The Washingto Capitals are in for a busy offseason. The present calm won’t last much longer.
With the Florida Panthers – and former Washington Capitals defenseman Nate Schmidt and goaltender Vitek Vanecek – skating off with the Stanley Cup this week, the gap between the two-time champions and the retooling Capitals is pretty evident. While the gap between the Caps and the champs is closing, there’s still a ways to go before the team can be taken seriously as a Cup threat. No team can match the Cats’ depth at present.
For two playoffs in a row, the Panthers easily dispatched the team that beat the Capitals decisively, beating the Rangers, who swept Washington in 2024, in six games and then the Carolina Hurricanes, who ousted the Caps in five, this past spring in five games of their own.
While the Capitals earned themselves the top regular-season record in the East this past season, it will take some work to try and approach the Panthers’ level of excellence in the postseason. After a successful title defense, Florida will be shooting for their fourth straight Stanley Cup Final appearance next spring, something that hasn’t been accomplished since the Islanders went five times in a row in the early 1980s.
Offseason agenda starts with Ovie succession plan
Adding urgency to the situation this offseason for Washington is this has a decent chance of being Alex Ovechkin’s last NHL season, and if he wants to add one more Stanley Cup to his resume before he presumably skates to Dynamo Moscow in the near future, be it 2026 or beyond.
So while under normal circumstances, the team may be a bit more patient in building back towards contender status, with Ovechkin having one or maybe two more shots at a Stanley Cup run, you may see them opt to deal picks or players to try to be more battle-tested next spring, particularly to match what a Panthers team brings to grind down their opponents to the tune of 12 series wins since 2022 – including a six-game win over Washington that year.
Expect remaining UFA candidates to walk this offseason
One thing that seems fairly settled for Washington is the team’s stance on its current major free agents. With the bulk of the UFAs that would have commanded some sizeable contracts in what should be a very overheated and overpriced open market that opens in less than two weeks, Washington has already signed goaltenders Logan Thompson, Charlie Lindgren, defenseman Jakob Chychrun, Dylan McIlrath and forward Nic Dowd, leaving just a handful of unrestricted free agents left without contracts – with the remaining ones likely to test the market.
Anthony Beauvillier may be the one of the four remaining major free agents that could resign with Washington either before or after July 1, as he was a good fit after he bounced around the league from Vancouver to Chicago to Pittsburgh after not fitting in with former Capitals assistant Lane Lambert’s tenure with the Islanders. He only cost $1.25 million last season and certainly would command some sort of raise after his solid play in the nation’s capital, seemingly he was a good fit and could be a depth forward for Washington going forward.
The other three are unlikely to sign with the Caps.
Washington reportedly has decided to move on from Andrew Mangiapane, who was acquired from Calgary last summer, but whose price tag outweighed his performance this past year, and with the market thin on talent and deep on cap space, it makes more sense for him to test the waters elsewhere and likely command a contract more than the $5.8 million he earned last season.
Lars Eller, the 2018 Stanley Cup winning forward reacquired from Pittsburgh in November, didn’t adapt well to his more defensive role with Washington and while he will continue playing next season as part of Denmark’s Olympic team, it isn’t clear if he will be in the NHL or in Europe this fall. Taylor Raddysh is another forward who likely will find a new home next season, as he likely will be pushed aside either by younger Capitals prospects or additions this summer.
With the market the way it is, and the Capitals looking to improve, it seems more logical, like last summer, that General Manager Chris Patrick look to improve via the trade route, targeting players who other teams don’t have cap room for (something that will be in shorter supply with the cap space on the rise), or don’t see them fitting into their systems.
Washington likely will try and add at least one Top 6 forward and another depth one via the trade route, and perhaps a depth defenseman to help the Capitals avoid the drop off they had when they lost Martin Fehervary at the end of the regular season, which was a costly loss for the Caps.
RFA considerations
Washington also has one major restricted free agent in defenseman Alex Alexeyev, who was brought into service when Fehervary was injured, and after playing sparingly in the regular season – Alexeyev had a consecutive scratch streak spanning the period of several months – but he is inexpensive and wouldn’t cost much to qualify and also a position of need around the NHL, and a position one the Capitals are relatively deep at – particularly with prospect Cole Hutson likely to arrive next spring after Boston University concludes its season.
While it seems the Capitals will almost certainly qualify Alexeyev to retain his rights – it would only cost $918,750 to do so – he would be a good candidate to throw in a trade with draft picks in potential deals to upgrade elsewhere since he’s inexpensive and plays a position in demand, and certainly could develop into a good blueliner with more ice time than he got in Washington. While his season in Washington was more marked by being the odd man out, he proved during Hershey’s Calder Cup runs he could be a solid factor and with time on ice to develop further, could be a solid and inexpensive option for teams looking for defensive depth.
Washington may also look at the unrestricted free agent market to bolster their own depth, the prices for contracts likely will bump up due to the rising salary cap, and any major addition would certainly require a healthy chunk of their available cap space, so seems more likely the UFAs the Capitals target will be those for depth, not top talent.
Offseason salary cap planning
Salary cap wise, T.J. Oshie formally retired last month with his expiring contract, and Nicklas Backstrom is considering playing in Sweden since his deal is also up, so with those two and the other pending free agents off the books, Washington has $9.375 million in salary cap space per PuckPedia.com, with just three roster spots to fill to reach 23.
Sonny Milano’s future is in doubt with $1.9 million left on his current deal, which certainly could be used to fit some more space on Long-Term Injured Reserve, as he played just three games for the Capitals this past season, and seemingly has fallen down the depth chart and off the Caps’ 23-man roster even if he gets healthy. Washington could also send out salary in any trades they make to upgrade up front, similar to sending out Darcy Kuemper’s deal to fit space for Pierre-Luc Dubois’ addition to the roster this last summer.
Washington also will look for Ryan Leonard to make more of an impact next season, and certainly Ilya Protas and Andrew Cristall could enter the forward mix next fall, but if the Capitals have an inkling that Ovechkin may be entering his final season, the team probably would be more aggressive at upgrading its forward corps, most likely via trade. While normally Washington could opt to let the prospect fill roles, with increased urgency to win one more for Ovechkin, that likely will be delayed until he departs for his native Russia.
While Washington has accomplished a lot in a short time in its rebuild, Florida demonstrated how far the Capitals need to go to truly try and contend for another Stanley Cup in the near future.
