And the most interesting team in town is … the Capitals?
It’s Independence Day weekend. Hockey shouldn’t be on the brain. And yet here it is. In the past two weeks, Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan added … well, wait, he added too much to list in a tight space. We’ll get to the specifics, which are many.
To put it succinctly, answer this: If MacLellan and his front-office staff had a list of priorities this offseason — and they did — how many did they address?
“We hit them all,” MacLellan said Wednesday.
He is not a boastful person. But he is nothing if not plain-spoken. So go down the list.
A young center with high upside who can fill the role Evgeny Kuznetsov refused to play as he wore out his welcome with the only franchise he had ever known? Check. Welcome to town, Pierre-Luc Dubois.
Another 20-something who could center the third line — or move up in the lineup — and costs just a second-round pick in next year’s draft? Yes, Andrew Mangiapane, you grew up in Ontario and have played your whole career in Calgary, but you should familiarize yourself with the American capital.
An offensive-minded defenseman who can play heavy minutes and take some of the burden from overworked stalwart John Carlson? Check. Let us show you around, Jakob Chychrun.
Another defenseman who can play on the top two pairings but is more defensive-minded, someone who could help on the penalty kill? Check. Your locker is over here, Matt Roy.
“Normally, you don’t hit everything,” MacLellan said.
Yeah, but while you’re asking — howsabout a young, cheap goaltender who provides an option should incumbent Charlie Lindgren fail to duplicate his (unexpectedly) spectacular 2023-24? Sure. Logan Thompson, you make just $766,000 next season even though you started more than half of Vegas’s games? Come aboard for a pair of third-round draft picks.
Throw in a few more minor signings — probable fourth liners Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh — and the accounting of the Capitals’ absolutely dizzying offseason works like this: seven new players — more than a third of a game day roster — for Coach Spencer Carbery’s lineup. The cost: goalie Darcy Kuemper, who had lost his job to Lindgren anyway; defenseman Nick Jensen; one second-round draft pick and three thirds. Oh, but before you lament the loss of the picks, the Caps got a second-rounder back for fourth-liner Beck Malenstyn.
Oh, and two long-term deals. Roy arrived as a free agent and must be part of a new core that will be developing on the fly. He’s signed through 2029-30 at $5.75 million per season. Dubois, who came from the Los Angeles Kings in a swap for Kuemper, is signed through 2030-31 at a hefty $8.5 million per year. Those are the kind of deals that have to work out for this offseason, years from now, to be deemed a success.
Think about how all this happened: At the past two trade deadlines, MacLellan looked at his middling roster and decided to sell. In return, he got draft picks. “Currency,” he called it. One of those picks, acquired for center Lars Eller, turned into Mangiapane. Another, acquired for defenseman Joel Edmundson, was used in the package to land Thompson.
And now, with some expensive contracts coming off the books, the franchise is poised to make pitches to marquee free agents in summers to come.
“We have a good organization,” MacLellan said. “We’ve got good young guys. We’ve got more good young guys coming. We’re going to get better.”
Somehow, without bottoming out, the Capitals got younger, deeper, faster — better. The oldest player they added was Roy, who is 29. The others: Dubois, Chychrun and Raddysh are 26, Thompson and Duhaime 27, Mangiapane 28.
The coming two seasons were always going to kind of touchy for the Capitals. They want and need Alex Ovechkin, the most important player in franchise history, to break Wayne Gretzky’s record for goals. (He needs 41 to tie Gretzky at 894, 42 to get to 895. He’s under contract for two more seasons, so he needs to average 21 goals through 2025-26. He has never scored fewer than 31 in a full 82-game season. He can get there.)
But the idea isn’t to drag Ovechkin across the finish line. It’s to do so with a competitive, playoff-caliber team that isn’t a shell of itself once Ovi retires. Last year’s Caps pushed themselves into the playoffs by winning their 82nd game — and then were swept out by the faster, deeper, better New York Rangers. These Caps could be better positioned when spring arrives.
There is still some unsettled business. MacLellan said Nicklas Backstrom, a forever Capital, will start the season on long-term injured reserve as he continues to evaluate whether he can ever come back from his chronic hip issues. The fate of right wing T.J. Oshie, another Stanley Cup champ from the 2018 team, is unknown, though it’s certainly possible Oshie’s debilitating back issues leave him alongside Backstrom on LTIR. No one’s rooting for that. But it would free up the $5.75 million Oshie would count against the salary cap this winter.
And yet, for the Washington hockey team’s general manager to draw a full bank of television cameras and notebooks in July? Didn’t James Wood just debut at Nationals Park? Isn’t Wizards center of the future Alex Sarr about to play in the NBA’s summer league? Doesn’t Jayden Daniels, that Heisman winner from LSU, get workouts going in Ashburn soon?
Yes, yes and yes. Yet those cameras and notebooks showed up for MacLellan on Wednesday. Reminder: This isn’t Toronto.
Exhale a bit. How do you feel, Mac?
“Tired,” he said. “You get through the season, and you’re worn out, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, now it’s my turn.’”
He took his turn and skated away with it. The Capitals haven’t had an offseason this eventful since they won the Stanley Cup. That was six long years ago. Summer is just really hitting full stride. But where’s the calendar? Oh, right here. Circle Oct. 12, because the New Jersey Devils come to Capital One Arena to open a season that, over the past two weeks, got a heck of a lot more interesting.
