Trade talk around Alex Ovechkin continues to heat up.

One of the craziest things to come out of the postseason thus far has been the reaction to the Washington Capitals' second round playoff exit, and more specifically the insane amount of trade talk surround National Hockey League superstar Alex Ovechkin.

The latest comes directly from the NHL Network during a conversation between E.J. Hradek and Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman, and while neither man made a definitive statement regarding a possible trade, and they would have to be nuts to do so, Friedman certainly seems to believe the trade is a possibility.

“The one thing I’ve learned over the years E.J. – and you’ve been around the business a long time too – you think that nothing is possible and then weird stuff happens, right?” said Friedman as per Fanrag's Chris Nichols. “I think if the Washington Capitals wanted to trade him – and that’s an if – I think they’d have no problem finding a partner. Alexander Ovechkin would sell tickets. He would sell out buildings. And even though we’re talking about this being a down year for him, he still scored 33 goals and he can make your power play lethal. I don’t think they would have any trouble trading Alexander Ovechkin if they wanted to.

Of course a trade of this magnitude would come with a huge number of hurdles to overcome, including the financial details of such a trade, public perception of the deal, and many other factors, but Friedman indicated the biggest hurdle may be ownership.

“Look, Ovechkin and Leonsis are tight. This is not a hockey decision. This would be an ownership decision. Ted Leonsis would have to be willing to make this call. The Washington Capitals, their games are an awesome place right now. But if you’ve been around the league a long time, you know when they weren’t. And I think you’d have to sell Ted Leonsis on if you trade the greatest player in franchise history, if you trade the guy who fills out your building, are you going to go back to where you were. That’s No. 1.

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“But I see a hockey reason for it. He’s due $40 million over the next four years in hard cash and he’s about to become 32. Father Time is undefeated. Was last year a blip? Or are the Washington Capitals going to have to look and say, ‘We’ve got a good enough team we can do things without Alexander Ovechkin that we can do this.’

“It’s a tough one.”

The question on everyone's mind of course is what team could possibly orchestrate such a trade with the Capitals, and more importantly which one of those teams would be exempt from Ovechkin's list of 10 blocked teams. At over $9.5 million against the cap it would require some magic on the part of NHL general managers to get done, but if it does happen it could be one of the biggest deals in NHL history.