Capitals Sign Ryan Leonard To Entry-Level Contract
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
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
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
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
- 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.
Metropolitan Notes: Strome, Fitzgerald, Islander Defenders
Center Dylan Strome is in the lineup tonight after being questionable to play due to sickness, per a team announcement. He was a full participant in today’s morning skate and is centering the team’s top line between Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson.
Despite feeling under the weather, Strome scored Washington’s first goal of the game tonight against the Red Wings. His availability is key for the Capitals as they continue their run towards the top seed in the eastern conference. Strome has been instrumental to the team’s success, registering 65 points in 67 games played. He is set to break his career high of 67 points in a season, which he recorded just last year.
In his last three seasons, he has recorded 71 goals and 197 points and has assisted on many Ovechkin’s goals as the Russian sniper nears the all-time mark.
Elsewhere in the Metro:
- Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald discussed a scary situation that occurred to his son with his fellow general managers at their annual meetings, per an NHL release. Fitzgerald’s son, Casey Fitzgerald, a defender with Hartford of the AHL, sustained a serious cut to his neck from a skate blade in a game against Providence on Dec. 28. Casey was wearing a neck guard, which is mandated by the AHL, but the skate hit above the guard, and it was very close to being a life-threatening situation. The elder Fitzgerald approved of photos being shown of the wound, acknowledging the photos could serve as a reminder to the seriousness of these gruesome injuries. While the AHL requires cut-resistant equipment, the NHL currently doesn’t have these provisions in place. While Fitzgerald would like to see this change, he is also looking toward even better advancements in protective equipment. He noted that had the skate hit his son’s neck guard, it wouldn’t have prevented the cut from taking place in that particular situation. But better preventative measures, including wider neck straps, could help prevent serious cuts.
- The Islanders’ Adam Pelech is playing tonight against the Penguins, while defenders Alexander Romanov and Adam Boqvist both missed the contest due to illness, per a team announcement. Pelech was a full participant in the Islanders morning skate on Tuesday after missing Sunday’s contest against the Florida Panthers with a lower-body injury. Coach Patrick Roy noted his return as a huge support for the team. Pelech has recorded 17 assists, 65 blocked shots, and 68 hits through 45 games on the season. With Romanov and Boqvist out, defender Tony DeAngelo is paired with Pelech, and veteran Mike Reilly cracked the lineup for just the 13th time this season.
Ilya Kovalchuk Announces Retirement
Longtime NHL winger Ilya Kovalchuk has officially confirmed the end of his playing career, per Hockey News Hub on X.
Now 41, Kovalchuk is one of the most decorated wingers of the 21st century – even if his NHL career saw more than a few twists and turns. A dominant teenager with Spartak Moscow, then of the second-tier Russian league at the turn of the century, he was the first overall pick by the Thrashers in the 2001 draft.
Kovalchuk was the centerpiece of the fledgling Atlanta squad for seven and a half seasons, finishing second in Calder Trophy voting in his rookie year behind teammate Dany Heatley but capturing the league’s goal-scoring title with 41 in the 2003-04 campaign. He remained one of the league’s premier goal-scorers past the 2005 lockout, eclipsing the 50-goal mark twice with the Thrashers, although his throne as the league’s top left-wing sniper was quickly taken from him by countryman Alex Ovechkin.
In 2009-10, amid his sixth consecutive 40-goal campaign, the Thrashers dealt Kovalchuk to the Devils for what turned out to be an incredibly underwhelming return in retrospect – although they did flip the first-round pick they received in the deal to the Blackhawks to acquire longtime top-pair defenseman Dustin Byfuglien, even if those rewards were reaped after the franchise relocated to Winnipeg to become the second iteration of the Jets.
Of course, Kovalchuk’s time in New Jersey was incredibly tumultuous. Set to be a UFA in the summer of 2010, he returned to New Jersey on a record-breaking 17-year, $102MM contract that was quickly invalidated by the league for being too frontloaded. While the Devils and Kovalchuk agreed to a revised 15-year, $100MM deal, they were stripped of a first and third-round pick and were fined $3MM by the league.
After all that, Kovalchuk only played three seasons of the deal before abruptly retiring from the NHL, leaving $77MM in cash on the table to terminate his deal and return home. He played six seasons with SKA St. Petersburg of the Kontinental Hockey League, including a stint during the 2013 lockout. He was unsurprisingly the KHL’s premier offensive talent during that timeframe, posting 138-189–327 in 298 games with SKA, winning the Gagarin Cup in 2015 and 2017 and scoring the championship-clinching goal both times.
Upon leading the KHL in scoring in 2017-18 with 63 points in 53 games and winning an Olympic MVP and Gold Medal, Kovalchuk opted to make an NHL comeback and landed a hefty three-year, $18.75MM deal with the Kings. Then in his mid-30s, he underwhelmed in L.A. and managed just 43 points in 81 games over a season and a half before he again opted to walk away from the money remaining on his deal midway through the 2019-20 campaign. He finished out that season with the Canadiens and Capitals – the former signed him to a one-year deal following his termination and flipped him to Washington at the deadline. After amassing 10-16–26 in 46 games split between the three clubs, Kovalchuk headed back to Russia with Avangard Omsk.
“Kovy” finished the shortened 2020-21 season with 17 points in 16 games for Avangard en route to a third Gagarin Cup championship. He stepped away into an off-ice role after that, even serving as Russia’s general manager at the 2022 Winter Olympics, but returned to the sheet where his career began with Spartak last season. He notched 4-4–8 in 20 games and went pointless in five playoff games before opting not to re-sign last summer.
Kovalchuk played 13 NHL seasons, posting a 443-433–876 scoring line in 926 games with a -146 rating. He averaged a remarkable 21:15 per game throughout his career, including a few seasons north of 24 with the Devils. For his first NHL stint from 2001 to 2013, no one scored more than Kovalchuk’s 417 goals. He remained the Jets’ franchise all-time goals leader until Mark Scheifele finally surpassed him last month.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Sonny Milano Suffers Setback In Injury Recovery
Friday was a fairly quiet day for the Capitals on the trade front with their only move being the acquisition of winger Anthony Beauvillier from Pittsburgh. There’s another winger that they were hoping to get back soon but that’s no longer the case for Sonny Milano. Speaking with reporters Friday including Sammi Silber of The Hockey News, GM Chris Patrick indicated that the winger suffered a fairly significant setback in his recovery from an upper-body injury.
The 28-year-old has been out since early November and has played in just three games with Washington this season, being held off the scoresheet. However, he had been a capable depth scorer in recent years, reaching the double-digit goal mark in three straight seasons, the last two of which came with the Caps.
It looked as if Milano was well on his way toward returning as he had been skating for several months and participating in non-contact drills but Patrick noted that it’s back to the drawing board in terms of a plan for his recovery. Given how long he has been out for, his availability for the rest of the season is certainly now in question.
Milano is currently on LTIR with his $1.9MM AAV contributing to more than half of their current LTIR room which stands at $3.175MM, per PuckPedia. Washington is likely to use a good chunk of that when Ryan Leonard’s season comes to an end as it’s widely expected they’ll try to bring him in for the stretch run and playoffs so even if Milano was cleared to return before the playoffs, it’s likely they’d keep him stashed on there anyway for cap compliance purposes. Regardless, it’s fair to say that the second season of Milano’s three-year deal has not gone the way anyone would have hoped.
Capitals Acquire Anthony Beauvillier From Penguins
The Capitals announced the acquisition pending UFA winger Anthony Beauvillier from the Penguins for their 2025 second-round pick. After losing Jakub Vrána on waivers to the Predators yesterday, Washington had an open roster spot, so they won’t need to make a corresponding move.
Beauvillier, 27, spent less than an entire season with the Pens and now moves to his sixth team in the past three years. Pittsburgh signed him last offseason to a one-year, $1.25MM contract, and he’s played in every game this season aside from a healthy scratch in January. He has 13-7–20 in 63 appearances, including a minus-one rating and 120 shots on goal while averaging an even 13 minutes per game.
A first-round pick by the Islanders back in 2015, he hit the 20-goal mark in his sophomore season back in 2017-18 but hasn’t touched it since. He remained in New York until he headed to the Canucks in 2023 in the Bo Horvat deal. 2023-24 saw him change teams twice – first heading from Vancouver to Chicago via trade before the Blackhawks flipped him to the Predators at the deadline. Amid the movement, he had just 5-12–17 in 60 games and understandably took a significant pay cut last summer from his previous $4.15MM AAV.
With insane costs on the rental market this March, the Capitals turn to a more inexpensive pickup to address their need for an additional bottom-six winger – both in terms of acquisition cost and salary. Washington still has $3.175MM in flexibility after the pickup, per PuckPedia, so they may not be done adding to their roster. He’ll likely replace recent AHL call-up Ethen Frank in a bottom-six role and, while not a significant impact piece by any stretch, softens the blow of losing Vrána as a solid depth scorer on the waiver wire.
The Penguins now have a second-rounder in this year’s draft after trading theirs to the Canadiens in the 2023 Erik Karlsson three-team blockbuster. Washington, meanwhile, owns the Bruins’ second-rounder this year after acquiring it in the Dmitry Orlov deal at the 2023 deadline.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the trade. Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic was first on the return.
Canadiens Unlikely To Move Both Joel Armia, David Savard
The Canadiens are receiving high interest in pending UFAs Joel Armia and David Savard. With a playoff spot still in reach, though, they’re not likely to sell both players off before this afternoon’s deadline, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic writes.
That’s disappointing news for parties like the Jets, who David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports have a desire to acquire both. The Capitals and Oilers have also made inquiries on Armia, while the Maple Leafs have talked about picking up Savard from their chief rival to complement their blue line.
Montreal is just one point out of the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, but they’ve played one more game than the Senators, who currently hold the spot. There are currently five teams within two points of each other in wild card contention, too, yielding playoff odds of only 14.8% for the Habs, per MoneyPuck. That’s the lowest of the teams in that bubble.
Armia, in particular, has been a significant driver of Montreal’s unexpected success this season. The 31-year-old winger has re-emerged as a bottom-six fixture after a tumultuous 2023-24 season, which saw him clear waivers and log his first minor-league action since the 2015-16 campaign. Since being added back to Montreal’s roster after his brief AHL stint to begin last year, the 6’3″ Finn has posted 27-22–49 in 127 games for a 17-goal, 32-point pace per 82 games. He’s done so while averaging about 15 minutes per game, serving on the Habs’ top penalty kill unit with the recently-extended Jake Evans. He’s also got a plus-three rating on a team with a cumulative -33 goal differential at 5v5 over the last two years.
He’s in the final year of a four-year, $13.6MM deal he signed with Montreal following his strong showing in their run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. Carrying a $3.4MM cap hit, interested parties may want some salary retention for a player who will factor into a third- or fourth-line role for them. Montreal has one retention slot left and is willing to use it this deadline for the right price, according to Pagnotta.
Savard has been less of an impact piece. His ice time has been slashed in what’s now his age-34 season, averaging under 18 minutes per game for the first time in a decade. The right-shot defender has 1-11–12 in 55 games this year, but grades out as Montreal’s worst possession player at even strength with a 41.7 CF% and 40.4 xGF%. He’s a highly low-event player. Montreal only allows 2.8 goals per 60 minutes with Savard on the ice at even strength, fourth on the team among players with at least 20 games. However, he’s becoming a significant enough liability offensively to cause concern. Montreal only generates 50.2 shot attempts per 60 with Savard on the ice at even strength, according to Natural Stat Trick, the worst number on the team aside from Patrik Laine‘s 50.1.