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Salary Cap Deep Dive: Washington Capitals

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Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office.  Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful.  Those who don’t often see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2025-26 season.  This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL.  All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia.  We’re currently covering the Metropolitan Division, last up are the Capitals.

Washington Capitals

Current Cap Hit: $91,375,000 (below the $95.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Ryan Leonard (two years, $950K)

Potential Bonuses
Leonard: $1.5MM

As expected, Leonard joined the Capitals once his college season came to an end and while he was largely a regular moving forward, they limited his minutes.  That probably won’t be the case this season as a middle-six role seems likely.  That should give him a chance to maybe hit one or two of his ‘A’ bonuses worth $250K apiece.

Signed Through 2025-26, Non-Entry-Level

D John Carlson ($8MM, UFA)
F Brandon Duhaime ($1.85MM, UFA)
F Hendrix Lapierre ($850K, RFA)
F Connor McMichael ($2.1MM, RFA)
F Sonny Milano ($1.9MM, UFA)
F Alex Ovechkin ($9.5MM, UFA)
D Trevor van Riemsdyk ($3MM, UFA)

After a rough first half in 2023-24, Ovechkin was better down the stretch that year and carried it over into last season where he went back over a point per game and broke Wayne Gretzky’s goal record.  Even at this stage of his career (he’s 39), he still provided above-average value on his contract, something he has largely done even as the most expensive winger in NHL history in terms of total earnings.  There has been plenty of speculation as to whether Ovechkin will want to play beyond the upcoming season and if he did, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the Capitals ponder offering a deal with some incentives if they wanted to try to load up for one last kick at the end.  Alternatively, returning to finish his career back home in Russia is a very realistic possibility as well.

McMichael had to settle for a bridge deal last season with cap space pretty tight for a Capitals team that spent all of the year in LTIR.  The good news is that he had a career year and remains a key part of their long-term plans.  With arbitration rights next summer, he’s well on his way to tripling his current price tag if he winds up around the 55-point mark again.  Milano missed most of last season due to injury and ran hot and cold in the first year of the deal.  As a bottom-sixer counted on to produce as a secondary scorer, that’s a hard niche to maintain.  Barring a 15-goal, 30-point season or somewhere thereabouts, Milano could find himself making closer to half of this on his next contract.

Duhaime’s first season with the Capitals was a successful one as he locked down a bigger role and set a new personal best in points.  He’s still someone who is more of an energy player than a scorer though which won’t help his value.  That said, as an effective bottom-six checker, he should be able to push past the $2MM mark on his next agreement.  Lapierre didn’t do much in limited action last season and if it weren’t for the fact he’s now waiver-eligible, he’d probably be on the outside looking in at a roster spot.  But waiver eligibility should give him a long leash and now it’s up to him to establish himself as an every-game regular.  If he can do that, doubling this contract could be realistic.

Carlson continues to be an above-average offensive performer who can still be counted on to play big minutes.  It’s telling, however, that GM Chris Patrick indicated back in the spring that there were no plans to hold offseason extension talks.  He’ll be 36 when his next deal starts and while a decline is bound to happen at some point, he still could get a multi-year pact in the $6MM or so range.  With what they have tied up in their back end already, perhaps that’s not something they’re willing to do just yet.  As for van Riemsdyk, he has fit in well on their third pairing for the last several seasons.  Being a right-shot defender, the side that’s always highly coveted, a small increase even heading into his age-35 year seems reasonable.

Signed Through 2026-27

F Anthony Beauvillier ($2.75MM, UFA)
D Declan Chisholm ($1.6MM, UFA)
F Nic Dowd ($3MM, UFA)
D Dylan McIlrath ($800K, UFA)
F Justin Sourdif ($825K, RFA)

Dowd has been a slow developer but he has worked his way from a depth player to a trusted checker who has reached double-digit goals in five straight years.  That was enough to more than double his current AAV in exchange for a reasonable two-year term at 35.  It would be surprising to see him beat that in 2027 unless the point production heads more toward the 40s than the mid-20s.  Beauvillier rebounded a bit after a tough 2023-24 campaign and his playoff showing certainly helped his marketability as well.  Barring him getting back to the 40-point threshold, it’s difficult to see his market being too much stronger two years from now.  Sourdif is an interesting case with just four NHL games under his belt.  The Capitals paid a fairly high price for him (a second-round pick plus a sixth) so they clearly feel he’s capable of being a full-time contributor.  If he is, he’ll have arbitration rights in 2027 which would set him up nicely for his next contract.

Chisholm came over from Minnesota at the draft and quickly signed with Washington looking to avoid an arbitration hearing.  Last season was basically his first as being a regular so he didn’t have a great case to make for a big raise.  But he looks like a late bloomer and if he continues as a regular with the Capitals, he could move past the $2MM mark next time.  McIlrath has primarily been an AHL player in recent years, leading to this price just above the minimum.  He’s likely to be in a reserve role this season once again which should keep the cost low moving forward.

Signed Through 2027-28

G Charlie Lindgren ($3MM, UFA)
F Dylan Strome ($5MM, UFA)

It took a few years for Strome to establish himself but he has turned into quite the center in recent years for the Capitals, posting a point-per-game showing last season.  That type of production for the price of a second liner is quite the bargain.  If he can stay around this level of points over the next three seasons, his price tag could move more into the $8MM to $9MM range on his next contract.

Lindgren didn’t have the best of seasons in 2024-25 but his body of work with Washington has been that of an above-average backup.  This price comes in a little below the top of the backup market so if he can bounce back a bit relative to last season, Washington should do fine here.

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Hershey Bears Sign Simon Pinard To AHL Contract

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  • The AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals, the Hershey Bears, announced that they have signed forward Simon Pinard to a one-year AHL contract for the 2025-26 season. There’s no guarantee that Pinard spends the year in Hershey, but he’s coming off an exceptional season with the ECHL’s Tahoe Knight Monsters, scoring 33 goals and 64 points in 63 games with a +21 rating.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Ovechkin Still Chasing Records

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While Alex Ovechkin broke arguably the NHL’s most iconic record last season by scoring his 895th career goal, the Russian sharpshooter still has more milestones to chase in the coming year, Sports Illustrated’s Nick Horwat outlines.

In what could be his final season, Ovechkin will easily become the first player in NHL history to hit the 900-goal plateau. Just three goals away, a fast start should put that record in the rear-view mirror and could kick-start another pursuit in Ovechkin’s age-40 season. Currently, Gordie Howe holds the record for most goals by a 40-year-old player with the 44 he put up during the 1968-69 season with the Detroit Red Wings. It’s a lofty mark that remains unmatched 50-plus years later for a reason, but it’s a reasonable expectation for Ovechkin, who is coming off a 44-goal season while playing just 65 games.

Ovechkin is also just 18 points shy of cracking the NHL’s top 10 all-time scoring list, three goals away from entering the top 10 in playoff goals, and 192 hits short of becoming second all-time in that category.

Elsewhere in the Metropolitan Division:

  • The Philadelphia Flyers have been on a bit of a goaltending carousel over the years, due to a variety of circumstances. As Haley Taylor Simon of Philly Sports Network details, the situation may have hit rock bottom during the 2018-19 season when the team utilized an NHL-record eight goaltenders. Still, the Flyers haven’t exactly fortified the position since. However, Simon wonders if recently signed Dan Vladar could be the answer between the pipes. Still just 27, Vladar is coming off a solid showing with the Calgary Flames last season, appearing in 30 games and securing a .898 save percentage, a 2.80 GAA, and a career-high .586 quality start percentage. On the opening day of free agency, Vladar signed a to a two-year, $6.7MM deal and is expected to compete with Samuel Ersson, who appeared in 47 games for the Flyers last season and finished with a .883 save percentage and 3.14 GAA.
  • Penguins GM Kyle Dubas expressed a desire to improve both the depth and overall performance of his left-side defensemen, which led to a series of free-agent signings aimed at finding the right fit. Among the players he signed, physical defenseman Parker Wotherspoon — who inked a two-year, $2 million deal with Pittsburgh — may have the inside track on a roster spot. Wotherspoon, 27, has appeared in 108 regular-season games in the NHL across three seasons, including a career-high 55 games for the Boston Bruins last season. On the year, he averaged 18:02 of ice time per night and registered seven points, 75 hits, and 66 blocked shots. He joins recently signed Caleb Jones and Alexander Alexeyev, as well as veteran Ryan Graves, and promising youngster Owen Pickering in Pittsburgh’s depth chart. Per Justin Guerriero of Triblive.com, Wotherspoon believes Pittsburgh gives him the best opportunity to play. “They seemed interested, we seemed interested and we thought it’d be a good fit with some opportunity to play. … An opportunity to get back in the playoffs is all I wanted to do. Everything just kind of lined up really well,” he said.

Summer Synopsis: Washington Capitals

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Now more than a month into the new league year, the bulk of the heavy lifting has been done from a roster perspective.  Most unrestricted free agents have found new homes, the arbitration period has come and gone, and the trade market has cooled.  Accordingly, it’s a good time to take a look at what each team has accomplished this offseason.  We begin with a look at Washington.

Although they were unable to secure the second Stanley Cup in franchise history, the 2024-25 campaign was a monumental one for the Washington Capitals. Thanks in part to a loaded defensive core and standout goaltending, the Capitals surprisingly finished as the top team in the Eastern Conference, one year after qualifying for the postseason due to a tiebreaker. Outside of their play on the ice, team icon Alex Ovechkin broke the all-time goal record, surpassing Wayne Gretzky against the New York Islanders on April 6th. Still, after an offseason of little changes, will the Capitals be able to repeat their dominance?

Draft

1-27 – F Lynden Lakovic, Moose Jaw (WHL)
2-37 – F Milton Gästrin, MoDO (Sweden U20)
3-96 – F Maxim Schäfer, Berlin (DEL)
5-155 – F  Jackson Crowder, Chicago (USHL)
6-180 – D Aron Dahlqvist, Brynäs IF (Sweden U20)

Despite having fewer selections than normal and choosing toward the end of each round, given their finish in the standings, the Capitals did fairly well in the 2025 NHL Draft. Their success in the draft is weighed heavily by Lakovic, whom the team selected toward the end of the first round.

Lakovic was projected to be a mid-first-round talent, but fell approximately 10 spots to Washington. The Kelowna, British Columbia native recently completed his second season with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors, scoring 27 goals and 58 points in 47 games with a -25 rating. He’s a big winger with a powerful shot and good puck-handling skills. He has some deficiencies to sort out on the defensive side of the puck, though much of that comes through on-ice maturity, especially for wingers.

Other than that, the pair of Gästrin and Schäfer could see NHL playing time at some point in the foreseeable future, but they aren’t expected to turn into much. The former is coming off a solid year with MoDo Hockey’s U20 team, scoring 18 goals and 42 points in 40 games with a +6 rating. Still, a more accurate projection will be available next offseason, once he’s completed his first year in the SHL.

Trade Acquisitions

D Declan Chisholm (from Minnesota)

Unlike last offseason, the Capitals made very few trades this offseason. The only trade they made was with the Minnesota Wild, acquiring Chisholm and a sixth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft for Priskie (who has since signed with the KHL’s Sibir Novosibirsk) and a 2025 fourth-round pick.

Chisholm won’t get much playing time with the Capitals, unless injuries start to mount, since he was largely acquired to replace Alexeyev, who signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Still, Chisholm is coming off the best season of his brief NHL career (for his standards), scoring two goals and 12 points in 66 games for the Wild last season with a -5 rating, while averaging approximately 17 minutes of ice time per game.

UFA Signings

D Louis Belpedio (two years, $1.55MM)*
F Anthony Beauvillier (two years, $5.5MM)^
F Graeme Clarke (one year, $775K)*
F Sheldon Rempal (one year, $775K)*
D Calle Rosen (one year, $775K)*

*-denotes two-way contract
^-denotes re-signing

Like their effort in the trade market, the Capitals also did very little on the free agent market. Their biggest free agent signing was a re-sign, as they brought back Beauvillier on a two-year deal after a solid performance after the trade deadline. Washington acquired Beauvillier from the Penguins for a 2025 second-round pick, and he rewarded them with two goals and five points in 18 games down the stretch. He was a bigger factor in the postseason, scoring two goals and six points in 10 games.

In a less headline-worthy deal, the Capitals brought former Vegas Golden Knight winger, Rempal, back to North America on a two-way contract. Rempal was never a notable player during his time in Nevada, but he could prove to be a quality depth option in Washington. He had an impressive year with the KHL’s Salavat Yulaev Ufa, scoring 31 goals and totaling 61 points in 68 games, along with a +7 rating. He also added eight goals and 21 points in 19 postseason contests.

Even though they didn’t win the sweepstakes, it’s important to note that the Capitals were among the finalists for Nikolaj Ehlers’ services before he ultimately signed with the Carolina Hurricanes. If Washington were willing to procure a player of Ehlers’ talent, it could be something to watch out for during the 2025-26 season. Although it’s unlikely the Capitals deal from their depth of impressive young talent on the roster, they could go big-game hunting toward the deadline season if they’re in a position to make the postseason.

RFA Re-Signings

D Martin Fehervary (seven years, $42MM)
F Hendrix Lapierre (one year, $850K)

*-denotes two-way contract

Much like they did with the rest of their defensive core throughout the regular season, the Capitals extended Fehervary on a long-term contract. He had the best season of his career last year, despite having the lowest ATOI of his career since the 2019-20 season. Fehervary scored five goals and 25 points in 81 games with a +18 rating, averaging 19 minutes of ice time per game. He finished with the second-most blocked shots, third-most hits, and finished third among defensemen (with 65 or more games played) in on-ice save percentage at even strength (90.3%).

The team also re-signed Lapierre, who they are hoping can finally break out this upcoming season. After scoring eight goals and 22 points in 51 games for the Capitals during the 2023-24 campaign, Lapierre had a significant drop-off last season, only tallying eight assists in 27 games. It was apparent that Washington lost all confidence in Lapierre’s game last season, and he’ll need a big rebound season if he hopes to have any staying power within the organization.

Departures

D Alexander Alexeyev (Pittsburgh, one year, $775K)
F Nicklas Backstrom (Brynäs IF, SHL)
D Ethan Bear (NY Islanders, one year, $775K)*
F Lars Eller (Ottawa, one year, $1.25MM)
F Alex Limoges (Dinamo Minsk, KHL)
F Andrew Mangiapane (Edmonton, two years, $7.2MM)
F T.J. Oshie (Retired)
F Luke Philp (Färjestad BK, SHL)
D Chase Priskie (traded to Minnesota)
F Taylor Raddysh (NY Rangers, two years, $3MM)
F Michael Sgarbossa (HC Lugano, NL)
G Hunter Shepard (Ottawa, one year, $775K)*

*-denotes two-way contract

Outside of Mangiapane, the Capitals didn’t lose too much this offseason. The team’s recent departures mostly include depth players who had little impact during their dominant run in the Eastern Conference last season.

Even Mangiapane, who largely played in the bottom-six for Washington last season, finished 10th on the team in scoring with 14 goals and 28 points in 81 games. Thankfully, the Capitals already have an in-house replacement for Mangiapane in the 2023 eighth-overall pick, Ryan Leonard. Leonard only scored one goal and one assist through 17 combined regular-season and playoff games for the Capitals last season. Still, he should prove far better in 2025-26 with more comfort around an NHL organization.

Should Washington run into any hiccups through their bottom-six to start the 2025-26 campaign, each of the players lost should be fairly replaceable on the trade market, without having to give up an arm and a leg. Given the lack of roster turnover this offseason, the Capitals are bringing back a very similar team to the one that dominated the Eastern Conference last season.

Salary Cap Outlook

According to PuckPedia, the Capitals will have $4.125MM in cap space to work with to start the 2025-26 campaign. Outside of a decision on defenseman John Carlson’s future and a potential long-term commitment to Connor McMichael, Washington doesn’t have any longer-term issues to worry about thanks to their extension efforts throughout the 2024-25 season.

After next season, the Capitals should have plenty of cap space to re-sign Carlson and McMichael, while also having the ability to procure any top names on the free agent market. Still, there could be a significant cultural change to worry about, especially if Ovechkin chooses to retire from the NHL.

Key Questions

Will Ovechkin Stay? Outside of officially becoming the game’s top goal-scorer, the 2024-25 campaign proved how much Ovechkin has left in the tank. Even at 39 years old, Ovechkin scored 44 goals and 73 points in 65 games, tying for third in the league in goal-scoring. Assuming that his goal-scoring ability finally starts to deteriorate next season, would there be any hesitation from the Capitals to re-sign the greatest player in franchise history if he can only score 20 goals? The answer is no. Ultimately, the decision will come down to Ovechkin’s desires. Outside of another Stanley Cup ring, there’s nothing he has left to accomplish in the NHL, and with his contract expiring after next season, he may want to return to Russia to wrap up his professional playing career, similar to other Russian icons like Pavel Datsyuk and Sergei Fedorov.

Will The Goaltending Hold Up? One of the key factors in Washington’s success last year was its goaltending, particularly Logan Thompson. Thompson finished the season with a 31-6-6 record in 42 starts with a .910 SV%, 2.49 GAA, and 12.4 Goals Saved Above Average. Despite having some solid years with the Golden Knights, it was the first time Thompson had received votes for the Vezina Trophy, placing fourth. Still, given his previous play in Vegas, there’s no reason to believe that Thompson will have any serious setbacks next season. Unfortunately, there are some injury concerns with Thompson, who lost significant playing time from 2022 to 2024 due to varying ailments. With only one quality season under his belt, is it safe for the Capitals to rely on Charlie Lindgren to keep the team’s head above water should Thompson have another serious injury?

Was Last Year A Fluke? There’s no questioning that outside the Capitals organization, few expected the year they had. Washington had not finished with more than 100 points since the 2018-19 campaign, a year after they won their first Stanley Cup championship. Given that Washington had a 20-point fall in the standings between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaign, is that something to be expected next season? The Capitals were bounced easily in the second round of the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs by the Carolina Hurricanes, and the Hurricanes will again be fierce competition next season. Thankfully, outside of the Hurricanes and a healthy New Jersey Devils team, the Capitals have little to deal with in the Metropolitan Division. They should face some healthy competition from the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers, but there’s little reason the Capitals can’t have a similar performance next season.

Photos courtesy of Peter Casey (Fehervary) and Charles LeClaire (Ovechkin)-Imagn Images. 

Capitals Hire Derek King As AHL Head Coach

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The Washington Capitals have appointed Derek King as the Hershey Bears head coach. He will become the 29th head coach in franchise history, taking over the role from Todd Nelson who was promoted to an assistant coach role with the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this summer. This will mark King’s first head coach role since the 2021-22 season.

King has deep roots in professional hockey. He was once a top prospect of his own, drafted 13th-overall in the 1985 NHL Draft by the New York Islanders after a junior career rife with high scoring and even higher penalty minutes. King turned pro two seasons later, and quickly shed the role of bruiser to step up as a high-end utility man. He scored 12 goals and 36 points in 55 games of his rookie season. He reached the 40-point mark in each of the next three seasons, building up to a true breakout campaign in 1991-92, when King scored a career-high 40 goals and 78 points in 80 games. It was his first time appearing in more than 70 games in a single season.

King surpassed 30 goals in each of the next two seasons, then began a gradual decline in scoring following a move to the Hartford Whalers at the age of 29. He was productive through his final years, including netting 52 points in 81 games of the 1998-99 season – his last full year in the NHL.

With NHL totals dwindling, King was assigned to the minor leagues in the 1999-2000 season, where he quickly returned to the heights of team-leading scoring. His proficiency, and veteran experience, were enough to earn a player-coach title for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins in the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.

That role kicked off King’s coaching career, though he wouldn’t take on a full-time coaching role until he joined the Toronto Marlies as an assistant in 2009. He stayed in that role until a promotion to associate coach in 2014. He opted to move to the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack one year later, then returned to the AHL in an assistant role with the Rockford IceHogs in 2016. King was promoted to the role of interim head coach when Jeremy Colliton was promoted to Blackhawks head coach in the 2018-19 season. He then superseded Colliton for the NHL role in 2021, stepping up as Chicago’s interim head coach through 70 games and setting a 27-33-10 record.

The Blackhawks would hire Luke Richardson to fill the head coach role full-time in 2022, but kept King as an assistant coach through last season. He’ll now return to the minors once more to man the bench of a club that’s won the Calder Cup in two of the last three seasons. King previously joined the Marlies to a Calder Cup Finals loss in 2012, but didn’t manage much success in transformative years with Rockford and Chicago. His move to Hershey will bring the club a heap of veteran experience, and could solidify King’s claim for an NHL head coach role should he lead the club to their usual success.

Bears Sign Bohlsen, Mayer To AHL Contracts

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  • The Hershey Bears, AHL affiliate to the Washington Capitals, have made a pair of free agent signings, according to a team announcement. Forward Kaden Bohlsen and defenseman Connor Mayer will join the Bears for the upcoming 2025-26 campaign. Bohlsen is coming off a quality season with Minnesota State University (Mankato), while Mayer spent a few games last season with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles.

    [SOURCE LINK]

East Notes: Cristall, Blake, Sabres

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Andrew Cristall was one of the biggest fallers of the 2023 draft, slipping to the Capitals in the second round at No. 40 overall despite some tabbing him as a potential top-10 pick. Concerns about his size – the winger checks in at 5’10” and 183 lbs – outweighed the offensive ceiling he displayed with 95 points in 54 games for the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets in his draft year.

In the two seasons since, the 20-year-old left winger has only improved and now, as he turns pro, will be given a legitimate chance to crack the Capitals’ opening night roster, general manager Chris Patrick told NHL.com’s Harvey Valentine. “He’s going to come in, if he has a camp like last camp, it’s going to be hard on the coaching staff to not keep him on their NHL team,” Patrick said.

His strong training camp showing with Washington last year preceeded an absolutely dominant junior campaign from Cristall in 2024-25, and that may be an understatement. He scored 28 goals and 60 points in just 28 games for the Rockets before a trade sent him to the Spokane Chiefs, where he finished the year with 72 points in only 29 games – a rate of 2.48 per game. That was good enough for the WHL scoring title with 132 points despite only playing in 57 of 68 regular-season games.

Cristall capped off his season with 21 goals and 41 points in 19 playoff games, leading the postseason in goals and being named a CHL First Team All-Star at season’s end. Now eligible for an assignment to AHL Hershey if he doesn’t crack the opening night roster, he’ll look to work his name into competition for a middle-six spot in Washington’s group as they deal with some turnover at the forward position.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference today:

  • There was surprise when the Hurricanes recently announced an eight-year extension for winger Jackson Blake coming off his rookie season, but the organization had its eyes set on a long-term deal ever since the campaign began, GM Eric Tulsky said today. “We knew by mid-October that he was on a trajectory we were happy with,” Tulsky told Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal. “I think we knew all along that he was someone who, you know, had the potential to be a long term fit for us and who we were going to try and get something done with, if there was a way to do it.”
  • The Sabres have extended their arena naming rights agreement with KeyBank by 10 years, the team announced today. The KeyBank Center, which was opened as Marine Midland Arena in 1996 and has also been known as HSBC Arena and First Niagara Center, will hold its name through at least the 2035-36 season. The initial naming agreement was signed by Marine Midland and remained in effect up until the coming season, as the name of the banking branch network in question changed hands multiple times over the last three decades.

Nicklas Backstrom Signs With SHL’s Brynäs IF

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Jul. 28th: According to a team announcement, Brynäs IF has confirmed Backstrom’s signing.

Jul. 27th: Brynäs IF of Sweden’s SHL will hold a press conference on Monday where they’re expected to announce the signing of former NHL center Nicklas Backstrom, per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. The news was first reported back in May by Tomas Ros and Hans Abrahamsson of Aftonbladet They mentioned that Backstrom’s deal is expected to run only one-year.

Backstrom played in eight NHL games during the 2023-24 season, and missed the entirety of 2024-25, as he works his way back from hip resurfacing surgery conducted in 2022. The surgery was the culmination of eight years of hip pain and discomfort for Backstrom. He first underwent an arthroscopic surgery in 2015 to identify and remedy causes of hip pain. That helped Backstrom stay on the ice long enough to win a Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals in 2018, but his hip injury took a downturn with flare ups in the 2020-21 season. He’d go on to miss the first two months of the 2021-22 season while looking for non-surgical remedies, but ended up moving forward with a Belgium-based surgery in the following summer.

Backstrom has missed a lofty 234 games over the last four seasons, dating back to 2021-22. That’s 71 percent of the possible 328 games he could have appeared in. He’s made hardy attempts at returning throughout those long-term absences, but ran into continued hip pain and was forced out soon after each return. Those routine exits have been tough to bear given Backstrom still performed at a top level when he maintained good health. He scored 31 points in 47 games of the 2021-22 season, and 21 points in 39 games of the 2022-23 season.

Outside of his near-decade long battle with hip injury, Backstrom’s prowess is hard to ignore. He was the perennial top-line center for the Capitals from 2007 to 2019 – routinely rivaling 20 goals and 70, or 80, points. His career year came early into his career – when he scored 33 goals and 101 points in 82 games of Washington’s 2009-10 campaign, then went on to net six points in four games with Team Sweden at the 2010 Winter Olympics. But Backstrom was effective for a decade beyond that peak, and will go down in history as the playmaking centerman setting up the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scorer, Alex Ovechkin.

Now, Backstrom will leave behind his NHL legacy to try and return to the ice with his hometown club. He grew up through the Brynäs youth hockey program, and made his professional debut with the club in the 2004-05 season. In total, Backstrom has racked up 66 points in 110 games with the Brynäs clover on his chest. He’ll hope to return to those levels of productivity – or, perhaps first, routine games – with the club next season, after racking up 1,033 points in 1,105 career NHL games since his last league game in Sweden.

Alex Ovechkin, Capitals Haven’t Had Extension Talks

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While not surprising news in the slightest, Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin confirmed to reporters in Russia today that he hasn’t had extension talks as he gears up for the final season of the five-year, $47.5MM contract he signed back in 2021 (via Andrey Senchenko of RIA Novosti).

Ovechkin, who turns 40 in September, also seemed to imply that any talks on a new deal would wait until after the 2025-26 season ended. “A year will pass and we will think about it,” Ovechkin said (translated from Russian).

That’s in line with the wait-and-see approach that Ovechkin had said he’ll take ever since last season ended. The Capitals aggressively walked back an erroneous email that got sent out in late May claiming that 2025-26 would be his final NHL season, and he told Russian media last week that reports of his retirement were “pure nonsense.”

It’s an extremely familiar situation to the last time that Ovechkin’s deal was set to expire. He didn’t sign that five-year extension until the last day before free agency opened in 2021, so the two sides are obviously comfortable taking things down to the wire. There’s been no indication that Ovechkin would consider playing for any other NHL team than Washington; it’s long been speculated that he’d head to the KHL for 2026-27 if he doesn’t sign another contract with the Caps.

Delaying extension talks also doesn’t have nearly as much bearing on Washington’s team-building process as it did five years ago. Any subsequent contract for Ovechkin would only be for one year, allowing them to load up his deal with performance bonuses to keep his cap hit low if they end up making other moves that take up most of their space. The Caps also need to consider the future of defense cornerstone John Carlson, also now a pending UFA, as well as a new deal for promising center Connor McMichael, who’s a restricted free agent next summer.

Even with those names in play, the Caps are still extremely well set up for the 2026 offseason with $36.5MM available to fill seven roster spots, according to PuckPedia. That’s right around the median in terms of projected cap space next summer, but only six teams have more roster spots already accounted for.

Likely influencing Ovechkin’s desire to return to Washington will be his desire to chase 1,000 NHL goals, and whether that’s even achievable based on what he produces this year. Injuries limited him to 65 games in 2024-25, but he still managed 44 goals, remarkably his highest goal-per-game pace in five years and enough to make him the league’s all-time leader. He’s now at 897 in 1,491 games over his 20-year career.

Jaroslav Halak Announces Retirement

at CDT | by 7 Comments

Veteran goalie Jaroslav Halak is ending his playing career, telling Tomas Prokop of the Slovak website Dennik Sport that he’s officially retired.

Halak, 40, hasn’t played anywhere in the last two seasons aside from a brief tryout with the Hurricanes that didn’t result in game action early in 2023-24. A ninth-round pick in the 2003 draft, his 17-year NHL career included time with the Canadiens, Blues, Capitals, Islanders, Bruins, Canucks, and Rangers, last playing in New York’s final game of the 2022-23 regular season.

Montreal was the team that drafted him 271st overall from the QMJHL’s Lewiston MAINEiacs, and that’s where Halak got his start in the NHL three years later. He emerged as another young complement in the Canadiens’ pool alongside young star Carey Price, even taking over the starter’s role in the 2009-10 season and backstopping the team to a surprise run to the Conference Finals before being traded to St. Louis for Lars Eller the following summer.

Halak never spent more than four years with a club in his prime and was prone to year-to-year inconsistency, but he was an arguable top-10 goalie in the league at his absolute peak with multiple seasons of save percentages above .920. He was always more of a 1A option than a true starter, only playing more than 50 games four times, but he ends his career as a one-time All-Star, two-time Jennings Trophy winner, and he finished top-10 in Vezina Trophy voting twice.

After serving as the 1A option for the Blues from 2010-14 and on Long Island from 2014-18 with a brief post-deadline stop in Washington in between, Halak spent the twilight years of his career as one of the league’s better backup options for Boston (2018-21), Vancouver (2021-22), and the Rangers (2022-23). He’s been an unrestricted free agent since then, with no items of note on his NHL future since being released from his aforementioned PTO with Carolina in November 2023.

In 581 regular-season appearances, the Bratislava native posted a 2.50 GAA and .913 SV% with a 295-189-63 record and 53 shutouts. One of the best undersized netminders (5’11”, 189 lbs) of his generation, he posted an even better .919 SV% and 2.48 GAA in 39 playoff games in six trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

All of us at PHR wish Halak the best in retirement.

Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images.

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