Preseason Prep (and Postseason Postmortem)

It’s been a while, huh?  After my first season doing coverage, it felt kinda daunting to keep up with offseason moves as Green Line Brawl (or, god forbid, resort to posting inane tangentially-related-to-the-Capitals news just to keep people paying attention), so I just quietly followed everything.  But now it’s almost time for the preseason, and that means it’s almost time for the real deal.  Hockey is in the air, so let’s go over what the team looks like after all their moves.

First off, departures.  As we already unofficially knew, last year was the last year that Nicklas Bäckström and TJ Oshie were (nominally) Washington Capitals.  Bäckström is back with his old Swedish team, and Oshie’s back issues that limited him before forced his retirement.  Primarily AHL depth for Washington, Ethan Bear is gone as well, moving on up (down) to the Islanders.  Lars Eller and Hunter Shepard both signed with the Senators, Taylor Raddysh is a Ranger, Andrew Mangiapane is an Oiler, and Alex Alexeyev will hopefully get much more playing time as the Penguins rack up losses.  The Bears lost a ton of talent too, mostly to the KHL, but it shouldn’t affect the big club too much.  With respect to all the former Caps, the only guys that will really need replacing are Eller, Raddysh, and Mangiapane.

Then, we’ve got retentions.  Martin Fehérváry was re-signed all the way through 2032-33, now the longest-signed Capital alongside Jakob Chychrun.  Anthony Beauvillier, a trade deadline acquisition last season, got himself a two-year deal.  Hendrix Lapierre got just one year, but interestingly, it’s a one-way deal, which may indicate that the team expects him to make the top twelve out of camp.  Either way, this definitely feels like a make-or-break season for him.

There were only two real arrivals to the Capitals this offseason.  Justin Sourdif (the u is silent (the second u)) was acquired in a draft-day trade with the Panthers and quickly signed to a two-year deal.  A right wing, the front office seems really high on him and he should be a plug-and-play replacement for Raddysh.  The same day that Sourdif signed, day two of the draft, the Caps traded again, this time for Declan Chisholm.  After two years with the Wild, he’s looking at two years with the Capitals on his new deal.  At $1,600,00 per year, expect him to be on the main roster, albeit likely waiting in the press box alongside Dylan McIlrath unless/until someone gets hurt.  He’s got Chychrun, Fehérváry, and Sandin ahead of him on that left side.  An Alexeyev replacement, just for double the money.  The Bears are bringing in an armload of talent to restock but, again, it shouldn’t affect the Capitals much if at all.  You might have heard rumors that Washington is thinking of offering former Cap Evgeny Kuznetsov a PTO.  That would be exactly as dumb of a move as it sounds like it would be.

So the Capitals lost three regular forwards and a defender, and added one forward and one defender.  You might notice that those numbers aren’t the same.  What does that mean?  Well, with ten forward slots pretty much spoken for, Ethen Frank, Sonny Milano, and Ryan Leonard are all going to have to fight to get regular play.  There’s also the champagne problem that is Ivan Miroshnichenko, Andrew Cristall, Hendrix Lapierre, and maybe some others all trying to make the team full-time.  Of all of them, I feel like the best chances to take one of the last two spots have to lie with Leonard, Cristall, Frank, and Lapierre, in that order.  Miroshnichenko is young enough that he can probably keep cooking in Hershey, while still being available as a call-up.  He looked better every game he played with the Caps last year, so that experience might be even more valuable for him than one would assume.  Milano hasn’t played a game since last November, and wasn’t looking too great before that.  He’s gonna have to really show out in training and the preseason to put himself ahead of anyone else.  The defense seems pretty set with no major changes from last year, although with Martin Fehérváry’s injury recovery not coming along as he’d like, there’s a chance that we might see Declan Chisholm making his debut when the rest of the team does.  Goaltending isn’t going to change.  Logan Thompson is the lead, Charlie Lindgren is right there with him, and Clay Stevenson is the next man up.  The only thing we’re really waiting to see is if head coach Spencer Carbery decides to keep the games evenly split or close to it, or if he puts more of the workload on LT’s shoulders.

There’s a wide range of expectations for this season’s Washington Capitals.  Most everyone agrees that the team is going to take a step back after their 51-win, 111-point performance last season, but the degree is up in the air.  Personally, I would expect something in the neighborhood of 95-100 points.  It might be a bit optimistic, but I don’t see why it’s not possible as long as the forward lines work out (mostly the third) and guys who seemingly took that next step like Aliaksei Protas and Dylan Strome keep up their good work.  Carbery is entering his third year as head coach of the Caps, and I don’t expect his systems to change up much.  I think, much like last year, the lines will be treated differently internally than they are on paper.  Whatever you saw announced as lines 1-2-3-4 were basically considered 2-1-4-3.  With the size and scoring of a potential return of the Protas-Dubois-Wilson line, and the gritty defensive identity that Nic Dowd will give his line, it makes sense to me that they’ll be used the same as they were last year.

All I’ve got left now for this season is to drop my picks for the key games in the first quarter of the season, and the next time you see a post on here should be the Q1 recap/breakdown.  I’ll still be covering every game (including preseason) over on Bluesky and Twitter, so be sure to check there and chat Caps with me!  Below the key games, I’ll have a little bit on the 2024-25 Capitals’ postseason-ending loss to the Hurricanes, but feel free to skip that.  It took me four months to do it for a reason.

Key Matchups Ahead

Sunday, October 12, 7 PM @ New York Rangers

Tuesday, October 14, 7 PM vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

Friday, October 24, 7 PM @ Columbus Blue Jackets

Tuesday, October 28, 8:30 PM @ Dallas Stars

Tuesday, November 11, 7 PM @ Carolina Hurricanes

Thursday, November 13, 7 PM @ Florida Panthers

The Capitals didn’t beat the Canadiens as easily as they likely would have at full strength, and it was a sign of things to come, as they lost convincingly to the Carolina Hurricanes in only five games.

Round Two: Capitals vs. Hurricanes

If you watched the series, first of all I’m sorry, but you already know how it went.  If you didn’t, then the table above really does a decent job of telling you the story.  The Canes continued their aggressive cycling offense and barrages of shots, outshooting the Caps by a lot.  Carolina seemed positively indefatigable, evinced by not only their shooting but throwing more hits and more than doubling the goal count of the Caps.  You’d have thought that Washington was the one coming off a grueling series where two games went to double overtime, but nope, that was Carolina.  Both teams were tired, one was more injured than the other, but either way, the Canes were just more ready to win and it showed.  It didn’t take them any further than that, as they went on to lose the Eastern Conference Finals in five games to the eventual champion Florida Panthers, but they at least got that far.  Washington will need to stay healthier into 2026 and perhaps conserve some energy down the stretch if they want to make a truly deep playoff run in what may be Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson’s last seasons in the NHL.