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.