Alexander Ovechkin's mother won two Olympic gold medals as a basketball player for the Soviet Union, and his father was a longtime soccer player and coach in Moscow. He chose neither sport.

"When I was young, they put on the television and I watched hockey," Ovechkin said. "My mother saw how my eyes opened, and [the next day] we go to hockey school. I stay there; practice, practice, practice."

He has practiced his hockey enough to make him not only the best player available for the 2004 NHL draft on Saturday and Sunday at the RBC Center, but also a player some scouts consider the best 18-year-old to come along in a decade. He has practiced his English enough to do interviews without a translator, yet another area of his game that's ready for the NHL.

That's no coincidence. Ovechkin took a year of English lessons when he began to emerge as a top prospect in the interest of improving his draft status. He has been too busy the past two seasons for formal classes, playing against veterans twice his age for Dynamo Moscow in the Russian league, but he watches English-language DVDs on his laptop computer when the team travels.

So as the Washington Capitals prepare to take him with the first overall pick (or trade the pick to someone else for a hefty ransom), check off another box on Ovechkin's profile -- language difficulties will not be a problem.

When it comes to finding negatives in the 6-foot-2, 200-pound left wing, scouts are running out of time. Ovechkin arrives in the Triangle this morning as the most touted prospect in the draft since Vincent Lecavalier in 1998, perhaps since Eric Lindros in 1991.

In the NHL's private rankings, Ovechkin rated a 10 on a 10 scale in every category: potential, competitiveness, hockey sense, skating, puck skills, checking and physical play.

"NHL scouts, the one thing we love doing is picking guys apart and finding holes in them," Calgary Flames scouting director Tod Button said. "It's not easy with this kid, and he has been on the map for so long.

"You find these kids who were prospects for so long, it's easy to find holes in them when you see them 70 times in three years -- 'He can't do this, he can't do that.' This guy, you can't find the holes. ...

"He's got the mental ability to be under that spotlight and still produce. That's special."

The biggest issue surrounding Ovechkin has nothing to do with his play or personality. A dispute between the NHL and the Russian hockey federation may turn back the clock to the days when players like Alexander Mogilny had to wriggle out from under the Iron Curtain.

The movement of Russian players from their club teams to the NHL has been governed by the NHL's transfer agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation, hockey's international governing body. The NHL pays European clubs a fee -- usually $100,000 -- to bring a player under contract to North America.

But Russia's hockey powers have made it clear they expect more money than that for their players and want to cut their own deal after the NHL's agreement with the IIHF expires this summer.

In August 2001, two Russian prospects were drafted into the Army to prevent them from attending training camp with their NHL teams. Both have since made it to the NHL.

Last season, the Columbus Blue Jackets had to spirit first-round pick Nikolai Zherdev out of Russia in December after his club team refused to release him. Zherdev was cleared to play in the NHL after Columbus won an international arbitration hearing.

And last month, Russia went against the wishes of hockey legend and Minister of Sport Vyacheslav Fetisov by appointing Zinetula Bilyaletdinov as coach for the World Cup. Fetisov had been championing veteran NHL player Igor Larionov.

In Ovechkin, the Russian teams may have the best bargaining chip they could possibly demand -- an impact NHL player with the potential to become one of the greats; a scorer like the Atlanta Thrashers' Ilya Kovalchuk who is willing to hit and play defense as well. It could take millions to get him out.

But that won't stop the Capitals -- or whichever team ends up with the No. 1 pick -- from taking him.

"There is no question in my mind he'll be able to step into an NHL team next year and help them," Carolina Hurricanes scouting director Sheldon Ferguson said. "Not just play. Help them."

Born Sept. 17, 1985, two days after the deadline for the 2003 draft, Ovechkin would have been picked first overall last year. The Florida Panthers even tried to take him in the ninth round, making an obscure argument based on the semantics between "lunar" and "calendar" years that Ovechkin was technically eligible -- a battle they hoped to win in court, not the draft floor.

The gambit cost them a pick, but the Panthers thought Ovechkin worth it.

He played for Russia at the World Championships -- the youngest player on the team by 2 1/2 years -- and had a goal and an assist in six games. He has been named to the Russian roster for the World Cup in August and September.

"This kid wasn't just a player on the Russian team. He was one of the better players on the Russian team," Ferguson said. "He's just an exciting, outstanding young man. He has no flaws that we can see. From size to skating to hockey sense, everything is tremendous."

Ovechkin has the skill of Kovalchuk and Zherdev, but he adds an understanding of the defensive side of the game that neither of those goal-scorers is ever likely to attain. He plays tough, throwing his body around in a style well-suited for the North American game.

At the NHL's scouting combine in Toronto last month, Ovechkin wandered into the testing room between interviews and greeted many of the assembled scouts by name. He has spent the past two years with them, at the rink, at his house, on the road at tournaments.

"He's one of the best I've seen," said Phoenix Coyotes scouting director Dave Draper. "I'd use the word 'electric.' He's very emotional in everything he does."

Ovechkin said he's not just ready for that kind of pressure. He's reveling in it.

"I like that, because if people are talking about me I must prove it, prove what I am," Ovechkin said. "Work, work, work. I love hockey. It's my life."