When the NHL opened its randomly stocked free-agent shelves at noon on Monday, the Capitals weren't among the teams with the fattest wallets. But that didn't stop Washington general manager Brian MacLellan from making a quick dash through the aisles of the UFA emporium, and plucking a trio of bottom six forwards for his team.

A few minutes into his first NHL game, as a 19-year-old on opening night of the 2014-15 NHL season, Andre Burakovsky scored a goal against the Montreal Canadiens. In Game 7 of the Caps' first-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes just over two months ago, Burakovsky also scored.

It wasn't until after the last of the 217 prospects' names had been called from the draft floor in Vancouver this past weekend that we learned the salary cap for the 2019-20 NHL season will be $81.5 million. That upper limit figure represents a modest $2 million increase from last season, and it came in short of the league's midseason projection of $83 million.

Hours after announcing his retirement from the NHL, Caps defenseman Brooks Orpik held court for the local media in a short press conference. After that, he granted a handful of one-on-one interviews, including this one with Dump 'n Chase. As always, we are grateful for Orpik's time and his candor, and we wish him all the best in everything that comes up next in his life.

Nineteen years ago yesterday, Brooks Orpik began his NHL journey when the Pittsburgh Penguins called out his name in the first round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft in Calgary. The Pens used the No. 18 pick overall to select Orpik, a 19-year-old blueliner who had just finished his sophomore season at Boston College.

Last week we learned that the Caps will open the 2019-20 season in St. Louis on Oct. 2 when they face the Blues in a battle of the last two Stanley Cup champions, and the NHL also released the date of Washington's home opener, on Oct. 5 against Carolina. Today, the league unveils the full schedule for '19-20, and we get our first look at the Capitals' entire 82-game slate for the upcoming season.

A day after picking up a forward in the first round of the NHL Draft for the first time in five years, the Caps stayed up front with their next two picks. Washington reeled in center Brett Leason with its second-round pick, then engineered a deal with New Jersey for a third-round pick to take Leason's junior teammate, center Aliaksei Protas late in the third round.

It's been a while, but the Caps have added some first-round forward talent to the prospect pipeline for the first time in half a decade. With the 25th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, the Capitals chose center Connor McMichael of the OHL's London Knights. Longtime Caps captain and former Washington coach Dale Hunter is the bench boss in London, where Caps defenseman John Carlson also played his junior hockey.

As the NHL prepares to hold its annual draft in Vancouver on June 21-22, the Caps currently hold five picks in the seven-round draft, the first of which is a first-round choice, the 25th overall selection.

When the 2018-19 NHL regular season got underway, Carl Hagelin couldn't have envisioned what the next several months held for him. Heading into the last year of a four-year contract as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Hagelin was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings in a surprise swap some six weeks into the season. Ten days later, he was on injured reserve with a knee injury that cost him a quarter of the campaign.