Capital Impact

For several seasons now, the Capitals have leaned heavily on their longstanding core of key players who have been together on the roster for more than five seasons. General manager Brian MacLellan has been able to bring in complementary players to surround the core, and the Capitals have made the Stanley Cup Playoffs for 15 of the last 16 seasons, including eight straight since MacLellan took over in the spring of 2014.

Despite missing center Nicklas Backstrom - a critical member of that core - for the first third of last season, the Caps got out to a strong start and rolled up a 100-point season in 2021-22, only to fall in the first round of the playoffs to the Florida Panthers, Washington's fourth consecutive first-round exit since it won its first Stanley Cup title in 2018.
As the Caps get set to embark upon the 2022-23 campaign, they'll be missing two of those core players, and they'll be without them for indefinite - as of now - periods of time. Backstrom underwent offseason hip surgery, a procedure he termed a "last resort" at saving and extending his career. And Tom Wilson, whose strong start last season helped to mitigate Backstrom's absence, will also be on the shelf at season's outset. Wilson suffered a knee injury early in Game 1 of the series against Florida in May, and he is unlikely to be back on the ice before December.
Backstrom is a likely future Hockey Hall of Famer, one of the most sublime and skilled playmakers of his era, and his work on the half wall has helped keep the Caps' power play among the top five in the League for most of his 15 seasons in the NHL. Wilson is an anomaly of a player, a big winger whose physical presence is intimidating, and he is also capable of pulling down significant minutes in all situations while contributing at a top six level to the team's offensive fortunes.
Either player on his own would be difficult to replace, and the Caps will need to make do with both for at least a quarter of the season. How will they get it done? Once again, MacLellan has brought in several new faces have over the offseason, but it will likely take a committee to fill the skates of Backstrom and Wilson until they're able to return to the lineup.
"Those are a couple of big pieces," admits Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "But I feel like some of the parts that we picked up this summer can help cover that. I feel like the growth and development of some of our younger players can help with that, and I feel like the depth that we showed and used last year with some of the players that are trying to compete for a job on our team, we can cover those spots as well.
"You don't like to see the guys out of the lineup, but we knew this. This isn't catching us off guard today. This is something that's for months now we knew where we were going to be."
For the first time in several seasons, there are a more than just a couple or three new faces in Washington. And for the first time in franchise history - believe it or not - there will no carryover personnel in the crease for the Capitals coming into the 2022-23 campaign. Last year's tandem of Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek departed over the summer - Samsonov to Toronto in free agency and Vanecek to New Jersey in a trade. For the first time in their history, the Caps are starting clean in the crease with a pair of veterans who are expected to handle the netminding chores here for the next few seasons.
"We've never had a situation like we have coming into this season," says Caps defenseman John Carlson. "We've just never had to deal with something like this, with two of our top line guys where they are health-wise. Of course it's going to be different, but I just love what we did [in the offseason]. I feel like we have a lot of different players that can do a lot of different things. They've got a lot of different spice. And we're hoping for great recoveries from those other guys. Where that brings us I don't know, but I know that I feel great about our team right now, going into training camp."
After helping the Colorado Avalanche to a Stanley Cup championship in June, Darcy Kuemper signed a five-year deal with Washington and he is expected to shoulder the lion's share of the netminding chores. Although he has yet to spend a full season in the NHL, Charlie Lindgren has seen duty in six different NHL seasons with two organizations, and he helped lead his AHL Springfield team to the Calder Cup final last spring. Lindgren signed a three-year deal to serve as Kuemper's partner here in the District.
"I think we know what Darcy is and what he's done and what he's accomplished," says MacLellan. "Lindgren, he still has to prove what he is, but I think he'll get it done. He's got a smaller sample size; really good in the American League, and really good in a small sample size last year in the NHL. It's a good opportunity for him, and we believe that he can do it."
Both goaltenders have fit in well with their new teammates and both are excited to be on board in D.C.
"It's been a great start," says Kuemper. "The guys have been super welcoming, which has made the transition of joining a new locker room a lot easier. I'm just excited to get to join the group, get to know everybody and start playing together.
"What really excited me about this group was that it's a group that has won recently. There is a veteran core here that has won it, knows what it takes to win it and one that I believe can win it again. After winning it last year, I can't help but want to win it again and that was what really drew me to joining this team."
Washington's defensive group has been steady and stable in Laviolette's two seasons behind the Caps' bench. Five of the six regulars return from last season, and Erik Gustafsson was signed to a one-year deal to replace Justin Schultz, who signed as a free agent with Seattle. Gustafsson is expected to man the left side of Washington's third pairing alongside Trevor van Riemsdyk, who will move back to his natural right side in 2022-23. Gustafsson is also expected to play on the team's second power play unit.
The Caps' top four consists of two steady and sturdy pairings. Carlson and rookie Martin Fehervary skated more than a thousand minutes together at 5-on-5, the sixth most minutes of any duo in the NHL. The Caps' second pairing of Dmitry Orlov and Nick Jensen logged over 900 minutes together at 5-on-5 to end up 15th on that list. Both pairings not only pulled down the minutes, they also contributed at both ends of the ice.
Having five returning defensemen and two top pairings with plenty of track record and familiarity together should help ease the two new netminders to comfortability in the crease.
"I think so," says Laviolette. "We've kept the pairs together, and we picked up Erik Gustafsson. I've always liked him in Chicago; we played a lot against him in Nashville when I coached there. And this is a guy who moves the puck really well, and he can jump in on a power play and get the puck out of our end and get it up into our forwards' hands. This is somebody that we pop in to contribute.
"Matty Irwin has always for the past five years has just been a real dependable, reliable guy for us. I do feel like having those pairs together and that group of [defensemen] together and inside of a team defense and not a lot of changes. Yeah, we've added a couple of pieces but not a lot of changes. You look to build off of being a better defensive team."
With both Backstrom and Wilson on the shelf, MacLellan added a pair of veteran forwards who are still on the south side of 30 when it comes to age. Connor Brown came from Ottawa in exchange for a second-round pick, and Dylan Strome was signed a free agent when the Blackhawks elected not to give him a qualifying offer. The 25-year-old Strome was the third player chosen overall in the 2015 NHL Draft, and he will still be a restricted free agent next season.
Over the better part of the last two decades, the Caps typically find themselves drafting in the latter third of the first round, with little to no chance at landing the top teenaged amateur talent. They had good results in signing winger Brett Connolly (chosen sixth overall in the 2010 draft) after he had been through a couple of organizations early in his career, and Washington was later able to sign him to a multi-year deal to stay in D.C., where he was a key piece on the team's 2018 Stanley Cup championship team.
"I think the Chicago environment was tough last year," says MacLellan. "I think the Ottawa environment was tough last year. To come into something that's easier to acclimate them, I think we've got a good bunch of guys that are accepting of guys and it's easy for guys to fit in. Consequently, you can take some risks, so why not try some projects, like Connolly, like Strome?
"[Strome] is still restricted; we still have his rights [into next season]. He had a good year last year, and maybe he figures it out, finds a spot and gets a comfort level. It's pretty good for us, getting younger and with a guy who can actually play. Brown too, he is a character guy and he has all the intangibles and the hockey stuff that you want in a player. So hopefully it works out for him here, and we can continue the relationship going forward. But it's an opportunity to add two good players, and in the right age group, too."
Up front, Brown appears to be the guy ticketed for the right wing slot on the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, but Laviolette will have a lot of options available to him because of the number of versatile players among Washington's forward group. Brown, Strome, Conor Sheary, Anthony Mantha, Connor McMichael, Marcus Johansson and Aliaksei Protas have all displayed the ability to play at least two of the three forward positions, and the latter two are capable of playing all three.
"They were one of the teams that showed the most interest on the first day of free agency," says Strome of the Caps, "and it was something that I really wasn't expecting to go through, having a pretty good year last year numbers-wise and being a restricted free agent, and then finding out four or five days before that I was going to be unrestricted.
"It was something that just turned around really quick, and then Washington showed some interest and it seemed like a great fit. They have lots of guys that love to score goals and some great playmakers. I think this team is poised for a long run, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm happy to be here, and I'm excited."
In addition to their "horizontal" versatility - the ability to play multiple positions - on a team's depth chart, several of the above forwards also provide vertical flexibility, being able to move up or down a lineup to fill in whenever and wherever needed. That will be important as the team tries to keep up in the Metropolitan Division standings while Backstrom and Wilson continue to rehab after their surgeries.
"Brian did a really good job of just giving us some really good depth to the organization," says Laviolette, "knowing about Nick and knowing about Tom and the fact that they were dealing with some heavy injuries and some heavy rehab and not knowing when they might be available to us. And signing [Marcus] Johansson back for another year; he's a quality NHL player, bringing in Connor Brown and bringing in Dylan Strome.
"I think it was just really important to add that depth, because now it seems like we've got 12 or 13 players that fit in. You add to that all the guys that contributed last year, so when things do come up this year - and they will; the injuries are going to come up for every team - we'll have that depth."
While that depth is critical, like most teams, the Caps' fortunes will rise and fall with the performances of their top players. They'll need consistency and health from top players and longtime holdovers such as Carlson, Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Lars Eller, T.J. Oshie, Dmitry Orlov and others if they're to reach the playoffs for a ninth straight season in '22-23.
"We haven't gotten it done in whatever, the last four years," says Eller. "I don't know what to say other than I'm still hungry. I think the hunger is still in the room, and that's what it comes down to because we've got the talent, we've got the quality. We've got experience. We've got all these assets, now it just has to come together at the right time. And yes, we haven't gotten it done. But do I believe that we still have a run in us? Yes. I think we have all the assets to do it. I can say that because I've seen us do it before. I still have a strong belief in us."