It’s not an overstatement to say that a mediocre power play may have cost the Caps a playoff spot last season. Although they finished the 2025-26 season with the 12th best point percentage (.579) in the NHL, they fell three points shy of the final Eastern Conference playoff berth. Washington had terrific goaltending and a middle-of-the-pack penalty killing outfit, but its power play unit did not have a positive impact on games frequently enough, and it was not a difference maker.
The Caps connected on just 17.8 percent of their power-play opportunities last season, finishing 25th in the circuit. Their conversion rate was the team’s lowest since 2011-12 (16.7%) and their standing in the League was the lowest since Alex Ovechkin’s rookie season of 2005-06 when the power play unit finished 26th in a 30-team League with a 14.7 percent success rate.
Longtime NHL assistant coach Ray Bennett takes the reins of the Washington power play unit this season, and Saturday’s day three of training camp included a brief unveiling of the team’s two power play units. One of the units features players who were on the team – and the power play – last season while the other is comprised of youthful homegrown players such as Ryan Leonard, Cole Hutson and Ilya Protas, plus newcomers Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou.
“We’re just maybe giving one unit of guys that have been together before,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery. “There’s a lot of familiarity there, a lot of communication, and a lot of barriers are broken down. They know each other extremely well.
“And then there is a group that is basically just playing together for the first time, but [comprised of] really, really good power play players. I can promise you it probably won’t stay like that for 84 games, but it’s just a starting point for us to work on.”
The holdover unit consists of Ovechkin, Jacob Chychrun, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson. Both units feature a left-handed defenseman – Chychrun and Hutson – running the show from center point, and Leonard occupies the left dot “Ovechkin office” on the more newly cobbled unit.
“I think it's good sometimes to have someone that comes in from the outside and just what they see,” says Strome. “Obviously, we see all our meetings and all the time we spent on trying to fix it last year and going over different things and trying different things. Ultimately, it comes down to execution on the ice. We just looked at some stats briefly in between the practice there, and we were 32nd in the league in multiple things. It's just not good enough with entries, [offensive] zone time with the puck, slot shots, things like that. We're just not getting to the inside enough, and it's nice to get a fresh set of eyes on it and see where it goes from there.”
With only four exhibition games in the NHL’s newly trimmed training camp, and with veterans limited to a maximum of two preseason games, it could be tricky to get the units into game action together in the configurations shown at Saturday’s practice session. Practice sessions will be magnified as a result.
“I think we do a good job in practice of making it game-like,” says Strome. “I know we've done it in the past, but I'm sure at some point we'll do [drills] where it's just a regular two-minute power play on the clock and start with a face-off and go from there. But contrary to our power play not being very good last year, our penalty kill was good, and so that that gives us a good chance to go against a really good penalty kill unit. I know [assistant coach] Scotty Allen has those guys dialed in on a nightly basis, and you see how hard they compete, and I think we can take some of that from what those guys do on the PK to us in the power play.
“I was talking a little bit with [Wilson], and we were talking about how [T.J. Oshie] used to get so many pucks back, and how he was so good in the bumper. And I think that we’ve just got to have that mentality of when the when the puck gets lost, we need to find a way to get it back. Last year was too much standing around and too much just accepting that if off a shot, they clear it, it's like, ‘Oh well, whatever.’ But this year we'll try to go into a little bit of a different mindset and how we're going to get pucks back and keep plays alive and add a little bit of that five-on-five mentality, or even you how hard the PK guys work.”
For the better part of a decade, the Caps’ power-play unit was a consistent weapon, finishing in the League’s top 10 in seven of nine seasons during one stretch. Heading into this season, however, the Caps’ power play has had just one top 10 finish in the eight seasons since winning the Stanley Cup in 2017-18. They finished third with a 24.8 percent success rate in the pandemic-abbreviated 56-game slate in 2020-21.
“A ton of experience, saying things that I find myself in there nodding a lot, when a coach is talking about foundational pieces that you agree with, and you see things the same way,” says Carbery of Bennett. “The thing with Ray is, his track record and his experience and everything that he’s accomplished speaks for itself.
“But I think with our group – because of the recent struggles – I think him just coming in with honesty and saying, ‘Let's take a step back and build this thing from square one,’ and to me, that's the smartest approach. You don't have any preconceived notions. What went on last year? What went on two years ago? Where did Ovi play? Who was out for this? Wipe it away; let's build this thing from scratch. And that's what his messaging was today. And that's what we'll start to build, or what we started to build today.”
The 20-year-old Hutson is in the midst of his first NHL training camp, and he has been tabbed to quarterback one of the two units. During his 14-game NHL baptism last spring, his play on the team’s extra-man unit was a breath of fresh air. In those final 14 games of the campaign, the Caps clicked at a rate of 26.3 percent with the extra man, tied for seventh in the League during that span.
Hutson himself had a hand in six (one goal, five assists) of the Caps’ 10 power-play goals in those 14 games, helping the team to a 10-3-1 record across that span.
“It’s pretty cool to get that trust from the coaching staff,” says Hutson. “It’s pretty cool, and it’s something I’m not going to take for granted at all. And hopefully, I’ll just go out there and do my best.”
Hutson’s best was plenty good enough in a short sample size late last season, and the Caps are hoping the combination of Bennett and their new personnel with help elevate both units as the 84-game season wears on.
“You can tell his knowledge is there,” says Hutson of Bennett. “I can’t wait to pick his brain this season. I just hope to learn as much as I can from him this season, and I hope to make him proud.”
CAMP NOTES: The penalty-killing forward pairings were Alaiksei Protas with Justin Sourdif and Boone Jenner with Anthony Beauvillier. Carbery noted that Wilson and Tuch will also see duty on that unit as a third duo.
The group that travels north to Boston for Sunday’s preseason opener against the Bruins will be a “mixed” group, according to Carbery, meaning players from both the Group A and Group B camp units will be making the trip. A number of players for Sunday’s game will be pulling on a Washington sweater for the first time in a game situation.
