At this time 10 years ago, Caps right wing Tom Wilson was making his way through his rookie season in the NHL as a 19-year-old. Teammates such as Nicklas Backstrom, John Carlson and Alex Ovechkin and many others helped guide him through that experience, and gradually players such as Brooks Orpik, Matt Niskanen, and T.J. Oshie joined the team from other organizations, adding the heft of their voices, their experiences and their résumés to the mix.
Now a veteran in his 11th NHL season and on the verge of celebrating his 30th birthday, Wilson is also the bridge between the Caps of the recent past and the Caps of the future. When the team and Wilson came to terms on a seven-year contract extension this past summer, it became clear that the team views him as a big part of its leadership group and its future moving forward.
With Tuesday’s recall of forwards Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko, that future is right here, right now, at least for the time being. When the Capitals take the ice on Wednesday night at Capital One Arena to face the New York Islanders, they could have – along with Connor McMichael – three of their last four first-round picks in the lineup for the first time, and they could also line up with eight former first-rounders among their top nine forward group.
Seven of Washington’s 18 skaters for Wednesday’s game are likely to be aged 25 or less, if both Lapierre and Miroshnichenko suit up, as seems likely. The other five youthful skaters are forwards Beck Malenstyn, Aliaksei Protas and McMichael, and defensemen Martin Fehervary and Rasmus Sandin.
“First of all, it’s great to see when a guy gets drafted and comes in and plays right away, and gets an opportunity and takes advantage of it,” says Wilson, who also reached the NHL the year after he was drafted. “I think it’s always been the case in Washington that the organization drafts well, and it expects their picks to show up and earn a job. And obviously those players are being rewarded for what they’ve done in the American League this year.”
Since Wilson patrolled the Washington ice as a 19-year-old in 2013-14, only two teenaged forwards have skated for the Capitals: Andre Burakovsky and Lapierre. McMichael missed by less than two weeks; he made his NHL debut just after celebrating his 20th birthday.
“I think the biggest thing when you come up here that I tried to learn as quick as I could, is that consistency is huge,” says Wilson. “Backy, Ovi and those guys did it every night for 15 or 16 plus years; you can’t take a day off. So far, they’re flying around, and they look really good. They’re super talented, exciting players. You can see that they’re just taking it all in, and they’re open to the leadership in the room. And there are a lot of good role models in here that will hopefully show them the way.”
Showing them the way on the ice is critical, but being able to make them feel welcome away from the rink is imperative, too. That feeling of belonging and comfortability goes a long way toward developing confidence, which can in turn lead to the consistency that Wilson mentions.
“I think it's a cultural thing,” says Wilson. “I know that since day one I felt extremely welcomed by the older guys, and that when you grow up and you become a veteran guy, you want to make sure that the younger guys coming in feel the same way. That starts with Ovi; he's always been really good at welcoming guys in no matter where they came from, or what's going on in their life. They come here, and guys find their game. They feel comfortable.
“And a lot of guys over the years have come to Washington after a year that maybe wasn't their best, and then they come in here, and they play well, and they feel welcome, and they're comfortable. And that's something that speaks to the off-ice stuff that translates into the on-ice stuff, and it's our job as the older guys to keep that culture and make sure everyone's coming together as a team, because we all know how important that is.”
Lapierre is being recalled for the second time this season. He totaled three points (one goal, two assists) in 11 games with Washington earlier this season, and he now has four points (two goals, two assists) in 17 games for his NHL career. Lapierre played six games with the Caps as a teenager in 2021-22, notably scoring his first NHL goal in his first NHL game, on Oct. 13, 2021 against the Rangers at Capital One Arena.
During that six-game trial with the Caps back in the fall of 2021, Lapierre and McMichael took the ice together and suited up for the same game for the first time in an Oct. 25, 2021 contest in Ottawa. Both Lapierre and McMichael had large contingents of family and friends in the building for that game, which was relatively close to their respective Canadian hometowns.
McMichael collected his first NHL points – a pair of assists – in that game against the Senators. Oshie had a hat trick in that game, and just over two years later, his absence due to a lower body injury is part of the reason for Miroshnichenko being recalled; left wing Sonny Milano (upper body) is also on injured reserve.
In the aftermath of that game in Ottawa just over two years ago, we spoke to both McMichael and Lapierre about the experience of sporting Caps’ sweaters for the same NHL game for the first time of hopefully hundreds more to come.
“A couple of the guys mentioned that, that is was me and Lappy in the lineup together for the first time,” said McMichael. “It was fun. Just watching Lappy when I wasn’t in the lineup, he is a fun player to watch, and it’s exciting. It was cool to play in front of my parents for the first time, actually, and it was a lot of fun and a great game. I’m sure Hendrix had a lot of fun, too.”
“Obviously you don’t want to think about it too much,” said Lapierre of the prospect of he and McMichael playing several hundred games together here in Washington. “But we are two young players, so we’ve still got a lot of time ahead of us. And it was really fun to be in the lineup at the same time as him. He had a really, really good game.
“I feel like he is a really smart player, and it’s fun to watch him play and it’s fun to kind of grow with him in the organization. In the best of worlds, it’s the first game of many, and I’m really looking forward to the future with him and with the organization. But at the same time, you don’t want to think about it too much. You just want to be day to day; think about the game tonight, and then think about the one after that.”
A couple years down the road, McMichael and Lapierre have shared the ice together several times now at the NHL level, but Wednesday night might be memorable and notable for the first time that McMichael, Lapierre and Miroshnichenko will grace the ice at the same time for the Caps.
And with recent top picks Ryan Chesley and Ryan Leonard set to represent Team USA in the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship, a couple of more big pieces of Washington’s future might not be terribly far from making their own NHL debuts.
Since playing that game in Ottawa a couple years ago, McMichael and Lapierre have grown and evolved some, and they’ve hoisted a Calder Cup together. McMichael is here to stay, and the others are likely to join him here on a more permanent basis before too long as well.
The future isn’t far away, and Wilson is the bridge between the Capitals’ recent past and its future.
“It was a bunch of guys that had been in Hershey together, and won a Calder Cup,” remembers Wilson of the Caps’ locker room during his rookie season. “They were kind of the core group of Washington, and then obviously there was the next tier of the superstars with Backy and Ovi and [Mikhail] Grabovski. And there were some different individual pieces.
“But as a younger guy coming in, there wasn't one day where I felt uncomfortable. There wasn't one day where I felt like I didn't belong. There wasn't one day where I wasn't laughing. And from the very start, it was just such an amazing experience. And that comes down to the staff, and that comes down to the organization, that comes down to the players and teammates. And we’ve talked about why I want to be here; that's kind of how it's been every day since.
“It's just fun to come to the rink. Guys want to win, there's a winning identity, there's a winning culture, we expect a lot of each other, but you have each other's back from day one. All those guys were there for me and made me feel comfortable as a young buck coming in.”
