Thursday – the day before the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft – marks the third straight day in which Washington has made a trade. After acquiring Jordan Kyrou from St. Louis on Tuesday and adding Alex Tuch in a deal with Buffalo on Wednesday, the Caps made a much smaller splash on Thursday, one that may enable them to restock a bit of the draft capital they expended in adding Kyrou and Tuch.
The Caps are sending center Hendrix Lapierre to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a pair of draft choices, the Penguins’ third-round choice in 2027 and San Jose’s fifth-round selection in 2028 (previously acquired by Pittsburgh).
In four seasons with the Caps, the 24-year-old Lapierre recorded 13 goals and 34 assists for 47 points in 151 games, and adding a goal and an assist for two points in four playoff contests. With last season’s addition of right-handed center/wing Justin Sourdif, Lapierre’s ice time dipped for a second straight season (to 8:50 per game) in 2025-26, and the trade should give him a fresh start in Pittsburgh.
Lapierre was the Caps’ first-round choice (22nd overall) in the 2020 NHL Draft, the first of the two “pandemic” drafts that ultimately led to the current decentralized Draft format. The Caps drafted Lapierre in October of 2020, and one year and one week later, he made a memorable NHL debut at Capital One Arena on Oct. 12, 2021, the first game with a full house of fans in the building in nearly 19 months.
With his parents, grandparents, siblings and girlfriend all in attendance, Lapierre scored his first NHL goal in that game, the same game in which Alex Ovechkin scored his first shorthanded goal in about a dozen years, passing Marcel Dionne (731) on the NHL’s all-time goals list, part of a two-goal, four-point night for the Caps captain, who was a game time decision to play in that game.
Lapierre grew up idolizing Ovechkin, but the Quebec teenager could never have dreamed of scoring his first NHL goal in the same game in which the Great Eight leapfrogged over Dionne and into the all-time top five.
“You see a lot of things on TV and you grow up watching him play,” said Lapierre of Ovechkin that night. “But to see that in real life and to see the ways he finds to score goals, it’s pretty impressive. You know, he was a game-time decision, he comes in and scores two goals. He’s the greatest scorer of all time for a reason.
“To share the ice with him and to learn from him, and to see how he acts in the room, it’s pretty special and for me it’s a good opportunity to learn. But the way the fans reacted when he scored and his celebration and the fire in his eyes, you know he wants that goal. It’s pretty good to watch him.”
That night just under five years ago, Lapierre became the seventh teenager in Capitals’ history to score a goal in his NHL debut. Lapierre (19 years, 246 days) and Ovechkin (36 years, 27 days) scoring in the same game marked the second-longest age gap among teammates who scored in the same game in franchise history (Nov. 18, 1997, vs. Colorado: Dale Hunter, 37 years, 110 days; Jan Bulis, 19 years, 245 days) at the time.
Lapierre was also a prime performer for AHL Hershey, where he helped the Bears to a pair of Calder Cup titles during his tenure there. During his time in DC, Lapierre was always an outgoing student of the game who was eager to improve and eager to carve out a larger role for himself on the team and in the community. We wish him all the best in Pittsburgh.
