The Capitals’ Roster Outlook With Or Without Alex Ovechkin
The Capitals were a surprise omission from this year’s playoffs after an impressive regular season and a playoff appearance a year ago. The disappointing result wasn’t the biggest news out of D.C., though. Superstar captain Alex Ovechkin has been non-committal about his future, while also implying he hasn’t played his last game.
Ovechkin’s possible departure from the game poses an interesting conundrum for the Capitals after they successfully navigated a retool to remain competitive during the final years of Ovechkin’s NHL career. Washington might need to prepare to welcome him back next season, but they might also need to prepare for life without the face of their franchise.
Even if Ovechkin were to return for his age-41 season, he’s not a long-term fixture on the team and not someone they should really count on to log massive minutes, regardless of whether he’s there. So, what are their options?
The first thing that could happen is that Ovechkin does, in fact, hang up his skates. This would mark the end of an era, creating a massive void both on the ice and in the dressing room.
There would be a leadership void in the Capitals’ room, an identity shift, and a need to rethink their power-play structure, which runs through Ovechkin. In fact, almost everything in the organization runs through him, or has been done with him in mind. That includes the recent retool Washington went through, rather than attempting a full teardown while he was still on the roster.
For those thinking the Capitals will embark on a rebuild without Ovechkin, that doesn’t appear to be the case, given what Washington has done over the past few years. The team is committed long-term to Pierre-Luc Dubois, Matt Roy, Jakob Chychrun, Logan Thompson, and Tom Wilson, and isn’t likely to blow up the roster anytime soon, especially given that they have the 11th-ranked prospect pool in the NHL (as per Scott Wheeler of The Athletic).
There is simply no need for the Capitals to tear the roster down, but how they proceed with the rest of their roster could depend heavily on whether Ovechkin is in the mix.
In any event, Washington needs to add to their offense next season and appears inclined to do so. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic spoke with Capitals general manager Chris Patrick last week, and they discussed Patrick’s attempts to sign Nikolaj Ehlers last summer prior to him joining the Hurricanes, as well as the team’s pursuit of Artemi Panarin at the trade deadline.
Neither of those attempts bore fruit, but it does indicate that the Caps know they need more scoring, with or without Ovechkin. One thing that will become clear is that Washington can’t run the offense through Ovechkin anymore, and he will need to fill more of a depth-scoring role than an offensive focal point, even as he comes off a team-leading 32-goal, 64-point season.
Realistically, the best thing for the Capitals would be to have Ovechkin return for one more season, while adding secondary scoring options. That would allow the team to transition slowly away from Ovechkin while onboarding additional players who don’t have to be the guy right away.
Just who those players could be is up in the air, but the Capitals do have significant assets in the draft pick catalog and their farm system who could be moved in a trade, which will likely be the path to acquiring a player unless they want to overpay for an Alex Tuch-type player in free agency.
The Capitals could get aggressive there, as they have $36.5MM in cap space with 17 players signed. Even if they extended Ovechkin for one year at market value ($9.068MM, according to AFP Analytics), Washington would still have $27.5MM available to sign five players.
The scenario where Ovechkin returns for another season could be special if the Capitals make strong moves in the summer. It would allow Ovechkin to control his exit, give the team the aforementioned transition year, and, if the team has better depth, they could use Ovechkin situationally to maximize his contributions.
Some folks might say it delays necessary changes or leaves the team stuck in the middle between eras, but given the state of Washington’s depth, that line of thinking seems silly. Ovechkin can still play and lead the Capitals’ younger players into the next era without being a distraction or dominating their development.
Washington was in a gray area this season, but long-term, with their prospect pool and available cap space, they have a chance to move into contender status with or without Ovechkin. It will just take some foresight and some luck to accomplish it.
One thing Ovechkin’s possible departure will force in Washington is some focus on the future. Whether or not he returns next season, his career is almost done, and Washington knows that now.
They don’t have to reset their timeline entirely, but they do need to be realistic about where they’re going when Ovechkin eventually goes. However things play out, the Capitals are approaching a summer that will define the franchise’s next decade.
It’s much more complicated than it has been in the past, because the mission has been simple for two decades: build around Ovechkin. But now the mission has become one of building after Ovechkin.
Capitals Notes: Ovechkin, Leonard, Dubois, Sandin, Wilson
The Capitals had their locker cleanout day today, and naturally, Alex Ovechkin continues to be prodded with questions about whether he’s returning for a 22nd NHL season in the fall. He maintains that he needs a little bit of time over the summer to decide with his family, but made things clear today that retirement is far from a sure thing in his mind. “I’m pretty sure it’s not my last game,” he said regarding Tuesday night’s win over the Blue Jackets, via Sammi Silber of The Hockey News.
In an interview earlier this month, Ovechkin said his family’s input, plus how he feels health-wise after a few weeks off, will be the most important factors in his decision. He’ll be 41 in September, but skated in all 82 games this year. It’s the first time he’s done that since 2017-18, although he rarely misses any stretches of significance. The league’s all-time leading goal-scorer still managed a 32-goal, 64-point year to lead the Caps in both categories. His 2.98 shots per game were a career low by a significant margin, though, so there’s definitely some cracks starting to show in his production.
More from the Caps today:
- Right-winger Ryan Leonard is heading to the World Championship to represent the United States on the heels of his rookie season, he told Silber. This year’s event kicks off on May 15 and will be hosted by Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland. The 2023 eighth overall pick made a smooth transition to full-time duties after being limited to one goal in nine games at the tail end of last year, coming out of Boston College. The 21-year-old finished fifth on the Caps in goals (20), eighth in assists (25), and eighth in points (45) while averaging 14:25 of ice time per game with 124 hits. The 6’1″ bang-and-crash sniper previously had an assist in six games for the U.S. national team at the 2024 Worlds and captained them to gold at the 2025 World Juniors.
- Center Pierre-Luc Dubois broke his hand in Game 80 of the season against the Penguins last Saturday, he confirmed to Silber. He gutted it out and played the next day, but ended up sitting out for the season finale against Columbus after the Caps were eliminated from the playoff picture. That, plus an abdominal surgery in November, limited the top-six middleman to just 29 appearances on the year. Missing so much of Dubois, who was an excellent second-line pivot for them last season, had a considerable impact on the team’s overall regression. When healthy, he managed a 5-14–19 scoring line with a -4 rating while averaging 16:49 per game.
- Joining him on the offseason injury rehab list this summer is defenseman Rasmus Sandin. He also got hurt in that Saturday game against the Penguins and was still in a knee brace today. It doesn’t appear he’ll need surgery and can walk under his own power, but will need “quite a bit of rehab” this offseason, he told Silber, so it won’t be an ideal rest period for him. Sandin averaged 19:12 of ice time per game this season, sliding up and down the depth chart, while posting five goals and 29 points in 73 games with a +4 rating. Fresh off his 26th birthday last month, he just wrapped up year two of the five-year, $23MM extension he signed with the Caps in 2024.
- Tom Wilson also played through the back half of the season and the Olympics with a high ankle sprain, Silber relays. He only missed about two weeks in January with it and while he said it was certainly playable, he was never at 100%. That was evident as he only managed eight goals and 20 points in 31 games after returning after starting the year with a 22-20–42 line in 41 games.
Capitals’ Pierre-Luc Dubois, Rasmus Sandin Leave With Injury
The Washington Capitals lost two important players during Saturday’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Center Pierre-Luc Dubois sustained an upper-body injury after crashing into the boards on the first goal of the game, while defenseman Rasmus Sandin was helped off the ice with a lower-body injury later in the game. No update or timeline was provided for either player per NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.
Both players have filled key roles for the Capitals all season long. Dubois missed 48 games between November and February due to a lower-body injury that required surgery. He returned to a top-six role in early-February and has scored 17 points in 21 games since. That production has provided a nice spark after Dubois failed to score in his first six games of the season. The 27 year old notched a career-high 66 points in 82 games during his first season with the Capitals last year. Sandin has stayed glued into Washington’s top-four and has 29 points and a plus-four in 72 games this season. He scored 30 points in 82 games last year.
With the duo out of the lineup, Washington will need to lean more on rookies Ilya Protas and Cole Hutson to continue bringing an impact. Both players are off to hot starts in their NHL careers. Protas has four points in his first two games, while Hutson has scored eight points in his first 11 games. Both have already worked their way onto Washington’s top powerplay unit, which fired on all cylinders during Saturday’s win. They will look to directly make up for Dubois and Sandin, while forward Ethen Frank and defenseman Timothy Liljegren could be called down from the press box.
The Capitals have two games remaining in their season and sit well outside of playoff contention. A pair of injuries could quickly redirect Washington’s focus towards deploying their young hopefuls, and resting their veterans, in preparation for a better season next year.
Washington Capitals Activate Pierre-Luc Dubois
The Washington Capitals announced today that forward Pierre-Luc Dubois has been activated off injured reserve and will play tonight.
Dubois has not played since October and has been recovering from abdominal surgery that he underwent in early November. Dubois told The Hockey News’ Sammi Silber that he wasn’t able to skate at full speed earlier in the season and could feel the lingering effects of the injury before undergoing surgery in the aftermath of a collision with New York Islanders forward J.G. Pageau.
In hindsight, it’s not a huge surprise to hear from Dubois that he was not fully healthy to start the year. He missed some time before landing on IR, and failed to register a point in his six NHL games. After scoring 66 points in his debut season with the Capitals, it didn’t take much to observe that something was out of order for Dubois earlier in the season.
While Dubois’ return comes just before the Olympic break, meaning he’ll have to wait to get into the rhythm of playing regularly again, his activation comes at a crucial juncture of the season for the Capitals.
The team is currently on the outside of the Eastern Conference’s playoff picture, sitting six points behind the Boston Bruins for the final Wild Card spot and four points behind the Islanders for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Getting Dubois back should be a significant boost to the Capitals’ hopes of rallying and making a push for a playoff spot. Even if it takes him some time to get back up to speed, he should immediately upgrade the Capitals’ standing at the all-important center position.
While Justin Sourdif has been something of a revelation in his first full campaign in the NHL (he has 12 goals, 26 points in 54 games) he’s not at the point in his career where he’s a true top-six center. Dubois is, and his return to the Capitals lineup should create a ripple effect that allows a player like Sourdif to occupy a more appropriate spot in the lineup.
Dubois’ return to the lineup is no guarantee Washington will be able to return to the playoffs. But given how good he was for the team last season, it will certainly help.
Photos courtesy of Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
East Notes: Dubois, Kesselring, Horvat, Nylander
Capitals center Pierre-Luc Dubois has started skating as he continues to work his way back from abdominal surgery two months ago, reports Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post (Twitter link). The original recovery timeline for the procedure was three to four months so he’s past the halfway point now. However, head coach Spencer Carbery quickly mentioned that the 27-year-old won’t return until after the Olympic break next month. Dubois got off to a slow start before the injury and was held without a point in his first six games but he was a key contributor last season, tallying a career-high 66 points. He’ll certainly be a welcome addition for Washington for the stretch run.
Elsewhere in the East:
- Sabres defenseman Michael Kesselring missed today’s game against Columbus due to a lower-body injury and is listed as day-to-day, relays Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald (Twitter link). It has been a rough start to the year for the 25-year-old, who is in his first season with Buffalo after coming over from Utah in an offseason trade. Kesselring has missed more games than he has played due to injury and is still looking for his first point after being held off the scoresheet in his first 16 outings after putting up 29 points just last season.
- Islanders center Bo Horvat skated on his own today, just two days after suffering a lower-body injury, notes Stefan Rosner of The Hockey News (Twitter link). Head coach Patrick Roy noted that the veteran seems to be doing well but couldn’t provide a timeline for his return. At a minimum, Horvat will miss the next week, making him IR-eligible should New York need to open up a short-term roster spot. Horvat, who was named to Canada’s Olympic team this week, has 21 goals and 12 assists in 36 games this season.
- Maple Leafs winger William Nylander will miss his fourth straight game tonight due to a lower-body injury, mentions David Alter of The Hockey News. However, head coach Craig Berube indicated that Nylander is progressing well and the hope is that he could be back on the ice on Monday for practice. Despite missing seven games due to various injuries this season, Nylander still leads Toronto in scoring with 14 goals and 27 assists in 33 games.
Capitals’ Pierre-Luc Dubois Undergoes Surgery, Out 3-4 Months
11/09/25: The Washington Capitals announced today that Dubois underwent surgery on Friday in order “to address injuries to his abdominal and adductor muscles.” The Capitals added that Dubois is “expected to miss 3-4 months” as he recovers.
While it had been announced previously that Dubois would miss an “extended period” due to the injury, today’s announcement provides clarity on the nature of Dubois’ injury and a timeline for his return.
Dubois is a key contributor in Washington, and losing him for such a significant amount of time will likely damage the Capitals’ efforts to push for a playoff spot in a competitive, deep Eastern Conference. In four games since Dubois’ injury, the Capitals have gone 1-2-1.
In Dubois’ absence, Washington has shifted McMichael back to center and had him take Dubois’ spot as the team’s second-line pivot. After breaking out last season and scoring 26 goals and 57 points, McMichael is down to just four points through 15 games this year, and just one point since moving to the 2C role.
The other two centers playing behind first-liner Dylan Strome in Washington’s lineup, Hendrix Lapierre and Nic Dowd, have a combined six points this season.
If the Capitals’ centers behind Strome continue to struggle to produce offensively, Dubois’ injury could place Washington firmly in the market for an external center addition. The list of teams looking to acquire a capable NHL center is far more crowded than the list of teams with a quality NHL pivot they’re willing to trade, and this injury to Dubois may only further complicate that trade market.
11/03/25:The Washington Capitals have received bad news on center Pierre-Luc Dubois‘ lower-body injury. He will be out for an “extended period”, head coach Spencer Carbery told The Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson. The Capitals are continuing to evaluate the injury and aren’t yet sure if Dubois will need surgery, per Johnson.
Dubois’ knee buckled on a defensive-zone faceoff in Friday night’s loss to the New York Islanders. He needed assistance getting off the ice. No specifics have been revealed about Dubois’ injury, though Carbery did note that it is unrelated to the lower-body injury that forced Dubois out of five games earlier in the season. The 27-year-old was making his return from that prior injury on Friday, but only managed six minutes back in the lineup before going down again.
Dubois has only been in the lineup for five full games this season. He is still searching for his first point of the season, currently sitting with just nine shots on goal and six hits to his name. Dubois was a core piece of Washington’s offense last season. He reached 20 goals and 66 points while filling the second-line center role for all 82 games. That scoring tied Dubois with Aliaksei Protas for third on the team in scoring, though Protas managed 30 goals and only played 76 games. Dubois centered Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson, who both posted career-highs in scoring.
Last season marked a phenomenal start to Dubois’ time in Washington. He finished the year with a plus-27, an incredible surge after recording a negative plus-minus in four of the prior five seasons. He had previously reached solid scoring marks, though, achieving four 20-goal seasons and three 60-point seasons prior to 2024-25. Those performances spanned a tenure with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Winnipeg Jets, though Dubois has seemed to find his firmest roots in the Capitals organization. He’s a pillar of the offense when healthy, and should return to a top-six role on the other side of this indefinite injury.
Metro Injury Notes: Capitals, Rangers, Hurricanes
The Washington Capitals took the ice for practice this morning, and there were a few takeaways on the injury front. A report from Sammi Silber of The Hockey News indicated that forward Ethen Frank had returned to skating in a non-contact jersey, while defenseman Rasmus Sandin has been fully cleared for contact.
Additionally, Silber shared that center Pierre-Luc Dubois, who’s considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury, did not join the team for practice. All around, it’s mostly positive news for the Capitals, given that Frank and Sandin are the only two currently on the team’s injured reserve.
Since he hasn’t played since October 21st, Sandin has missed the most time of the trio. He’s tallied two assists in seven games for Washington this year, averaging 19:24 of ice time per contest. Meanwhile, Frank hasn’t played since the Capitals’ game on October 28th against the Dallas Stars after being reverse-hit by Mikko Rantanen. Despite the play looking relatively scary, it appears that Frank is on track to return sooner rather than later.
Other injury notes from the Metropolitan Division:
- Peter Baugh of The Athletic provided updates on a pair of injured New York Rangers. Baugh reported that defenseman Urho Vaakanainen is considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury and wasn’t on the ice for practice this morning. However, in a positive update, Baugh shared that Vincent Trocheck has returned wearing a non-contact jersey. Although Baugh didn’t comment on a potential return for Trocheck, it at least shows that a return is on the horizon. He’s currently on the team’s long-term injured reserve and hasn’t played since October 9th.
- The injury news isn’t as positive for the Carolina Hurricanes. According to Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer, defensemen Jaccob Slavin and K’Andre Miller have yet to return to practice for the Hurricanes. It’s another blow to a defensive core that’s been devastated by injuries to begin the 2025-26 campaign. Still, despite the unlikelihood of Miller playing in Carolina’s next game, he’s not expected to miss much more time.
Evening Notes: Liljegren, Dubois, Fensore
San Jose Sharks defenseman Timothy Liljegren exited the team’s Saturday win over the Colorado Avalanche in the first period after a deflected puck hit him in the face while he was on the bench. The injury looked painful, but Liljegren isn’t expected to miss the long-term with a serious injury, head coach Ryan Warsofsky told Bay Area News Group’s Curtis Pashelka.
Liljegren recorded seven minutes of ice time and a minus-one before exiting. The injury forced an end to a red-hot streak for the veteran defender. He scored three points across his last three games, prior to Saturday, and averaged over 24 minutes of ice time across his last five. He’s begun to show some sea legs after being thrust to the top of a young Sharks blue-line in the early season. Liljegren and defense partner Dmitry Orlov have outscored their opponents three-to-one – the best mark on San Jose blue-line. That will make him tough to replace, even though he’s only managed three assists in eight games.
The Sharks are currently carrying Sam Dickinson and Vincent Iorio as their extra defenders. Right-shot Iorio would likely be the preferred fill-in, though Warsofsky wouldn’t committ to either defender yet.
Other notes from around the league:
- It seems the Washington Capitals have avoided serious injury with centerman Pierre-Luc Dubois, who sustained an injury in Friday’s game against the New York Islanders. He’s been designated as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. Dubois was playing his third game back from a previous injury that held him out for two weeks. His struggles to find the scoresheet stuck around, though, pulling the reigning 66-point scorer through a sixth game with no scoring this season. He will miss Washington’s Saturday match against the Buffalo Sabres, but should return to his hunt for a score in the first week of November.
- With K’Andre Miller nearing a return from injury, the Carolina Hurricanes have assigned defenseman Domenick Fensore back to the minor-leagues. Fensore played in his first game of the NHL season, and third of his career, on October 28th. He recorded two shots on net and a minus-two. He’s been far more productive in the AHL, where his seven points in four games still leads the Chicago Wolves in scoring, despite the team playing two games without him. Fensore will now return to his cushy top-defender role, where he’ll look to bolster a Wolves offense that’s only scored three goals across their last three games.
Capitals Recall Spencer Smallman
On the heels of Pierre-Luc Dubois suffering a lower-body injury in last night’s game against the Islanders, the Capitals have added some extra forward depth to their roster. The team announced that they’ve recalled winger Spencer Smallman from AHL Hershey. Washington had an open roster spot so no further moves were needed.
The 29-year-old is getting the first recall of his career in his second season with the Capitals. Smallman has been a consistent producer at the AHL level, notching between 21 and 34 points in each of the last four seasons with the latter number coming last year, helping to earn Smallman a two-year, two-way contract back in April.
This season, Smallman is producing at a similar clip, picking up two goals and an assist through six games with Hershey.
As for Dubois, he suffered his injury late in the first period (his second lower-body issue of the season) on Friday night in a collision with Jean-Gabriel Pageau and needed assistance to get off the ice. There was no immediate update postgame but given the difficulty he had putting weight on his leg following the injury, it’s reasonable to infer that he’s going to miss some time, necessitating Smallman’s promotion.
Capitals Activate Pierre-Luc Dubois Off IR, Assign Ethen Frank To AHL
The Capitals have made a pair of roster moves in advance of their game tonight against Ottawa. The team announced that they have activated center Pierre-Luc Dubois off injured reserve. To make room for him on the roster, the team has returned winger Ethen Frank to AHL Hershey.
Dubois wound up missing a little more than two weeks with a lower-body injury that was originally hoped to be a day-to-day issue. Instead, he wound up missing five games. Dubois has been held off the scoresheet in his three appearances this season but is coming off a career season in his first campaign with Washington. Last season, he had 20 goals and 46 assists in 82 games, showing flashes of being the impactful top-six center that made him the third-overall pick in 2016 and led to an eight-year, $68MM contract two years ago.
Dubois will presumably return to a role in Washington’s top six in his return. Hendrix Lapierre skated on the second line last game and is the logical fit to cede his spot to Dubois with Lapierre then returning to the fourth line in place of Frank.
As for Frank, he got into a pair of games with Washington while on recall, picking up an assist in 12:34 per game of ice time. That brings his NHL point total to eight in 26 outings after getting into 24 games with the Caps last season. The 27-year-old also has a pair of goals in two appearances with the Bears in 2025-26 and is a strong candidate to be brought back up whenever the next injury arises up front for the Capitals.