Capitals have retooled roster on fly while Ovechkin closes in on Gretzky

WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals appeared to be at a crossroads after being swept by the New York Rangers in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. The Capitals had already chosen which direction they were headed nearly two years before, though.

They just leaned into it more.

With Ovechkin shifting his chase for the NHL all-time goals record into high gear, Washington took its plan to retool its roster to the next level with an aggressive offseason when it added seven players -- forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane, Taylor Raddysh and Brandon Duhaime, defensemen Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy, and goalie Logan Thompson.

It has paid off even better than Capitals could have hoped.

Washington (25-10-3) sits atop the Eastern Conference with 53 points, and despite missing 16 games with a fractured left fibula, Ovechkin has scored 18 goals in 22 games to climb within 24 of breaking Wayne Gretzky’s League record of 894 goals heading into a visit from the Rangers at Capital One Arena on Saturday (Noon ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS).

“The new guys have come in and fit in really well, which I think is a testament to them,” Capitals general manager Chris Patrick told NHL.com. “I also think it’s a testament to our leadership group and the veteran guys that were here making them feel really welcome and getting them integrated into the team really fast. That’s why I think we had the good start that we did.”

Having a stronger lineup around him has benefited Ovechkin, who continues to defy his birth certificate in his 20th NHL season. The 39-year-old left wing has three goals in four games since returning from his injury, and 16 goals in his past 15 games dating to a two-goal effort in a 5-3 victory against New York on Oct. 29.

“A guy his age scoring at the rate he’s scoring just doesn’t happen,” Patrick said. “Yeah, he’s not 25-year-old Alex Ovechkin anymore, but the goal scoring is hard to replace. And just the energy he brings to the room and to the group, when he was missing and not in the every-day swing of things with the injury, you could feel a little bit of an absence there. So it’s huge having him back. It’s fun to watch. Hopefully, he can keep this pace going.”

Ovechkin’s age appeared to be catching up to him when he was held without a point in the four-game loss to the Rangers in the playoffs last season. Washington had barely qualified for the postseason as the second wild card in the Eastern Conference and some wondered if it were his last hurrah in the postseason.

Though injuries, particularly on defense, hampered the Capitals against the Rangers, their management -- headed by former GM and still president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan and Patrick, promoted from assistant GM to GM on July 8 -- was keenly aware they needed to continue revamping the roster regardless of the outcome of the series.

The process actually began following a first-round loss to the Florida Panthers in the 2022 playoffs. With the remaining core of the 2018 Stanley Cup championship team aging, Washington knew it needed to change its approach.

“We kind of said if there’s younger players available, we should be taking a harder look at it,” Patrick said. “In the past, it was more adding veteran pieces to a younger group, and I think it became the opposite of that.”

When Dylan Strome, who was 25 at the time, became an unrestricted free agent after he wasn't given a qualifying offer by the Chicago Blackhawks, the Capitals signed him to a one-year, $3.5 million contract on July 14, 2022, and then a five-year, $25 million contract on Feb. 3, 2023 to lock him up long term. Strome has developed into a first-line center, succeeding Nicklas Backstrom, who stopped playing last season because of recurring issues with his hip, and leads Washington with 41 points (11 goals, 30 assists) in 38 games this season.

Next came defenseman Rasmus Sandin, who was 22 when he was acquired in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 28, 2023. The price for Sandin, who plays regularly in the Capitals top four, was defenseman Erik Gustafsson, who was a pending unrestricted free agent, and the Boston Bruins’ first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, which they had acquired as part of the return for trading defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway, each potential UFAs.

“You sometimes think you don’t get good young players unless you’re drafting high,” Patrick said, “But as you can see with guys like that, there are reasons why teams are looking to move guys like that, and we were able to take advantage of that and hopefully will continue to do that in that future.”

Strome was the No. 3 pick in the 2015 NHL Draft by the Arizona Coyotes. Sandin was the No. 29 pick in the 2018 NHL Draft by Toronto. Dubois, a 26-year-old acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Kings for goalie Darcy Kuemper on June 19, was selected by the Columbus Blue Jackets with the No. 3 pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. Chychrun, a 26-year-old acquired in a trade with the Ottawa Senators for defenseman Nick Jensen and a third-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft on July 1, was selected by the Coyotes with the No. 16 pick in the 2016 draft.

That’s four younger players who were first-round draft picks, including two No. 3s, added to Washington's lineup in less than two years without having to strip down its roster and start over.

“I think they’ve done an incredible job doing that and just retooling it on the go,” Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin said. “Obviously, their management are good guys and they’re smart as hell. Their coach has done a good job. But it’s really impressive the way they’ve done it.”

The Capitals weren’t interested in a complete rebuild and Patrick said it wasn’t because Ovechkin is chasing the goal record. Washington already had some promising pieces for the future with emerging young players on its roster and with Hershey in the American Hockey League such as forwards Connor McMichael, 23, Aliaksei Protas, 23, Ivan Miroshnichenko, 20, and Hendrix Lapierre, 22, plus forward prospects Ryan Leonard, who was the No. 8 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, and Andrew Cristall, a second-round pick (No. 40) in 2023.

“We felt like we had a good enough start being able to get guys like ‘Stromer’ and Sandin, who are not young but not old guys,” Patrick said. “And then with Connor and ‘Pro’ and the Leonard draft, and even last year’s draft when we got some good players, we felt like we were already in a good enough spot with several tiers of (different) age players that we think are going to be good players, that to tear it down and build it back up might not need to be something we had to do.”

Protas, second on Washington with 32 points (16 goals, 16 assists) in 38 games, and McMichael, third with 30 points (16 goals, 14 assists) in 38 games, each has taken significant steps to become key parts of the Capitals’ success this season. They’ve thrived under coach Spencer Carbery and meshed seamlessly with the players that were acquired and those remaining from the 2018 Stanley Cup team -- Ovechkin, forwards Tom Wilson, Lars Eller and Jakub Vrana, and defenseman John Carlson -- and has Washington believing it can contend for the Cup again.

And the Capitals have done it without having to bottom out; they've missed the playoffs only twice since 2008 (in 2014 and 2023).

“I think there’s always been a foundation here of a core or a least a culture that I’ve learned that expects to win,” said Wilson, in his 12th season with Washington. “Obviously, there’s ups and downs, but this summer I think we got a bunch of quality people and good players that were able to come in and just complemented that foundation very well.

“There’s not always a secret formula. Everyone kind of looks for it, but just to have guys that come in and fit well and work well, when it happens, it’s a great thing, and so far, we’ve been clicking pretty well.”