Capitals Rumors

Washington Capitals Acquire, Extend Declan Chisholm

June 30, 2025 at 3:24 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain 2 Comments

Jun. 30th: It didn’t take long for the Capitals to extend their newest blueliner. According to PuckPedia, Washington has signed Chisholm to a two-year, $3.2MM contract, with a flat $1.6MM salary each year. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent after the 2026-27 campaign.

Jun. 28th: The Minnesota Wild and Washington Capitals have gotten together on a defenseman trade. According to a team announcement, the Wild have traded Declan Chisholm and the 180th overall pick to the Capitals in exchange for Chase Priskie and the 123rd overall pick.

Thus ends a one-and-a-half-year run in Minnesota for Chisholm. The longtime depth defenseman was claimed off waivers from the Winnipeg Jets partway through he 2023-24 season and turned it into a consistent role with the Wild for some time. In large part due to injuries across Minnesota’s defensive core, Chisholm managed a career-high of 66 games played this past season.

Even further, Chisholm achieved career-highs across the board. He finished the season with two goals and 12 points, averaging nearly 17 minutes of ice time, with a -5 rating and 69 blocked shots. Additionally, his 50.4% CorsiFor% at even strength and 91.5% on-ice save percentage at even strength made him a quality depth piece for the Wild to have on hand.

Unfortunately, he’s unlikely to find a similar role in Washington. The Capitals already have seven defensemen signed through next season, without mentioning they’ll need a new contract for depth defenseman Alexander Alexeyev. If Chisholm isn’t content with moving back to the AHL, he’s an easy non-tender candidate heading into next week.

Meanwhile, Priskie has spent the last two years as a prominent blueliner for the AHL’s Hershey Bears and is expected to hold a similar role with the AHL’s Iowa Wild. He’s scored 20 goals and 69 points in 130 AHL contests over the past two years, with an additional four goals and 19 points in 28 postseason contests.

Michael Russo of The Athletic was the first to report that the Wild were trading Chisholm.

Capitals Notes: Alexeyev, Free Agents, Fehervary, Sourdif

June 28, 2025 at 8:25 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 4 Comments

Following the end of the draft today, Capitals GM Chris Patrick met with the media (video link) and provided updates on several players. While not going out and confirming that the team won’t be tendering Alexander Alexeyev a qualifying offer on Monday, he stated that the team is “going to be as helpful as we can to him to get him the best opportunity to play in the NHL next year.” Alexeyev was limited to just eight games during the regular season with Washington and with their addition of Declan Chisholm earlier today, it’s harder to see a pathway to playing time if he remains with the Capitals. Knowing that a qualifying offer would also carry arbitration rights, the likeliest outcome is that he’s cut loose.

Capitals Sign Justin Sourdif To Two-Year Deal

June 28, 2025 at 10:52 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 1 Comment

The Capitals have signed winger Justin Sourdif to a two-year deal worth $1.65MM, the team announced Saturday. It’ll carry a cap hit of $825K. The team didn’t specify whether it’s a one-way or two-way contract, but PuckPedia confirms it’s the former. He’ll earn an $800K salary in 2025-26 and an $850K salary in 2026-27.

Washington acquired Sourdif, who was set to become a restricted free agent next Tuesday, from the Panthers on Thursday in exchange for a pair of draft picks, including a 2026 second-round selection. The 23-year-old was a third-round pick by Florida in 2020 and was wrapping up his entry-level contract.

Sourdif’s $825K cap hit is lower than the NHL salary he would have earned by accepting his qualifying offer, which would have been $874,125. That QO would have been a two-way contract, though, and only for one year. By taking this contract, he lands an exponentially higher salary guarantee along with an extra year of insurance.

With contract business now in the rearview, Sourdif turns his attention toward cracking Washington’s opening night roster in the fall. He’s got a good chance of doing so. If the Capitals wanted to assign him to AHL Hershey, he’d need to clear waivers. That’s not a risk they’d presumably be willing to take given the acquisition cost they paid.

Sourdif has spent the vast majority of his three professional seasons with AHL Charlotte, where the 5’11” sniper has a 35-61–96 scoring line in 149 career games. That includes 16 goals and 34 points in 48 games this past season, his best points-per-game total in the pros by far. He’s also landed four NHL appearances with Florida over the last two seasons, including one in 2024-25 against the Predators in February. That game saw him record his first NHL goal.

He joins a group of depth forwards vying for bottom-six roster spots in Washington that includes Ethen Frank, Hendrix Lapierre, and Ivan Miroshnichenko. If there needs to be an odd man out, it’ll presumably be Miroshnichenko. While a first-round pick in 2022 who’s still on a good development track, he’s the only waiver-exempt one of the group.

Capitals Acquire Justin Sourdif

June 26, 2025 at 6:33 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 13 Comments

The Capitals have added some forward depth, announcing that they’ve acquired Justin Sourdif from the Panthers. In return, Florida receives Washington’s second-round pick in 2026 and Washington’s sixth-round selection in 2027.

The 23-year-old was a third-round pick by the Panthers back in 2020, going 87th overall. He spent the following two seasons in the WHL, splitting time between Vancouver and Edmonton, including his final season that saw him notch 72 points in just 52 games.

However, despite the offensive prowess in junior, NHL playing time has been hard to come by so far for Sourdif. He has just four appearances at the top level under his belt with only one of those coming this season in a game in late February when he scored his first career NHL goal. The rest of his time has been spent at the AHL level with Charlotte.

After putting up 24 points in 48 games with the Checkers in his first professional season in 2022-23, Sourdif was able to improve on that the following year with 38 points in 58 appearances. This year, his point total dipped slightly to 34 but he only got into 43 games after missing the first month of the season due to an injury sustained during training camp. He played an important role in Charlotte’s run to the Calder Cup Finals, collecting 10 points and 32 penalty minutes in 18 postseason appearances.

Sourdif will be waiver-eligible for the first time next season and clearly, the Capitals feel that he’s ready for full-time duty at the NHL level despite the limited opportunity that he has received so far and were willing to give up a return of some significance to make sure they got him while Florida adds a pair of future selections to their pick cupboards which aren’t exactly well-stocked at the moment.

The first order of business for the Capitals with Sourdif will be signing him to a new contract as his entry-level deal is set to expire at the end of the month. He’ll be a restricted free agent without arbitration eligibility and will be owed a two-way qualifying offer worth $874K in the NHL and $80K in the minors. Given that they clearly view Sourdif as an NHL piece moving forward, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a one-way contract given to him that checks in a little below that amount, giving Washington a little extra cap flexibility heading into free agency.

Capitals Re-Sign Henrik Rybinski To Two-Way Deal

June 26, 2025 at 4:04 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 1 Comment

The Capitals have retained pending RFA forward Henrik Rybinski on a two-way deal for 2025-26, the team announced Thursday. He’ll make the league minimum $775K salary if he’s in the NHL and a $130K salary in the minors.

It’s a nice birthday present for Rybinski, who turns 24 today. He’s yet to make his NHL debut but has spent the last three seasons developing in AHL Hershey after signing his entry-level contract in March 2022. That deal was due to expire this summer, making him a restricted free agent, but he’ll get some offseason business early out of the way with an extension.

Rybinski signs a deal that carries a lower NHL salary and cap hit than his $813,750 qualifying offer would have provided, but does land a higher AHL salary in the process. That’s the more important number for him since he’s not anticipated to spend much of any time on the NHL roster in 2025-26. He is coming off a nice year in Hershey, though, posting a career-high 10-25–35 scoring line with a +11 rating in 60 games.

The two-time Calder Cup champion with the Bears will now get another season to show the Caps what he can do. He was initially a fifth-round pick by the Panthers back in 2019, but they opted not to sign him to an entry-level deal, and his signing rights expired two years later. Washington ended up picking him up in free agency after he scored 65 points in 47 games for the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds in 2021-22.

Since Rybinski will turn 25 by next July 1 and has accrued three seasons of professional experience, he’ll almost certainly be a Group VI unrestricted free agent next summer, so this was Washington’s last summer with control over Rybinski’s rights. The only way they can avoid making him UFA-eligible next summer is by playing him in 80 NHL games next season, a highly unlikely scenario.

AHL Notes: Pitlick, Gibson, Utica

June 25, 2025 at 1:34 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 1 Comment

The Oilers’ AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, announced Wednesday they’ve signed forwards Rem Pitlick and Rhett Pitlick to one-year and two-year contracts, respectively. Both are still free agents in the NHL’s eyes, but will have a secure playing role in the pros in Edmonton’s system next season.

Rem, 28, is the older of the two brothers and has the NHL experience to show for it. He’s produced quite well in limited minutes when given the chance but has never found a stable home, suiting up for the Predators, Canadiens, Wild, and Blackhawks in parts of five seasons from 2018-19 to 2023-24. He’s managed a 21-33–54 scoring line in 132 career games, but despite that solid production, he didn’t land an NHL contract for 2024-25. He didn’t sign anywhere until February, when he inked an AHL contract with the Sharks’ affiliate. He finished the year with two goals and 13 points in 18 games, a diminished output from the point-per-game rate he’s hovered around in the minors over the past few years.

He’s joined by his younger brother, Rhett. The 24-year-old was a fifth-round pick by the Canadiens in 2019, but they relinquished his signing rights last offseason. Instead of turning pro following three years at the University of Minnesota, he transferred to Minnesota State for his senior season. He led the Mavericks with 27 assists, 40 points, and a +32 rating in 39 games en route to a CCHA regular-season and tournament championship. He was also named to the conference’s First All-Star Team and was dubbed CCHA Forward of the Year. He finished the season on a tryout with Bakersfield, notching six assists in six games with a plus-eight rating. Both are strong candidates to get NHL contracts from the Oilers at some point next season if they perform well and move up their list of potential call-ups.

Other notable news out of the AHL:

It’s unclear if the Capitals plan on issuing a qualifying offer to pending RFA goalie Mitchell Gibson, but the depth netminder will be staying in the organization next season regardless. He’s agreed to a one-year contract with the Hershey Bears, per a club announcement. Gibson, 26, was a fourth-round pick by the Caps in 2018 and turned pro in 2023 following four seasons at Harvard. He’s spent the vast majority of his pro career down a level with ECHL South Carolina but has made three appearances for the Bears in the past two years, recording a 1.95 GAA and .920 SV% in the process. He also did quite well in limited ECHL action this past season with a .933 SV% and 1.75 GAA in 14 games for the Stingrays. That may be enough to land him a full-time AHL job as a backup with Hershey in 2025-26 without taking up a contract slot on Washington’s books, particularly if the club doesn’t plan on re-signing UFA Hunter Shepard.
The Devils announced that the coaching staff for their affiliate, the Utica Comets, is set in stone for next season. Ryan Parent will stay on as head coach after taking over for Kevin Dineen on an interim basis early last year. They had a 31-33-6-2 record after the coaching change following a 0-8-1 start under Dineen. The club also promoted player development coach Mark Voakes to an assistant role under Parent and hired former NHL defenseman Matt Carkner as his other assistant. Utica’s goaltending coach, Brian Eklund, remains in his post.

Free Agent Focus: Washington Capitals

June 23, 2025 at 7:59 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

Free agency is now less than two weeks away, and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July, while many teams also have key restricted free agents to re-sign. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Capitals.

Key Restricted Free Agents

D Alexander Alexeyev – The good news for Alexeyev is that he was a full-time NHL roster player this season. The bad news is that he only played in eight games during the regular season plus three more with AHL Hershey on a conditioning stint. Granted, he did play a regular role in the playoffs with Martin Fehervary out of the lineup but this is hardly the most compelling case heading into an arbitration-eligible summer. The 25-year-old does have 80 career NHL regular season games under his belt and has been a serviceable third-pairing player in a lot of those. His qualifying offer checks in just under $919K and it wouldn’t be shocking to see a one-year deal come in around that cost, giving him one last chance to make a case for more regular playing time. Alternatively, they could non-tender him and give Alexeyev a chance to catch on elsewhere.

F Hendrix Lapierre – Lapierre was a regular for the first three months of the season but was limited to just eight assists in 27 games before being sent to the Bears in late December where he stayed the rest of the way. He fared well in that stint, averaging a point per game in 32 outings. That said, he did get into 51 games with the Capitals in 2023-24 so he’s not one of those players who’s likely to take less than his $874K qualifying offer to get a one-way salary; he should be able to land a small raise. But given his usage last season, both sides will likely want a one-year pact which should come in around the $1MM mark.

Other RFAs: F Pierrick Dube, G Mitchell Gibson, D Tobias Geisser (signed in Switzerland), F Henrik Rybinski

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

F Anthony Beauvillier – Once viewed as a projected top-six winger, Beauvillier’s stock fell considerably in 2023-24 to the point where he accepted a one-year, $1.25MM deal with Pittsburgh in the hopes of rebuilding some value. He fared well with the Penguins and was flipped to Washington at the trade deadline where he was quiet down the stretch. However, the 28-year-old then put up six points in 10 playoff games which will help his cause heading to the open market this time out. It’s unlikely that he gets back to the $4.15MM price tag that he had from 2021-22 through 2023-24 considering that he only had 25 points this season but doubling his contract from last summer should be doable for Beauvillier.

D Ethan Bear – The decision to sign a two-year deal with Washington worth just over $2MM per season worked well for Bear from a financial perspective but not so much from a playing perspective as he ultimately played just 24 games for the Capitals and spent all of this season in Hershey. Still, Bear has 275 career NHL appearances under his belt and is a right-shot player, the side that’s always in demand. He’s a safe bet to get an NHL deal somewhere but his market might be good enough to push his price point around the $1MM mark.

F Lars Eller – The 36-year-old managed to get to double-digit goals this season for the fourth straight year and the 11th time in the last 12 seasons. However, he is starting to slow down and might be better deployed primarily as a fourth liner who can move up when injuries arise. There’s still a market for that type of player but it’ll be at a lower cost than the $

F Andrew Mangiapane – Most of GM Chris Patrick’s moves from last summer panned out well but Mangiapane’s acquisition was an exception as it didn’t yield the bounce-back they were hoping for. Instead of rebounding and surpassing the 40 points he had the year before, his production dropped to a career-low 28 points. While he has a 35-goal season under his belt from back in 2021-22, it’s also the only time he has even reached 20 in a single year. Given his recent struggles, a shorter-term deal is likely and after making $5.8MM per year on his most recent contract, he’s unlikely to come close to that amount. Something in the $3MM range per season is where his next contract might land.

F Taylor Raddysh – After being non-tendered by Chicago last summer, Raddysh took a low-cost one-year, $1MM contract early in free agency. He did pretty well despite a limited role, notching 27 points while averaging a little more than 12 minutes a night of playing time. Given the playing time, it’s unlikely that he’s going to be able to command a substantial raise but he could get a multi-year deal closer to $2MM per season than $1MM per year. That would be a solid outcome for someone who was released just one year ago.

Other UFAs: F Nicklas Backstrom (signed in Sweden), F Alex Limoges, F Luke Philp, D Chase Priskie, F Michael Sgarbossa (signed in Switzerland), G Hunter Shepard, F Riley Sutter

Projected Cap Space

The Capitals enter the summer with $9.375MM in cap space with only a pair of low-cost restricted free agents to sign so Patrick is in a spot where he can add to his roster. Whether they do that with a significant addition up front or spread things out to fill a few spots and leave some in-season wiggle room remains to be seen but either way, they’re likely to be bringing in some pieces over the coming weeks.

Photos courtesy of Geoff Burke (Beauvillier) and Nick Turchiaro (Mangiapane)-Imagn Images. Contract info courtesy of PuckPedia.

Capitals Grant Ethan Bear Permission To Speak With Interested Clubs

June 19, 2025 at 11:58 am CDT | by Josh Erickson 4 Comments

The Capitals will not be re-signing pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Ethan Bear and have given him permission to discuss a contract with other clubs before the opening of free agency on July 1, Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV reports.

This was the expected outcome for Bear, whom Washington signed to a two-year, $4.13MM contract in December 2023 after offseason shoulder surgery. The signing was a puzzling one at the time. Washington already had six surefire NHL defensemen under contract, and although they dealt with injuries on the blue line throughout that season, the multi-year term raised eyebrows.

By the time Bear signed with the Capitals, he’d established himself as a legitimate everyday NHLer. The 5’11” righty was coming off one of the better seasons of his career with the Canucks, although they opted to non-tender him amid a roster crunch and an unwillingness to pay his $2.2MM qualfying offer. He averaged 18:32 per game while posting 16 points in 61 appearances, also logging a plus-six rating with good possession impacts (51.0 CF%, 51.6 xGF% at even strength).

Bear settled in as Washington’s seventh defenseman after signing, only playing 24 games over three months before entering the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in March 2024 and missing the remainder of the season. He averaged a career-low 14:54 per game over that stretch, recording four points and a minus-five rating with some of the worst possession numbers of his career.

As a result, Bear was on the outside of the Caps’ regular lineup when he returned to the club for training camp last fall. He cleared waivers at the beginning of the season and headed to AHL Hershey, where he spent the entirety of the season until being recalled as a healthy extra for Washington’s playoff run amid Martin Fehérváry’s injury.

Bear, 28 next week, was expectedly among the AHL’s best defensemen in 2024-25. He was a second-team All-Star after recording 46 points in 62 games. His two-way impact was arguably the best in the minors – his +33 rating was more than twice that of any other skater on Hershey. As such, there’s strong optimism around the league that he can return to being an above-average option as a third-pairing right-shot defender if deployed somewhere with more upward mobility. That place obviously won’t be Washington, where the Caps already have seven defensemen signed to one-way contracts for next season, not including pending RFA Alexander Alexeyev.

The 2015 fifth-round pick even had fine results in top-four deployment earlier in his career. While a rookie with the Oilers in the 2019-20 season, he averaged nearly 22 minutes per game while skating almost exclusively with Darnell Nurse on Edmonton’s second pairing. He had a career-high 21 points – 19 of which came at even strength – and helped the Oilers control 2.5% more shot attempts compared to when he wasn’t on the ice.

Amid a thin free agent market behind the top few players, particularly among right-shot defenseman, Bear aims to make a return to full-time NHL minutes at the right time for his market value. He likely won’t command a multi-year deal, but his past track record and strong AHL showing this past season will likely be enough to secure him a one-way pact and a legitimate shot at everyday minutes out of the gate.

Andrew Mangiapane Switches Agents, Not Expected To Re-Sign With Capitals

June 16, 2025 at 2:29 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 2 Comments

The Capitals don’t have many notable pending free agents. The ones with the most name value among them, Nicklas Bäckström and T.J. Oshie, spent the entire season on injured reserve and, in the latter’s case, have since retired. As such, it’s widely believed Washington will let most of them test the open market without much pushback while using the open cap space to pursue bigger fish in free agency.

That will be the case with one of their higher-priced ones. Winger Andrew Mangiapane will test free agency and isn’t expected to re-sign with the Caps, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports Monday. He’s also switched his representation from Raze Sports’ Ritchie Winter to RSG Hockey’s Allain Roy, Pagnotta adds. Winter is only the agent for two other regular NHLers, Oilers goaltender Calvin Pickard and pending Jets UFA Mason Appleton. On the other hand, Roy is responsible for 44 active contracts with another 28 pending free agents he manages – 29 now with Mangiapane.

The 29-year-old winger will hit the open market with his stock arguably at its lowest point since he entered the league. Things in Washington didn’t go anywhere the way he wanted them to after the Caps acquired the Flames fixture from Calgary for a second-round pick last June. While nearly every other Capital had some form of a breakout or resurgence en route to their 111-point regular season, Mangiapane’s 28 points in 81 games were his lowest output since his 44-game rookie season in Calgary in 2018-19.

A sixth-round pick back in 2015, Mangiapane has settled in as more of a consistent 10-to-20-goal producer. He’s only topped the latter mark once, erupting for 35 goals in the 2021-22 season. Even with that outlier skewing the sample, he still averages 20 goals and 40 points per 82 games for his career. That’s naturally where Washington expected his production to fall, but he was passed over for top-six/nine minutes early in the season by names like Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas, and even Brandon Duhaime to some extent. He averaged only 13:02 per game with his production suffering as a result, limited to 14 goals and 14 assists despite shooting slightly above his 14.4% career average. Mangiapane’s 1.17 shots on goal per game were the lowest of any qualified season in his career.

A repeat of his usual 40-to-50-point production might have positioned him to recoup most of his previous $5.8MM AAV on the open market this summer. Now, his open-market projection is at $3.8MM per season on a two-year deal, according to AFP Analytics. Even that may be unrealistically high with a bevy of middle-six wingers available this offseason coming off better platform years.

The Caps, despite looking to add, still have some quality young internal replacement options for Mangiapane in a worst-case scenario. Recent first-rounders Ryan Leonard and Ivan Miroshnichenko are both legitimate candidates to be on their opening night roster next fall, even if the latter has less of a case.

Offseason Checklist: Washington Capitals

June 15, 2025 at 6:44 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

The offseason has arrived for all but two teams now with the playoffs nearing an end. Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming weeks with free agency fast approaching. Next up is a look at Washington.

Last summer was an eventful one for the Capitals. After a quick playoff exit, GM Chris Patrick made several moves to add to his core group. They turned out to be some strong trades as Washington went from barely making the playoffs the year before to having the best record in the Eastern Conference before falling to Carolina in the second round. It’s expected that this offseason will be much quieter for the Caps with their checklist primarily looking at tweaks to their group over another overhaul.

Add High-Skill Player

This was one of the goals that Patrick identified last month in his end-of-season press conference. On the surface, that might seem a little strange for a team that finished second in the league in scoring but when you dig a little deeper, it does make sense.

Of their top six scorers from this season, five of them set new career highs in points: Dylan Strome (82), Aliaksei Protas (66), Pierre-Luc Dubois (66), Tom Wilson (65), and Connor McMichael (57). That’s a great spot to be in but it would also be unrealistic to expect that to happen again in 2025-26. Their team shooting percentage was also tops in the league at 12.6%, well above the league average of 10.7%. That number could very well come down as well after being just 9.9% in 2023-24.

There’s also the matter of Alex Ovechkin being in the final year of his contract. He had a big season to get the all-time NHL goal record but he’ll turn 40 in training camp; his best days are behind him. That’s going to be a big opening to try to fill next summer.

So, why not try to fill it now and get the best of both worlds next season? Washington has a little under $9.4MM in cap space for next season, per PuckPedia, with only a couple of spots to try to fill. With a bit of roster tinkering (more on that shortly), they could have enough to take aim at one of the better forwards in this year’s free agent class. Patrick wouldn’t rule out a “big hack” this summer and it’s more plausible than it might have initially seemed.

Clear A Contract

Let’s take a look at that roster tinkering as there are two players that stand out as superfluous when it comes to their roster composition. Moving out one or both of those would certainly allow Patrick more wiggle room to either take that big hack to add up front or make multiple secondary core additions this summer.

The first is defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. More of a depth defender earlier in his career, he has found a home with the Capitals on their third pairing and at $3MM, his price tag isn’t particularly onerous. However, he’s number three on the right side of the back end and was sixth in ATOI among Capitals defenders this season at 17:40. It’s a nice luxury to have but is $3MM too much for a sixth defender when you’re already spending nearly $34MM on the back end? (That number may yet go up with Alexander Alexeyev being a pending restricted free agent.) Would they be better off spending less on that position and reallocating some money up front? Plus, Ryan Chesley, one of their better prospects, is now signed and could very well play his way into the mix on the right side of the back end as well. Since it’s an expiring contract, Washington has a chance to get good value for van Riemdsyk if they were to move him.

The other contract is one that will be trickier to move, winger Sonny Milano. He was a frequent healthy scratch early on and then suffered an upper-body injury that kept him out for the rest of the season after suffering a setback in his recovery closer to the trade deadline. His availability to start 2025-26 remains uncertain. At a $1.9MM price tag, Washington could simply elevate Ethen Frank to a full-time role and use some of the savings on a more prominent player and the rest on a cheaper depth piece. If he’s out to start the season, he could be an LTIR candidate but that would only be a short-term solution while waiving him when he’s healthy would shave $1.15MM off the books but not the full amount. This isn’t overly pressing but getting Milano off the books altogether would help them.

Add Third-Line Help

This was the other item that Patrick mentioned at the end of the season about trying to find. In the final game of their playoff run, that trio consisted of McMichael, Ryan Leonard, and Andrew Mangiapane. McMichael and Leonard are both signed for next season already while Mangiapane is set to become an unrestricted free agent so it’s clear which spot he’s looking to fill.

There are a few different ways to fill the spot and it depends on what their plan is for McMichael. A natural center, he spent most of the year on the wing. What their plan is for him will dictate the position they try to fill, presumably on the open market. While Nic Dowd is capable of moving up and anchoring that trio with McMichael on the wing, it’s fair to suggest that Washington’s preference would be to keep him on the fourth line where he has had plenty of success in that role.

While the UFA market will have high demand for the top centers, there are enough middlemen available to play a bottom-six role that should keep the costs relatively reasonable. At that spot, players like Christian Dvorak, Luke Kunin, Sean Kuraly, and Trent Frederic would make sense. Meanwhile, wingers like Brandon Saad, Brandon Tanev, Eric Robinson, and Joel Armia could all fit. Anthony Beauvillier, their trade deadline acquisition, could also fit. The upper end of the price range for this group should be somewhere around $3MM while others might check in closer to $2MM. Depending on how much they want to spend on the top-six addition, Patrick should have plenty of options to fill this one if he wants to go that route to do so.

Get Younger

In recent years, the Capitals have been one of the older teams in the NHL. With a veteran core that included Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and T.J. Oshie up front with John Carlson on the back end, that’s not much of a surprise. They were the second-oldest team in the league in terms of average age in 2023-24 but that dropped to 11th this season. There’s room for that to go down a little more next season.

Leonard should be around for the full season after turning pro in April. Hendrix Lapierre, a pending restricted free agent, is waiver-eligible now and given his first-round draft pedigree and a point-per-game showing in 32 games with Hershey this year, it’s safe to say he won’t get through waivers so he’ll either make the team or be traded. The former is much more likely than the latter.

Meanwhile, Ivan Miroshnichenko has seen NHL action in each of his first two seasons in North America and probably isn’t too far away from being ready for a longer-term look. Andrew Cristall has lit up the WHL in scoring the last two years and made a real run at a roster spot back in training camp. And, as noted earlier, Chesley probably isn’t going to need much time in Hershey before he’s pushing for a spot on the back end.

Patrick noted a desire to try to get his team a little younger and he’ll have a chance to do so. If he keeps a couple of spots available for youngsters or even that opening on the third line (with McMichael moving back to center), it’s quite possible that the Caps could get themselves around the middle of the pack in average age. Considering where they were just a couple of years ago, that would be an impressive turnaround while still keeping the core of a division-winning group intact.

Photo courtesy of Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports.

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