With the Stanley Cup playoffs in the rear view, summer upon us and July 1 less than a week away, we have fully crossed over into the most crucial point of the NHL offseason. The 2025-26 hockey calendar concludes this weekend with the 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo, and the ’26-27 calendar commences almost immediately afterwards with the beginning of free agency on July 1 and summer development camps soon to follow.
Although there is no clear-cut, slam dunk No. 1 overall pick in this year’s crop of draft prospects, the class of ’26 is a strong group that is replete with a diverse group of high-end defensemen, scoring wingers and sturdy middlemen throughout most of the first round. The Capitals hold two picks – Nos. 16 and 18 – in the middle of the first round, and should they exercise both of those choices themselves, they should be able to add a pair of significant prospects to what is generally already seen as a strong stable of Washington prospects. Going into the 2026 NHL Draft, the Caps are generally seen as having one of the top 10-12 groups of prospects in the League.
With the NHL’s salary cap taking a soulful, bounding leap again this season, the League’s 32 general managers and decision-makers are flush with cash, but the shelves of the circuit’s annual Free Agent Emporium – which opens for business at noon on July 1 – are more threadbare than virtually any time in recent memory. Given that situation, teams are likely to look to the trade route as the best and most economical means of reshaping their rosters for the upcoming campaign.
There are a lot of teams with a lot of needs and a lot of cap space, but the unrestricted free agent market is underwhelming. And given that so many teams share the same needs, the competition on the trade market could get rambunctious as well. The danger of overpaying in the trade market is perhaps more perilous than doing so in free agency, where the losses are limited to cash and term. Acquiring players via the trade route incurs the additional costs of the personnel/draft capital expended to make the deal.
Caps senior vice president and general manager Chris Patrick has had an eye toward adding a big piece – or two – to the team’s top six forward group since at least this time last year. Three years ago, Washington had the League’s oldest roster, but when the Caps took the ice for last season’s opening night contest against Boston, they featured a balanced roster that looked like a perfect bell curve, with some younger players on the left side and elder statesmen such as Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson and Nic Dowd on the right side.
Since then, the Caps have dealt away Carlson and Dowd and they’ve added two more significant pieces to the youthful side of the curve in up-and-coming prospects Cole Hutson and Ilya Protas. Now, as the Caps look to add a couple of significant pieces to the lineup, they don’t need to be as focused on youth as they have been for the last couple seasons.
“The way I look at it is, we’re in a really good spot with how our age distribution is,” says Patrick, who also has the luxury of having no onerous contracts on the books at the moment. “And with the number of 19-, 20- and 21-year-olds [in the Caps’ system now], to me, I think the restrictions are a little off, as far as is there an age requirement for guys who can help the team.
“If we can bring in a guy who is 27 or 28, then we’re going to have him in his prime years. But if you can’t get that guy, but you can get a guy that’s 32 or 33, on a deal that makes sense, and who is going to improve your forward group or your [defense] group, to me I have no issues doing that. Because I think we have enough youth in the lineup now, and I think too that not the youngest guys but that next tier – with like [Aliaksei] Protas, McMichael and Marty [Fehervary] – it’s time for them to really start to take hold and do what Tom [Wilson] did and assert themselves more on the team and showing the guys younger than them that, ‘This is how we play,’ and stepping up and making themselves impact players for our team on a night-to-night basis, and become guys we can depend on every night.
“But no, for me, we’re back to trying to find the best player to help our group win for the upcoming season, and age – for me – doesn’t have as much of an impact on that decision.”
Brian MacLellan is of a similar mind.
“I think we’ve got to be careful,” says Washington’s president of hockey operations. “Not too many young guys, right? These guys came in and had an impact on our lineup, a pretty good impact. So we're comfortable with them, but you start adding more, we're going to pay the price a little bit in wins and losses. So careful there.
“Ideally, we are adding 27-year-old skill guy. And if that doesn't happen, I think we bump the age requirement and do the best we can do. I think it's going to be a hard environment, that. But yeah, ideally you'd want one in the late twenties that's going to be in your lineup for the next seven, eight years. And if we can't, you'd go older on a shorter term.”
“We’re adding speed, we’re adding youth. The speed, you can tell. We look faster; we have more skill.”
As they look to improve their top six, the Caps could use some of the prospects and/or draft capital they’ve accrued, and that includes those two first-round picks in the 2026 NHL Draft.
“I think our guys are pretty optimistic that we’re going to get a couple of good players where we’re picking, right in the middle there,” says MacLellan. “They’ve got a group of players that they all like, and we’ll get one or two of them for sure.”
Monday morning, Caps assistant general manager and longtime draft guru Ross Mahoney spent some time chatting about the upcoming draft, and he echoed what MacLellan said. The Caps should be able to pull a pair of strong prospects from the middle of the first round on Friday night in Buffalo, should they choose to exercise those two selections.
“We’re pretty excited actually to have the 16 and the 18,” says Mahoney. “I think there are definitely going to be some good players available for us. I don’t think it drops off until a little bit after that – where we’re picking – so the guys are pretty excited. The scouts are really excited about being able to have those two picks.”
Now, whether those picks are made by the Caps or used to improve the top six, or to trade up or back in the draft remains to be seen. There is a strategy to the draft, but it’s two-fold. Teams spend the weeks and months leading up to the draft game-planning and strategizing for various possibilities so that when those possibilities become reality on draft day, they can quickly pivot to meet the moment.
“You strategize and [have] those discussions for sure,” says Mahoney. “Do we package them and move up? Do you take one of them and move back? That’s all the strategy that goes into it before you get to the draft. And then as the draft is going along, you’re making those decisions as to what you would do or try to do. But right now, we’re very happy with 16 and 18. But you always talk about either way, trading up or trading back.”
This year marks the first time since 2012 that Washington has had two picks in the first round. They’ve had years where they’ve arrived at the Draft with multiple first-rounders, and they’ve had instances – such as the 2008 Draft – where they arrived with a single first-round pick, but were able to finagle another by trading into the first round on the draft floor, a big move that landed Carlson with the 27th overall pick.
“There is the strategy of it,” says Mahoney. “You discuss different options that might happen. It could be a possibility, let’s say we could move up four or five spots, and what draft pick would we be willing to give up? Would we give up that pick in this year’s draft, would we give it up in next year’s draft, or the year after? So, you’re involved in that type of strategy that goes into it. Or, is it worth it to move back and pick up another second-round pick or a third-round pick?
“So, you have all those scenarios and you sort of run through it. And you have to be ready, and that’s why you do it. But for the most part, I’m going in there thinking we’re picking 16 [and] 18, unless something does happen and we can – like I said – move up or move back, depending on who is still on the board. Honestly, that’s part of the fun of it – the strategy of it. You go through the hunt all year, of being out hunting and trying to find good players and you have the strategy before the draft and then you have the strategy of the draft. I really enjoy both parts to it. And every draft seems to be unique, and there’s always something that is unexpected that happens in the draft, so you have to be ready for it.”
Mahoney characterizes this year’s draft as being heavy on defensemen and left wingers.
“We’ve always tried to take the best player available in the draft,” he stresses. “And if we have too many good assets at one position,I think that’s actually a good thing as far as the general manager and having strengths in things that maybe some other teams want.”
Mahoney typically keeps his cards close to the vest during the days ahead of the draft, but he did intimate on Monday that a center might be a preferable target, given the plethora of wings currently in the Caps’ prospect cupboard.
“If a center was available, I think that would help,” says Mahoney. “I’m saying that because of the Ryan Leonards and Andrew Cristall, and Lynden Lakovic; they’re a load of wingers. And there’s always a need for a defenseman, too. It would probably be nice to get a bigger defenseman in the draft, if we could.
“Obviously, we have Cole Hutson coming along, but he’s a little bit of the smaller variety, and highly gifted and talented offensively. If we could get a bigger defenseman and a bigger center, I think that would help. But like I said, it depends on who’s there. There are some really good players at all positions for us.”
Mahoney and the scouts are finished watching the class of 2026 on the ice. Now it’s a matter of getting their lists into shape for the weekend and running mock drafts while discussing any number of possibilities, depending on what happens with the first 15 selections.
“We usually mock our mock draft,” jokes Mahoney. “It’s always a lot of fun and we’re trying to strategize there, but it’s pretty funny sometimes when we look back because like I said, there’s always things that happen that you don’t expect, a team to take a certain player. And good on them for taking who they think they should take and not some type of a consensus pick. I always respect teams that do that.”
Essentially, Mahoney goes into the draft expecting the unexpected. And he has yet to be disappointed.
“I learned a long time ago – I guess this will be my 29th draft that I’ve run – that you better be prepared for the unexpected,” says Mahoney. “And just because you’re picking 16 and [18] doesn’t mean all of a sudden you could be picking seven or eight. Or there could be a player that’s still there that you need to be ready to be able to make calls to the other teams and see if they’re willing to make a move.
“Chris is really good at that. Actually, I’ve been really fortunate. George [McPhee] and Brian and Chris have all been really, really good as far as trying to get an extra pick if we really like a person or a couple of players who are still on the board. There have been some situations where the general manager has phoned almost every team – and even maybe a team twice – and we end up getting the pick and being able to pick another player that we really liked that we didn’t think would be sitting there at that time.”
Maybe the Caps trade both of those picks, but that seems highly unlikely. Trading one of them is less unlikely, but if the Caps do end up keeping and exercising both of those choices, they do believe they’ll be adding a pair of good skaters to their stable of prospects, either a forward with top six upside or a defenseman with a top four ceiling.
“Yeah, I really do, I think there are going to be a couple of good players there that we really like,” says Mahoney. “Who they are, I don’t know. I think there is a group pf probably five or six that I think our two guys could be in that group of five or six.
“But like I said, I get surprised every year where it’s like, ‘Oh, wow; so-and-so is still there and we have a chance to get him.’ Well, we talked about it, but we spent a little more time talking about some other players we thought might have been there. But it happens a lot. I’m really curious this year, though. I can usually tell you the order of maybe the first eight or nine picks. I think I know who the players are this year, but I don’t know the order of it. And then there’s kind of a bigger group after that. It’s going to be fun.”
It always is.
Bear Tracks – It was 20 years ago on June 14 that the Hershey Bears won the Calder Cup championship over the Admirals in Milwaukee, winning the AHL championship in the first season of the long and successful ongoing affiliation between the two teams. From opening night of the 2006-07 NHL season to now, the Capitals have not played a single game without a Calder Cup champion from the Hershey Bears on their roster.
In the two decades since the Caps and Bears re-started their affiliation, Hershey has reached the Calder Cup Final on seven occasions, and it has added five of its AHL-record 13 Calder crowns during that time.
Earlier in the week, the Caps announced their four-game preseason slate for training camp in 2026. And for the second straight September, the Caps and their AHL Hershey affiliate will host a preseason contest against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, Sept. 21 at Giant Center.
