Inside look at Washington Capitals

NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, the Washington Capitals.

The Washington Capitals are several steps from reaching the other side of the bridge they are trying to build from the Alex Ovechkin era to their next generation of success.

But after an aggressive offseason when the Capitals overturned roughly a third of their roster, their attempt to remain competitive while retooling on the fly will face a significant test. If calculated risks such as trading for center Pierre-Luc Dubois pay off as hoped this season, navigating the challenging path to winning after Ovechkin without a full teardown and rebuild will appear more achievable.

“There’s options that we’ve done in the past and other teams have done that aren’t a lot of fun," Washington general manager Chris Patrick said, "that you try to get a high pick and hope that it’s the right year and you get the right guy who could be the next cornerstone of your franchise.

"Or you try to do something like this, and other teams have done this too, where you try to find good players out there that maybe for whatever reason aren’t working in their current situation.”

Acquiring Dubois -- and the seven seasons remaining on his eight-year, $68 million contract ($8.5 million average annual value) -- from the Los Angeles Kings for goalie Darcy Kuemper on June 19 is an example of that. The 26-year-old struggled last season, dropping to 40 points (16 goals, 24 assists) in 82 games after he had an NHL career-high 63 points (27 goals, 36 assists) in 73 games the previous season with the Winnipeg Jets.

The Capitals are betting on him rebounding.

“He wants to win, and he wants to take the necessary steps and now it’s up to us as a coaching staff to help him,” coach Spencer Carbery said. “It’s on him as a player to do the necessary things and then be consistent with that on a day-to-day basis.”

The Capitals also traded for forward Andrew Mangiapane (Calgary Flames), defenseman Jakob Chychrun (Ottawa Senators) and goalie Logan Thompson (Vegas Golden Knights), and added defenseman Matt Roy (six years, $34.5 million; AAV of $5.75 million AAV) and forwards Brandon Duhaime (two years, $3.7 million; AAV of $1.85 million) and Taylor Raddysh (one year, $1 million) in free agency.

Where everyone fits will be determined during training camp along with whether forward T.J. Oshie will play after being hampered by a back injury the past two seasons.

Regardless, Washington expects to have a deeper lineup than last season, when it finished 40-31-11 and surprised many by qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the second wild card from the Eastern Conference. If the Capitals exceeded expectations in Carbery’s first season, he warned it will be more difficult this season.

“Whatever the outside world has us pegged at percentage-wise of making the playoffs -- and I’m not shy to say we don’t have many believers again this year -- it’s important that we know two things,” Carbery said. “One is we are not going to catch anybody off guard. Teams are going to know, ‘OK, this is a team that caught some teams maybe off guard last year. They were a playoff team. We need to be ready to go tonight.’

“And two is we need to get better in a bunch of areas, especially offensively.”

Washington was 28th in the NHL in scoring 2.63 goals per game last season. Acquiring Dubois, Mangiapane and Chychrun could help. Mangiapane scored 14 goals in 75 games last season, but the 28-year-old had an NHL career-high 35 goals in 82 games with the Flames in 2021-22.

Chychrun will add another element to the Capitals defensemen, who were 31st in the NHL with 20 goals scored at the position last season, ahead of only the Chicago Blackhawks (19). The 26-year-old had 14 goals in 82 games with the Senators last season.

Washington could also get more from Ovechkin, who will turn 39 on Sept. 17 and enters his 20th NHL season needing 42 goals to break Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record of 894.

Though the forward’s 31 goals last season were his fewest in an 82-game season, he scored 23 in his final 36 games and should benefit from having more scoring threats around him.

Washington has qualified for the playoffs in 15 of Ovechkin’s 19 seasons, winning the Stanley Cup in 2018. He’ll likely be in the middle of whatever success it has this season, as well.

“I’m hoping he had a good summer, comes in energized and excited about what we did and gets ready to keep scoring goals and winning games and chasing down the record,” Patrick said. “Hopefully all three happen because when all three are happening I think 'Ovi' is always in a good spot and the team is in a good spot.”