjoy his MVP moment because the Redskins lost to the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl.

“You do your best for 16 games and then for one game. … it really puts a sour taste in your mouth,” Theismann said. “Yeah, it’s a really nice honor, but losing the Super Bowl really takes something away from it.”

Theismann said he had an MVP clause worth $50,000 that was inserted into his contract almost as an afterthought.

“It was one of those throw-away bonuses,” he said. ” ’Sure, put it in. Why not.?’ ’Fifty thousand? Why not?’ And let’s throw in a trip to the moon while we’re at it.”

Brown, an undersized runner whose career was cut short by injuries and overuse, said he had no such clause in his contract.

“My objective was just to do my part,” he said. “And if everyone did their part and gave 100 percent effort, that would increase our chances of winning. I never thought about achieving that kind of honor.”

As with Theismann, Brown and the Redskins lost in the Super Bowl, to the unbeaten Miami Dolphins.

“It was a big letdown,” he said. “I would say it dampened it a little bit.”

Before 1972, Washington experienced a 47-year MVP drought. Mostly a second-division franchise in both its original and expansion forms, the Senators won American League pennants in 1924 (when they also won the World Series) and 1925. They produced MVPs each year — legendary pitcher Walter Johnson in 1924, 11 years after he won it the first time, and Peckinpaugh the next season.

Peckinpaugh was 34, which was considered old for a ballplayer back then. He played in just 126 games, the fewest in six years, and hit .294, well above his .259 career batting average but less than the league average. His glove work that season was considered less than exceptional. Yet he beat out the Philadelphia Athletics’ Al Simmons, who hit .387 with 24 home runs and 129 RBI.

“Peck,” as he was called, was smart and savvy, “one of the great generals on the field of baseball,” according to The Washington Post. But players who previously won the award were not eligible at that time.

Peckinpaugh also anchored the infield of a pennant winner. The A’s finished second, 8½ games back.

Even then, making the postseason was a huge consideration. Which leads to the big question surrounding Ovechkin: Can he be the MVP if the Capitals fail to reach the playoffs? It’s a hot topic in the hockey world, reviving the familiar debate of “best” vs. “most valuable.”

“If they make the playoffs, [Ovechkin] probably should be MVP,” said ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose, reflecting a widely held sentiment. “But I don’t think a player should [win MVP] if his team misses the playoffs.”

In the NHL, only four players from non-playoff teams have won the Hart Trophy, none since Mario Lemieux in 1988. The last non-playoff MVP in the NBA was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1975-76. The last time it happened in the NFL was 1973, and it took an unprecedented achievement: Buffalo’s O.J. Simpson was the first player to rush for 2,000 yards.

Baseball has had the most exceptions, even after the playoffs were expanded in 1995. The Philadelphia Phillies’ Ryan Howard was the last MVP to miss the playoffs, in 2006, and Barry Bonds did it three times in four years for the San Francisco Giants. But in baseball, only eight of 30 teams make the playoffs, more selective than the NBA and NHL (16 of 30) and NFL (12 of 32).

With one game left, the Caps, who have won six straight, need only to at least force overtime against Florida tonight to win the Southeast Division title and make the playoffs.

Predictably, Caps coach Bruce Boudreau and some of his players have been lobbying for Ovechkin’s candidacy, regardless of the postseason. But they don’t have a vote. Neither do the thousands of fans who chant “M-V-P!” during Caps home games, nor Melrose, for that matter. But his opinion is not unique.

“I love Ovechkin,” he said. “He should be considered. He should be one of the three finalists. But you have to be a guy in the playoffs to be most valuable to his team.”

The other top candidates — Calgary’s Jarome Iginla, Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom, Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin and San Jose’s Joe Thornton — are all headed to the playoffs. But Toronto-based hockey writer and broadcaster Al Strachan said he will vote for Ovechkin, playoffs or not.

“I’ve always figured that to be a rather spurious consideration,” Strachan said. “If you look at what a guy has done all year long over 82 games, does it make a difference if they do or don’t get into playoffs by a point? It doesn’t to me. We’re not talking about the most valuable player to a playoff team, are we? I didn’t read that anywhere.”

Strachan called Ovechkin “the best thing that’s happened to the NHL in a long, long time.”

Still, he said he was going to vote for Iginla. Then Ovechkin’s two goals in the Caps’ 4-1 victory over Tampa Bay on Thursday — a game the Caps had to win — helped change his mind.

“It was a great performance,” he said. “Really, really clutch.”

The Caps and their fans hope other voters look at it the same way.