MacLellan Promoted to President of Hockey Operations & General Manager

The Washington Capitals have promoted Brian MacLellan to president of hockey operations & general manager and Chris Patrick to associate general manager. In addition, the Capitals have appointed Dick Patrick to the position of chairman of the Capitals.

The 2023-24 season will mark MacLellan's 23rd with the organization, 10th as general manager and first as president of hockey operations and general manager. Since appointing MacLellan, 64, as general manager on May 26, 2014, the Caps have compiled a record of 409-213-77 (.640 winning percentage) and have recorded the third-most wins in the NHL in that span.

During MacLellan's tenure, the Capitals have won a Stanley Cup, two Presidents' Trophies, and a franchise-record five consecutive Metropolitan Division titles from 2015-16 to 2019-20. With MacLellan at the helm, the Capitals won their first Stanley Cup in 2018. Of the 19 players to take the ice during the Cup-clinching win in Game 5, eight players were either signed, traded for, or drafted by MacLellan, including three of the four players that scored in the game (Jakub Vrana, Devante Smith-Pelly and Lars Eller).

MacLellan, who won a Stanley Cup as a player with the Calgary Flames in 1989, recorded 413 points in 606 games during his 10-year NHL career with Calgary, the Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, Minnesota North Stars and Detroit Red Wings. MacLellan also won a silver medal with Team Canada at the 1985 World Championship in Prague. MacLellan graduated with a Bachelor of Science in business administration from Bowling Green State University and earned his Master of Business Administration in finance from the University of St. Thomas in 1995.

Chris Patrick, 47, is entering his 16th season with the team and first as associate general manager. Patrick worked closely with MacLellan regarding all hockey-related matters during his tenure as assistant general manager, player personnel. In his previous role, Patrick also oversaw the club's professional scouting staff and worked closely with the Hershey Bears, the Capitals AHL affiliate, who captured the 2023 Calder Cup championship. As associate general manager, Patrick will maintain his prior responsibilities as well as oversee the team's analytics department, player contract negotiations, hockey operations staff, player personnel and budget and team scheduling issues.

Patrick joined the Capitals in 2008-09 in a player development and scouting role, assisting the hockey operations department with scouting drafted players at the collegiate and junior levels. During the 2010-11 season, Patrick was promoted to pro scout, a title he held until 2014-15 when he was promoted to the director of player personnel.

Patrick graduated from Princeton University with a degree in politics and economics in 1998 and earned a Master of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia in 2006. Patrick grew up playing hockey in the Washington, D.C., area in the Capital Beltway Hockey League and for the Little Caps. He attended and played hockey at the Kent School in Connecticut before playing four seasons at Princeton University, winning the ECAC Championship in 1998. Patrick was selected by the Capitals in the eighth round (197th overall) in the 1994 NHL Draft. He and his father, Dick Patrick, became the sixth and seventh members of the Patrick family to win the Stanley Cup in 2018.

Dick Patrick, 76, has been part of the Capitals organization since 1982 and was one of Ted Leonsis's original partners when Monumental Sports & Entertainment was formed in June 2010. For the first five years of MSE's existence, Patrick assumed initial responsibility as Chief Operating Officer and was involved in all facets of operating three professional sports franchises - the Capitals, the NBA's Washington Wizards and the WNBA's Washington Mystics - and Capital One Arena. The 2023-24 campaign will mark Patrick's first season as chairman of the Washington Capitals.

Before Patrick's arrival, the Capitals had never advanced to postseason play. In his 40 seasons with the club, Washington has qualified for the playoffs 32 times - including the team's Stanley Cup championship in 2018, the run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1998 and three Presidents' Trophy-winning teams (2009-10, 2015-16, 2016-17). During the 2010s, the Capitals (465-232-0-90) recorded the most wins of any team and only trailed the Montreal Canadiens of the 1970s (501-160-130-0) and the Boston Bruins of the 1970s (487-190-111-0) as the winningest franchise of any decade. Additionally, with a .648 point percentage, the Capitals only trailed the 1970s Canadiens and Bruins (Montreal: .712; Boston: .689) and the 2000s Detroit Red Wings (.682) in point percentage in a decade.

Born in 1946 in Victoria, B.C., Patrick grew up in the United States. He earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and a law degree from the Washington College of Law at American University.