Five Questions Facing the Capitals This Offseason

After the Capitals narrowly missed this past postseason due in large part to their scoring struggles, Washington General Manager Chris Patrick made it clear that bolstering the team’s top-six forward corps would be a priority this summer.

Patrick didn’t wait until free agency, which officially opens Wednesday, to add some offensive firepower to a unit whose leading goal-scorer last year, franchise legend Alex Ovechkin, will turn 41 in September and may have played his final NHL game.

In a two-day span last week, the Capitals acquired 28-year-old St. Louis Blues forward Jordan Kyrou and 30-year-old Buffalo Sabres forward Alex Tuch, who combined for six 30-goal campaigns over the last four years.

Washington traded 25-year-old forward Connor McMichael, forward prospect Milton Gastrin and the No. 16 pick in last Friday’s NHL draft to the Blues for Kyrou, who waived his no-trade clause to join the Capitals and is under contract for the next five seasons.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Tuch, who was scheduled to become the top forward available in a weak free agent class, joined the Capitals via a sign-and-trade deal, with Washington sending a third-round pick in next year’s draft and 31-year-old forward David Kampf to Buffalo. The speedy Tuch’s eight-year, $84 million extension may not age well, but with the salary cap going up, the aggressive move was a defensible risk.

Washington received high marks for both deals, with TSN calling the Capitals the “early winners of the off-season.” While the team’s outlook for 2026-27 has improved greatly in the past week, here are five questions still facing the franchise as free agency begins:

Is Ovechkin coming back?

That’s the roughly 14-million-dollar (Washington’s remaining salary cap space) question. The NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer said he would make a decision this summer about whether to return for his 22nd season, and an announcement is expected in the coming weeks.

“Obviously, if I want to come back, it’d have to be a decision — well, first, are we going to make the playoffs?” Ovechkin said in April.

In an interview last week on 106.7 The Fan, Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said he spoke to Ovechkin after the trades for Kyrou and Tuch, and the Russian winger said he was “really happy for the organization.”

The guess here is Ovechkin returns for one more year on an incentive-laden deal that won’t hamper the team’s ability to add a few more pieces.

What positions will the Capitals prioritize in free agency?

After dealing John Carlson, the franchise’s all-time leading scorer among defenseman, to the Anaheim Ducks at last season’s trade deadline, a right-handed blueliner — preferably one with some size — is Washington’s biggest need.

Rasmus Sandin figured to help fill the void left by Carlson’s departure, but the 26-year-old tore his ACL in the final week of the regular season and will be sidelined indefinitely.

The left side of Washington’s defense features Jakob Chychrun, Martin Fehérváry and the offensive-minded Cole Hutson, a second-round pick in 2024 who flashed in 14 games last season. Excluding Sandin and Trevor van Riemsdyk, who is a pending free agent, the right-side trio of Matt Roy, Timothy Liljegren and Dylan McIlrath isn’t nearly as strong.

“We’re going to be in the market for a defenseman,” Patrick told reporters on Saturday after the draft.

A reunion with Carlson, whose expiring rights were acquired by the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, seems unlikely. Patrick has said Washington could also look to add another forward.

The Capitals acquired 28-year-old forward Jordan Kyrou from the St. Louis Blue last week. Karl B DeBlaker/AP

Will the power play improve?

Washington’s power play can’t be much worse after slipping to 25th in the league last season, as the Caps converted on just 17.8 % of its chances and allowed 11 shorthanded goals.

Assistant coach Ray Bennett, who replaces Kirk Muller on Carbery’s staff, will be tasked with revamping the unit. He spent last season with the New York Islanders, whose power play was atrocious, and eight seasons before that with the Colorado Avalanche, where he found success and won a Stanley Cup.

Bennett will have better weapons to deploy on the power play than his predecessor. Tuch’s seven power-play goals last season would’ve tied him with fellow right winger Tom Wilson for second most on the team.

How will Carbery’s lines shake out?

Barring another major acquisition, the Capitals’ top three centers will likely be Pierre-Luc Dubois, who was limited to 29 games last season, Dylan Strome and Ilya Protas, who turns 20 in July. Protas, the 6-foot-6, 225-pound younger brother of Capitals winger Aliaksei Protas, dazzled in his first four NHL games in April.

Pencil in Justin Sourdif as the fourth line center alongside Anthony Beauvillier and Ethen Frank. The additions of Kyrou and Tuch give the Capitals an abundance of natural right-wingers on the roster, but they’re both versatile enough to play on the left, as is 21-year-old Ryan Leonard.

“I think we’re going to be a pretty balanced team, top to bottom, and I think it allows [Carbery] to have four good lines that can all score goals,” Patrick said after the draft.

Carbery, who signed a multi-year extension earlier this month, suggested that Ovechkin, who scored 32 goals despite playing a career-low 17:27 per game, could take on an even lesser role if he does return.

“He genuinely wants to win, so as we improve the forward group, if now all of a sudden we’ve got two more 30-goal scorers and if that means [Ovechkin] plays a minute or two minutes less at 5-on-5 and we’re a better team, he’s going to raise his arm and go, ‘Yes, I love this,’” Carbery said last week on 106.7 The Fan.

Should Washington be considered a Stanley Cup contender?

The Capitals missed the playoffs despite finishing with four more wins and the same number of points as the Vegas Golden Knights, who qualified for the postseason in the weaker Western Conference and advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to Carolina. Coupled with their 2-6 record in shootouts, it wasn’t too hard to see Washington as a bounceback candidate — even before its recent additions.

The Hurricanes will be expected to repeat as Metropolitan Division champs, but Washington has closed the gap on the Eastern Conference trio of favorites in Carolina, Florida and Tampa Bay.

The goaltending duo of Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren is among the league’s best. If Washington can shore up its defense and potentially improve its center depth in free agency, the Capitals could be among the Eastern Conference’s most improved teams.

With a mix of talented veterans and a young core of Leonard, Ilya Protas and Hutson, plus forward prospects Andrew Cristall and Lynden Lakovic in the pipeline, Washington is set up for success this season and beyond, no matter what Ovechkin decides.

“These are moves for the next several years,” Patrick said after the draft, where the Capitals selected 17-year-old Finnish center Oliver Suvanto with the 18th pick. “We have a chance to be a contending team for a while here, so we wanted to make sure we added guys to help complement that group.”