Hours before the start of the Conference Finals round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Wednesday, the Caps signed unrestricted free agent defenseman Timothy Liljegren to a two-year, $6.5 million contract extension. The deal carries an annual salary cap hit of $3.25 million.
Liljegren was originally a first-round pick (17th overall) of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2017 NHL Draft, and he logged 197 games across six seasons in Toronto before moving west to San Jose in an October 30, 2024 trade involving blueliner Matt Benning and a couple of draft choices.
A strong skating, two-way defenseman, the signing of Liljegren gives the Caps another right-handed defenseman for the bottom portion of their defensive depth chart, and the price is more than in line with what the Caps have paid Trevor van Riemsdyk to capably handle third pair duties on the right side for the last six seasons.
van Riemsdyk, who played some of his best hockey in the second half of the 2025-26 season, turns 35 in July and is also an unrestricted free agent this summer.
“We’re going to have some holes in the back end here to fill in on the right side,” said Caps senior vice president and general manager Chris Patrick last month. “So, we’ll be looking there as well, and also with Timothy and Trevor here as options as well for that.”
The 27-year-old Liljegren – a native of Kristianstad, Sweden – came to the Caps in a March 6 trade with San Jose; the Sharks received Washington’s fourth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft in return. Although he has yet to play in as many as 70 games in an NHL season, Liljegren has had two seasons with 20 or more points, and he has seen duty on both special teams over his seven seasons in the League.
At the time of the trade that sent him to Washington, Liljegren was averaging more than 20 minutes (20:08) a night playing in the Sharks’ top four. He finished the season third in shorthanded ice time per game (2:19) and fourth in power play time per game (:52) among San Jose defensemen.
The trade for Liljegren was consummated hours after the swap that sent stalwart right-handed defenseman John Carlson – a 17-year NHL veteran – to the Anaheim Ducks.
After dealing veterans Carlson and Nic Dowd ahead of the March 6 trade deadline, the Caps continued to push for a playoff berth with the deadline additions of Liljegren and center David Kampf (from Vancouver), but they fell three points shy of that goal. Both Liljegren (four games) and Kampf (two games) were deployed sparingly down the stretch, as the team was relatively healthy over the season’s final five weeks and it later added rookies Cole Hutson on the back end and Ilya Protas at center ice.
In the aftermath of the Carlson trade, southpaw defenseman Rasmus Sandin moved over to the right side and played splendidly, but a late season knee injury required surgery and is likely to shelve the Swedish defenseman into the early months of the upcoming season. The expected recovery time for Sandin is six to nine months.
“From the lineup that was maybe our six [defensemen] with three games to go in the season, there are kind of two holes to fill now,” says Patrick. “There is the van Riemsdyk hole on the expiring deal, and then Sandin is going to miss some time.”
With Wednesday’s signing of Liljegren, the Caps now have three right-handed defensemen – Liljegren, Matt Roy and Dylan McIlrath – under contract for the upcoming 2026-27 season. Even with Sandin on the sidelines, the left side of Washington’s defense corps is is flush with Jakob Chychrun, Martin Fehervary and Cole Hutson.
In conversations last month, Patrick indicated that signing both Liljegren and van Riemsdyk was a possibility. But the Caps also liked the way Sandin was playing on his off side in the weeks after Carlson’s departure.
“I’ve had discussions with both Liljegren and Trevor about coming back, and I think there is definitely openness for both of them to come back,” said Patrick. “We need to talk about it more here, but as far as left side/right side, some players do better playing on their off side, and those are things we factor into our decision-making process. We want to try to get the best player for the position and put him in a spot to succeed, and all that factors into it.”
While fortifying the right side of the blueline remains on the Caps’ offseason to do list even after the signing of Liljegren, the target could be a lefty or a righty, and the player could come from within the organization, via the trade route, or through unrestricted free agency.
“We’re in a good spot [salary] cap-wise going into this offseason, to have flexibility to do different things, depending on what we want to do,” said Patrick.
A day after the Liljegren announcement, the Caps announced the addition of veteran NHL assistant coach Ray Bennett to their coaching staff. The 64-year-old Bennett was with the New York Islanders last season, and that followed an eight-season stint under Jared Bednar in Colorado and a Stanley Cup championship in 2022.
Bennett also had lengthy stretches as an NHL assistant coach in St. Louis (10 seasons) and Los Angeles (five seasons) in a career that began with the Andy Murray-coached Kings in 1999-00.
Late last month, Patrick announced the departure of Kirk Muller from the Caps coaching staff after three seasons as an assistant coach; Muller departed to explore other opportunities in the League.
During his tenure in DC, Muller oversaw the Capitals power play. Given that Bennett had power play responsibilities in both Colorado and New York, he is likely to assume the same here.
