Caps Ink Alexeyev to Two-Year Deal

Going into last season, the Capitals had just one defenseman - veteran top pair fixture John Carlson - who was under contract for the upcoming 2023-24 season. But after signing righties Nick Jensen and Trevor van Riemsdyk to multi-year extensions late in this past season and obtaining Rasmus Sandin in a trade with Toronto ahead of the deadline, the Caps removed most of the uncertainty from their blueline picture.

Today, the Caps announced the signing of blueliner Alex Alexeyev to a two-year, $1.65 million contract extension. Alexeyev will earn $775,000 for the '23-24 season and will get a bump to $875,000 for the '24-25 campaign. The pact is a one-way deal for both seasons, and both the Caps and Alexeyev are hoping these two seasons lead into a bigger role and a bigger splash for the 23-year-old native of St. Petersburg, Russia.

Along with Carlson, Jensen and van Riemsdyk, Alexeyev is now one of four Washington defensemen who are under contract for at least each of the next two seasons.

Alexeyev came into the Washington organization five summers ago, the same summer the Caps achieved the dream of every NHL team, winning the Stanley Cup and having the last pick in the first round of the League's annual draft. At the 2018 NHL Draft in Dallas, Alexeyev was Washington's first-round pick, 31st overall, the final pick of the initial round in what was a 31-team circuit at the time.

Alexeyev's trajectory from the stage in Dallas on that June day five years ago to today's extension has been a meandering journey with more than a few speed bumps. Drafted off the roster of the WHL's Red Deer Rebels, Alexeyev's late (Nov. 15) birthday enabled him to turn pro a year after he was drafted, but he was not able to start his first pro season on time.

During a preseason tournament in Nashville, Alexeyev took a high hit from Preds' defenseman Josh Healey - at 25, the oldest player in the tournament - and he suffered an upper body injury that kept him out of Washington's training camp in the fall of 2019, putting him a bit behind as he prepared to start his North American pro career. Alexeyev did not have an opportunity to play in any preseason games that September, and the Caps didn't get a chance to evaluate him under a preseason microscope.

With AHL Hershey in 2019-20, Alexeyev turned in a solid first season, posting three goals and 21 points while skating in 58 of Hershey's 62 games in that pandemic-abbreviated season. Like virtually every member of his draft class, Alexeyev's development was delayed by the global pandemic. He didn't get to participate in the Calder Cup playoffs following his rookie pro season here, and he spent most of the following season skating with Ufa of the KHL, returning to Hershey for a dozen games at season's end.

Once again, Alexeyev didn't get a chance to see playoff action after the '20-21 season because there weren't any playoffs at that level. Going into the final season of his entry level deal in '21-22, Alexeyev had yet to make his NHL debut, and he his only postseason action was nine games with Ufa in the spring of 2021.

On Dec. 29, 2021, Alexeyev finally got that first NHL game, suiting up against Nashville in a game here in the District. But it was his only NHL game of his first three pro seasons, and offseason shoulder surgery shelved him for the entirety of Caps' training camp once again last fall.

Following a four-game rehab stint with Hershey early in the 2022-23 season, Alexeyev was added to the Washington roster in early November, and he was now a full-fledged NHL defenseman on his second contract. But playing time was hard to come by; he skated in just one game in November.

Finally getting a run of four straight games of work in early December, Alexeyev recorded his first NHL point with an assist in a Dec. 9 game against Seattle in the fourth of those four games, only to suffer another upper body injury on his very next shift. Alexeyev absorbed a high hit from Seattle defenseman Jamie Olesiak, who incurred a five-minute major, a game misconduct and a three-game suspension for the hit, a blow that sidelined Alexeyev for more than two weeks.

"I was actually so happy to get my first point," said Alexeyev. "It was really nice. And it sucks that injuries happen, but that's hockey. I've never really doubted myself and I always stay positive; that really helps me, and I just turn the page."

Alexeyev returned to the Washington lineup on Dec. 27 against the Rangers in New York, the first game the team played after Carlson suffered a gruesome head injury - a fractured skull and severed temporal artery - four days earlier in a game against Winnipeg. Alexeyev skated 15:39 against the Rangers, and after the game, Caps' captain Alex Ovechkin presented him with "the rope" as the team's unofficial player of the game.

"That was unreal," said Alexeyev. "I didn't expect that, but it felt really nice."

Even with Carlson on the sidelines for the next three months, Alexeyev found himself out of the Caps' lineup more often than not as the midpoint of the season passed. He played in just seven of Washington's first dozen games after the Carlson injury, and following a rugged outing in Vegas on Jan. 21 - a game in which essentially the entire team had a rugged outing - he found himself parked in the press box for more than a month, sitting out 13 straight games.

When he finally stepped back into the lineup on March 1 against the Ducks in Anaheim, it was mostly because Washington's defense corps was stressed to the point where it had no other option. Dmitry Orlov and Erik Gustafsson had been traded away, and the only defenseman coming back to the Caps in those deals was Sandin, who was unable to play in that game against the Ducks because of visa issues.

Making matters worse, Washington lost both Jensen and Martin Fehervary to injury during that game in Anaheim, leaving the Caps with just four healthy blueliners for the second half a contest that stretched into overtime. Those circumstances gave Alexeyev a chance to shine, and he was up to the task. He skated a single-game career high of 25:07 in the game, and he also assisted on Tom Wilson's overtime game-winner in a 3-2 Caps victory.

That March 1 game in Anaheim began a run of 20 straight games in the Washington lineup for Alexeyev, a stretch in which he recorded three assists and a plus-1 rating. Alexeyev was the only Caps defenseman to play in each of the team's last 20 games, and he and partner van Riemsdyk were the only ones with positive ratings; van Riemsdyk was also a plus-1.

Alexeyev averaged 18:02 per night over those final 20 games, eclipsing the 20-minute mark half a dozen times.

"It's been great," says van Riemsdyk of the partnership with Alexeyev. "He's a big body and he moves well. You don't see a lot of guys his size who can move as well as him or who are as confident on the puck as he is, and he can make plays and do all that.

"Like any younger player, I think it's just about getting that confidence and getting into that rhythm of things. You learn pretty early on how to get into the flow of the season and all of that stuff, and he has done a great job of taking that opportunity to play and making the most of it. I think every game he has been better and better, and in those games where he was called upon to play even more minutes, I thought that brought even more out of him. He rose to the challenge and never looked overwhelmed. Even in games when he was drawing some tough matchups against other teams' top lines, he handled himself very well."

Alexeyev also began to draw more penalty killing duty as the season wore on, and he logged a nightly average of 1:38 in shorthanded ice time in his last 20 games of the season.

"That obviously gives me confidence as well," said Alexeyev of the penalty killing duty. "It feels good that coaches trust me for that, and I played on the [penalty kill] all the time when I was in Hershey, so it's good. I know Scotty Allen from when he was in Hershey with us, and so I know what he wants. It's been pretty easy out there, and with the other guys, too."

In remaining in the lineup throughout the season's final quarter, the southpaw shooting Alexeyev also logged time on both the left and right sides of the ice.

"I'm really comfortable on the right side because I played a whole season in the KHL with Ufa on the right side, so it feels pretty normal to me," he states. "And I don't think that it matters, who we play with. All the [defense] partners that I play with are really good players. It's the NHL, and everyone is a good player here."

Although Alexeyev is still seeking his first career NHL goal - he has five assists in 33 career games - he did roll out a highlight reel defensive play in a March 23 game against Chicago. As speedy Hawks winger Andreas Athanasiou sped through the middle of the ice and threatened to skate in all alone on a breakaway, Alexeyev launched the Chicago forward with an expertly placed neutral zone hip check, derailing a potentially prime scoring opportunity with an exclamation mark.

"That's great instincts by him," said van Riemdsyk of his partner's read and execution on the play. "If you get in that situation, I know I'm probably thinking, 'Uh oh.' He just stayed calm there, kind of cut him off and laid the body into him and it looked like he never had any doubt of anything bad happening. That was impressive to see.

"It's one of the better skaters in the League in Athanasiou, and that was impressive. He has just gotten more confident on and off the puck with each game, and he's a great guy that we like seeing around the rink. It's been awesome having him here on the team and seeing him get more and more opportunity."

Alexeyev credits his dad with showing him videos of a well-known Russian defenseman from a previous era, enabling him to add the occasional hip check to his toolbox.

"I think that all Russian defensemen looked at [Darius] Kasparaitis back in the day, to see how he did it," said Alexeyev, with a growing smile. "And yeah, I used to do it all the time for three years back in Russia so it's nothing new for me. It looks really good.

"I liked [Hockey Hall of Famer] Sergei Zubov a lot, and Kasparaitis. When they were playing in St. Petersburg back in the days, my dad always liked Kasparaitis, and he showed me a couple of clips."

In the five years since he was drafted, Alexeyev has ridden a roller coaster of ups and downs. But now that he has had a run of consecutive games played in the NHL and is penciled in on Washington's third defensive pairing with van Riemsdyk, Alexeyev is excited for what the future holds for him in D.C. And the eternally salary cap-strapped Caps are happy to have a young defenseman with some upside signed at an attractive price for the next two seasons.

"Yeah, for sure," said Alexeyev. "We have a really good [defense] corps here, and with Carly back we will see it's even stronger now. I think it's going to be exciting for next year."