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Capitals Recall Hunter Shepard

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The Capitals have recalled goaltender Hunter Shepard from AHL Hershey, the team announced today. The move comes after No. 1 netminder Logan Thompson left Wednesday’s loss to the Hurricanes with an upper-body injury after the first period and did not return. He’ll presumably miss tonight’s clash with the Blackhawks while Shepard backs up Charlie Lindgren.

With the playoffs just over two weeks away, an injury scare to Washington’s breakout star between the pipes is far from good news. Thompson will almost certainly be a Vezina Trophy finalist in the coming weeks, ranking ninth in the NHL with a 2.49 GAA and .910 SV% while placing second in the league with 26.0 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck. He’s run cold as of late, logging a .780 SV% in his last three outings, but has a remarkable 31-6-6 record on the year and put pen to paper on a six-year, $35.1MM extension in January.

The Caps haven’t issued a timeline for his return and he’s still being evaluated, so there should be more clarity on Thompson’s absence in the coming days. In the interim, the 29-year-old Shepard is an intriguing third-string option for Washington. He made his NHL debut last season, posting a 2-1-1 record with a .894 SV% and 3.19 GAA in four spot starts throughout the campaign. An undrafted free agent signing by Hershey out of the University of Minnesota-Duluth back in 2020, he’s in the back half of the two-year, two-way deal he signed with the Caps in 2023 and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Shepard’s big-league debut came amid one of the more decorated seasons we’ve seen from an AHL netminder in quite some time. He was unquestionably the top goalie in minor hockey in 2023-24, leading the league in GAA (1.76) and SV% (.929) while taking home the league’s Baz Bastien Memorial Award for the top goaltender. Naturally, he was awarded a First All-Star Team nod and helped guide Hershey to its second straight Calder Cup championship.

However, his numbers have cratered in 2024-25. In 37 appearances, Shepard has a 2.81 GAA, .891 SV% and three shutouts. That’s still good for a 22-11-3 record behind a strong skater core in Hershey, but it’s a far cry from the outright dominance he’s shown in previous years – enough to call into question whether Washington will offer him a new deal this offseason. With a playoff berth locked up, he could still see some NHL action down the stretch in order to allow Lindgren and Thompson rest ahead of the postseason, though.

Thompson Exits With Upper-Body Injury

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  • Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson suffered an upper-body injury in the first period tonight against Carolina, the team announced (Twitter link). While he finished the period, he did not return after that.  The 27-year-old has done quite well in his first season with Washington, posting a 31-5-6 record with a 2.43 GAA and a .912 SV% in 42 games heading into tonight’s action, earning himself a six-year, $35.1MM extension back in January.  While Washington has a big cushion for top spot in the Metropolitan Division, an extended absence certainly wouldn’t be ideal heading into the playoffs.

Matt Roy Out For Familial Returns

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Capitals Re-Sign Spencer Smallman To Two-Year Deal

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The Capitals announced they’re keeping depth winger Spencer Smallman around for the next two seasons on a two-way deal. The contract will pay him an NHL salary of $775K and an AHL salary of $380K each season, signifying a slight raise over his current $350K minors salary.

Smallman, 28, has never played an NHL game, yet this will mark his sixth NHL contract. A fifth-round pick by the Hurricanes back in 2015, he signed his entry-level contract with Carolina two years later. He signed consecutive two-way deals after that to extend his stay in the Carolina organization to five years. However, he became a Group VI unrestricted free agent in 2022 and moved to the Avalanche on a two-year, two-way deal that offseason. After failing to land an NHL call-up again, he signed a two-way contract with Washington last summer.

Despite his name, the Prince Edward Island native is of good size, 6’1″ and 200 lbs. He can play both center and right-wing, and while his point totals have never really taken off in the minors, he has solidified himself as a solid top-nine presence after a few years of ECHL assignments to begin his career. His production has taken off somewhat in 2024-25, recording a career-high 9-24–33 scoring line in 55 games with AHL Hershey. He’d put up three straight 10-goal seasons entering this year but has yet to cross the 30-point mark in his professional career.

Smallman won a Calder Cup with the Chicago Wolves in 2022 and has 47-81–128 in 299 career AHL games. The chances of him making his NHL debut seem slimmer than ever – he’ll be 30 by the end of this deal – but he’s shown enough in the Capitals’ farm system this season for them to view him as a valuable depth piece to complement their younger prospects.

Poll: Which College Signing Will Make The Biggest Impact In 2024-25?

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A contract signing frenzy has broken out across the NHL as the NCAA season draws to a close. Teams are in a mad dash to lock up their star prospects, or sign impactful free agents who slipped through the cracks of the draft. The range of outcomes for these fresh pro recruits will stretch across the hockey world. Some will finish their seasons on amateur try-out contracts in the minor leagues, while others have earned a proud AHL shot, and even more find themselves suddenly thrust into the NHL lineup. The group of signees is headlined by prospects with years of anticipation behind them, joining teams with important games left on the docket. Those big additions lead to the natural next question – which college signing will make the biggest impact through the remainder of the year?

University of Minnesota star Jimmy Snuggerud may be an easy top guess. The 20-year-old right-wing has joined a St. Louis Blues team in the midst of a nine-game win-streak that’s propelled them into a confident playoff spot. St. Louis’ success has come in no small part thanks to rookie Zachary Bolduc, who has 16 goals and 31 points in 65 games this season. He’s been backed by other thriving young forwards, like Dylan Holloway and Jake Neighbours. The Blues have leaned into their youth movement by promoting top AHL scorer Dalibor Dvorsky to the top flight, after he potted 20 goals and 43 points in 57 minor league games. Now, St. Louis also adds the snappy shot of Snuggerud after he managed a dazzling 24 goals and 51 points in 40 games of his junior season. Snuggerud doesn’t shy away from physicality and plays a cool, calm, and collected game that should blend well with a Blues offense that’s firing on all cylinders since the calendar turned over.

But St. Louis’ Central Division rivals have a pair of new faces who could find their way to a big splash. The Chicago Blackhawks may be well outside of postseason contention, but they’ve received their own injection of young potential by signing Snuggerud’s UMN teammates, centerman Oliver Moore and defenseman Sam Rinzel. Both players filled top-end roles for the Gophers this season, to dazzling results. Rinzel took home the Big Ten’s ’Defenseman of the Year’ honors this year, after recording 10 goals and 32 points in 40 games of his sophomore season. Moore just narrowly outscored him, potting 12 goals and 33 points in 38 games of his own. The pair have already made their NHL debuts – and while neither scored, they were both instantly noticeable amid a Blackhawks offense that’s slowed down as of late. Chicago is looking towards the future as the season draws to a close, and strong performances out of Moore or Rinzel could go a long way towards cementing their top-of-the-lineup role through next season. It seems Rinzel’s spot may already be locked up – after he recorded over 20 minutes of ice time and four shots on net in his debut.

There’s even more to watch from Gopher alums in the Central Division – with Matthew Wood inking a deal with the Nashville Predators after completing his junior year at UMN. Wood ranked second on the Gophers in scoring behind Snuggerud, with 17 goals and 39 points in 39 games this season. It was an impressive performance for the fresh-transfer – but perhaps even more impressive, it was Wood’s first time not leading his team in scoring since he made his junior hockey debut in the 2020-21 season. He’s a fierce shooter, with the heft and skating to push his way into space, even against top competition. He could quickly find a role on a Predators team that lost Mark Jankowski at the Trade Deadline – and one that’s in desperate need of a booming top prospect to spark hopes.

While the Gophers look to take control of the Central Division, the Metropolitan Division could soon be controlled by Eagles. Boston College stars Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault have inked their first pro deals, signing with the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers respectively. The duo are absolute top prospects who have spent the vast majority of the last four seasons playing on the same line. Leonard is a beefy sniper capable of driving down the boards with speed and getting the puck on net quick. Perreault is a bit more nimble – and uses a strong drive to overwhelm opponents on the forecheck and quick hands to beat them in his paths to the net. Both have done nothing but sparkle with their individual efforts, and seem fully capable of translating at least some of their upside to the NHL right away. Leonard will join the best team in the league, while Perreault will join a squad currently in tight contention for the Eastern Conference’s second Wild Card. Both roles should lead to major roles that could lead the top names to quick scoring.

Plenty of other signings across the hockey world could pay off sooner rather than later. Even if they don’t, the chance to watch top prospects finally donning their NHL jerseys is hard no to be excited over. Who do you think will make the biggest impact? Vote below:

Which College Signing Will Make The Biggest Mark In 2024-25?
Jimmy Snuggerud (STL) 33.41% (303 votes)
Ryan Leonard (WSH) 32.19% (292 votes)
Gabriel Perreault (NYR) 15.77% (143 votes)
Sam Rinzel (CHI) 10.36% (94 votes)
Oliver Moore (CHI) 5.07% (46 votes)
Matthew Wood (NSH) 3.20% (29 votes)
Total Votes: 907

For mobile users, click here to vote.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Capitals Sign Ryan Leonard To Entry-Level Contract

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11:59 a.m.: The Capitals confirmed Leonard’s deal, confirming it’ll carry the maximum ELC cap hit of $950K.

10:39 a.m.: The Capitals are expected to sign top forward prospect Ryan Leonard out of Boston College, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. He’ll sign a three-year entry-level contract beginning immediately and will likely make his NHL debut tomorrow against his hometown Bruins.

Leonard turning pro is far from unexpected. Selected eighth overall by Washington in 2023, he’s spent the last two seasons dominating collegiate play with Boston College. A natural center who can shift to the right wing, he boasts 61 goals, 48 assists and 109 points across 78 NCAA outings – giving him the most goals in the country by a margin of 16 since 2023-24. The 20-year-old has also posted a combined +66 rating over his past two collegiate seasons, often centering fellow 2023 first-rounder and Rangers prospect Gabe Perreault.

While Leonard’s time at BC didn’t result in a national championship, he’s won gold medals for the United States at top-level international junior play in three consecutive seasons. He captained the Americans at this year’s World Juniors, leading the team’s forwards in scoring with 5-5–10 in seven games.

The younger brother of former Sharks winger John Leonard now looks to prove he can be an impact goal-scorer at the NHL level with immediate effect. He’ll have a ton of support in a deep Washington lineup that leads the league in scoring with 3.63 goals per game, driven by a stratospheric team shooting percentage of 13.1. In terms of actual shot generation, the Caps rank a concerning 21st in the league at 27.6 per game. Adding one of the best shooters outside the NHL down the stretch should help boost that number slightly heading into postseason play, where he’ll compete to land a top-nine role ahead of names like Anthony Beauvillier, Brandon Duhaime, Andrew Mangiapane, and Taylor Raddysh.

This year aside, the news kicks off what should be an illustrious career for Leonard in D.C. as he aims to eventually take over as the team’s top sniper when Alex Ovechkin decides to end his record-breaking career. He’s the clear-cut No. 1 prospect in Washington’s system, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic opines, and ranks as the No. 4 forward prospect in the NHL behind Ivan Demidov, Will Smith, and Berkly Catton.

Ensuring Leonard is available for next season’s lineup is an essential piece of the puzzle for the Caps, who guarantee a cost-effective top-nine contributor to replace a pending UFA like the high-priced Mangiapane ($5.8MM AAV). They’ll have north of $12MM in cap space to fill just four roster spots, per PuckPedia – all at forward – allowing them to be a legitimate threat to sign one of the top 10 players available this summer.

With Leonard’s ELC going into effect immediately, it’ll expire and make him a restricted free agent following the 2026-27 campaign. That’s the same summer in which Ovechkin’s, John Carlson’s, and Connor McMichael’s current deals expire, along with a few other important depth contributors.

Image courtesy of Eric Canha-Imagn Images.

Capitals Sign David Gucciardi To Entry-Level Deal

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The Capitals inked defense prospect David Gucciardi to his entry-level contract, as reflected by a team release. The two-year deal begins next season and carries a cap hit of $855K with an $82.5K AHL salary, the club said. He’s headed to AHL Hershey to finish the year.

Gucciardi turns pro following his senior season at Michigan State. Cornell eliminated his Spartans in the regional semifinals of the national tournament after capturing a second straight Big Ten championship. Gucciardi had a great season in the NCAA, scoring 6-10–16 in 37 games and finishing second on the team with a +21 rating. That, unsurprisingly, was enough to convince Washington to sign him before losing his rights on Aug. 15.

A 2022 seventh-round pick, Gucciardi was first eligible for selection in 2021. However, he was overlooked after splitting the year between the Youngstown Phantoms and the Waterloo Black Hawks of the United States Hockey League. He’s been a good two-way presence throughout his tenure at Michigan State. Still, his offense this season was a career-high by a significant margin after seeing a steady decrease in point totals from his freshman through junior seasons. Since the 2021-22 season, he owns a 17-28–45 scoring line in 139 NCAA games.

Gucciardi, a left-shot defender, stands at 6’1″ and 185 lbs per the NHL, although the Spartans list him at 200 lbs. He wasn’t ranked among Washington’s top 15 prospects by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic in January, and Dobber Prospects projects his NHL certainty at 30% with a ceiling of under 30 points per season at his peak. He’s not an impact player in the Capitals’ rather deep system by any stretch, but he’s good organizational depth and will head to one of the league’s best development environments in Hershey to begin his professional career.

Capitals Sign Dylan McIlrath To Two-Year Extension

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Only one defenseman on the Washington Capitals isn’t signed beyond this season. The Capitals announced they’ve signed Dylan McIlrath to a two-year, $1.6MM contract extension, an average annual value of $800K.

It’s a modest bump in pay for the Winnipeg, Manitoba native, who’s been earning $775K over the last three years with Washington. Should he stay with the Capitals organization over the life of the extension, it’ll be the longest McIlrath has been tenured with one team in his professional playing career.

That career started more than a decade ago. The New York Rangers selected McIlrath with the 10th overall selection of the 2010 NHL Draft after his sophomore campaign with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors. Even then, the pick was considered a reach, with the NHL Central Scouting Bureau projecting McIlrath as the 17th overall pick.

Still, McIlrath carved out a niche role with the Rangers organization, a role maintained to this day. The 6’5″, 231 lbs defenseman has never scored more than four points in an NHL season and no more than 17 points in an AHL season, but he’s found a home in the penalty box at the very least.

McIlrath has racked up a whopping 1,204 PIMs in 618 AHL contests, with another 133 Pims in 91 Calder Cup playoff contests. In the NHL, largely due to lack of playing time, McIlrath has accrued 147 PIMs at the NHL level in 86 contests.

Despite the lack of NHL playing time, it’s hard to consider McIlrath’s time with Washington as anything less than the best stretch of his career. He’s notched four assists in 20 games for the Capitals since 2022-23, averaging 11:03 of ice time per game. He’s still 18 games short of the total he matched earlier in his career with the Rangers, with his time in the AHL making up the gap.

McIlrath, then rostered with the Detroit Red Wings’ AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, won his first Calder Cup in 2017. Since joining the Capitals organization in 2021-22, McIlrath has tripled his number of Calder Cup rings, helping the Hershey Bears win back-to-back championships in 2023 and 2024.

Capitals Sign Jakob Chychrun To Eight-Year Extension

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According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Washington Capitals have signed defenseman Jakob Chychrun to an eight-year, $72MM extension ($9MM AAV). An extension between the Capitals and Chychrun has seemingly been in the works for some time, with rumored interest dating back to the beginning of the season.

The deal comes across as a market-setter for upper-echelon defensemen ahead of unrestricted free agency kicking off in a few months, not too dissimilar from how Leon Draisaitl’s eight-year, $112MM extension influenced the market for superstar forwards. Of course, Chychrun would be the top name on that market if he didn’t reach an agreement with Washington. Instead, he gets a deal that gives him much-desired stability while tying him for the tenth-highest-paid defenseman in the league, at least for next season.

Acquired from the Senators last summer in what was Chychrun’s second swap in as many years, the soon-to-be 27-year-old has re-emerged as a top-20 rearguard in the league. He’s seemingly shed the injury-prone label that followed him at the beginning of his career in Arizona, playing in 147 of 152 possible contests since the beginning of last season. After spending the first eight years of his time in the NHL with middling Coyotes and Senators clubs, he’s tracking to make the postseason for the first time aside from Arizona’s appearance in the 2020 bubble – playing a crucial role on the current President’s Trophy favorite.

The Caps’ league-leading offense is something to behold, considering their question marks entering the season about their depth, and a large part of their system success can be attributed to how general manager Chris Patrick retooled their blue line on the fly. Along with signing Matt Roy, acquiring Chychrun gave the Caps another puck mover with historically strong possession impacts to slot into their top four. He’s held up his end of the bargain, ranking third in the league in goals by defensemen with 18 and adding 25 assists for 43 points, second among Washington defenders behind John Carlson’s 46. He’s split the year between pairings with Carlson and Trevor van Riemsdyk, leading to a slight reduction in ice time compared to his career average. His 20:56 ATOI is his lowest mark since the 2018-19 campaign, but that’s a testament to Washington’s blue line depth more than anything else.

Aside from the point totals (his 0.662 points per game are 17th in the league among defensemen), he continues to positively impact the Caps’ ability to keep the puck out of their net. His 52.8 CF% is second among Washington defensemen behind Carlson at even strength, and his +4.6 expected rating is third. While his overall shares are driven more by his offensive production, his raw defensive numbers at 5v5 (26.15 scoring chances against per 60 minutes, per Natural Stat Trick) are still in line with his teammates.

Chychrun will return to D.C. next season along with all five of his regular teammates on defense, barring any trades. As the aging Carlson and van Riemsdyk weigh their future past next season, Washington’s defensemen at No. 2-4 on their depth chart – Chychrun, Roy, and Rasmus Sandin – are all signed through at least 2029. The other piece of the puzzle, Martin Fehérváry, is set to be an RFA in the summer of 2026 in Washington’s last year of team control. The Caps are committing $33.025MM in cap space to their blue line for 2025-26, 34.6% of the $95.5MM upper limit.

Overall, Washington now projects to have $14.125MM in spending money this offseason with six roster spots to fill, per PuckPedia. They don’t have any particularly high-cost pending free agents on the active roster, so that should be enough flexibility to retain who they want while making a somewhat impactful add on the open market.

Since the beginning of Chychrun’s breakout 2020-21 campaign in Arizona, when he finished 10th in Norris voting, he ranks 27th in the league among defensemen in points per game (min. 100 games). He has 94-165–259 in 532 career games with Arizona, Ottawa, and Washington.

Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

PHR’s Josh Erickson contributed significantly to this article.

Capitals Clinch Playoff Birth

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  • Last night, the Washington Capitals became the first NHL team to officially qualified for the playoffs. What’s more, they became the first club to since 1979-80 to be the first to clinch after being the last to get in the previous season, per AP’s Stephen Whyno. Their turnaround this season has been aided by usual suspects like Alex Ovechkin, Tom Wilson, and John Carlson, but have also been sparked by career-years from players like Dylan Strome, Aliaksei Protas, and Connor McMichael. As Ovechkin nears the all-time goal mark, he’ll also set his sights on making a run at his second Stanley Cup.

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