How the Capitals defied expectations and built another contender around Alex Ovechkin

New York Times

19-03-2025

MANALAPAN, Fla. — As a rookie general manager in a room full of experienced hockey people, Chris Patrick is mostly in listen-only mode as he soaks in his first March GM meetings.
'To be totally honest, intimidating a bit,' the smiling GM of the first-place Washington Capitals told The Athletic on Tuesday after Day 2 of the meetings. 'Looking at the experience around the table, both on the NHL side and on the GM side, yeah there's legendary names up there, so yeah, just trying to keep my mouth shut, be respectful and try to add where I feel I can add.
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'It's been really fun. They're all-around a really good group. They're really accommodating and inclusive and really welcoming.'
And yet some of those more-tenured GMs are the ones looking at the Capitals, commenting they'd like to maybe model a retool after what Washington has pulled off in its quick roster transformation the past few years.
Talk about the ultimate compliment.
'Definitely humbling,' Patrick said. 'I think we were duplicating some other teams when we did it. You and I have talked in the past about some teams that I feel have done a really good job of not necessarily having top 10 overall draft picks but still being really competitive teams — conference finals, Stanley Cup contenders — so there's definitely a model out there.
'I think (Panthers GM) Bill Zito has shown that with what he's done in Florida. You can see it in Dallas. I mean Vegas certainly showed that you can go out and be aggressive on a trade and free-agent front to really improve your team. So the model's been there, and we were just fortunate to get some pieces to come our way and our ability to do it.'
There's humility there, to be sure, but the Caps' aggressive retool has been nothing short of stunningly successful. Sure, it must be noted that they got lucky that veterans like Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie are more or less off the cap via LTIR, but you still have to go out and find pieces who fit.
Last summer alone, they went out and acquired Pierre-Luc Dubois, Jakob Chychrun, Andrew Mangiapane and Logan Thompson, as well as adding free agents Matt Roy, Taylor Raddysh and Brandon Duhaime, among others. Then they had an early-season trade for veteran center Lars Eller.
In a league where we keep hearing how hard it is to make moves, the Caps have made a ton of them.
It all goes back to the trade deadline two years ago. The Caps were out of a playoff spot and were sellers in some ways, trading away pending UFA Dmitry Orlov, for example, for a first-round pick. But then they turned around and dealt that same first-round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs for young blueliner Rasmus Sandin. The summer before that, the Caps also took a chance on free agent Dylan Strome after he wasn't given a qualifying offer by Chicago.
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Behind all of the moves was the philosophy of not wanting to do a full rebuild but rather as quick a roster makeover as possible.
'There was a decision around then that we should be trying to get younger players that are on the cusp of maybe getting comfortable in the NHL,' Patrick said. 'Guys like Rasmus and Dylan were good examples of that. You know, did we think at some point we'd have to do more a rebuild type thing? It definitely was on the table. But I don't think it was anything that anyone was pounding the table to do, because it's a lot harder than it looks. There's a lot of layers to it.
'And a lot of people in our organization went through it and did it to get Alex Ovechkin (more than 20 years ago). You know, you get those initial players and there's a lot more work to get yourself to be a contending team. When we started down that path this time of getting a bit younger, some of these players came in and played at or above our expectations and I felt like last summer there was a good opportunity to continue to do that.'
The interesting part of taking a gamble of Dubois, for one, is that it had its roots in the Caps' attempt a year earlier to get in on trade talks for him when the Winnipeg Jets were dealing him. L.A. won out that time. The Caps remained confident a year later he would be a decent fit, despite how things played out with the Kings.
'For us, it was like, 'What's changed in the last year that we didn't want to do it now?'' Patrick said. 'We just looked at how he was used in L.A. and the other centers they had there and thought maybe that situation just didn't get the best out of his abilities.'
The Kings are deep at center, for one.
'We thought maybe in our situation, I think, he'd have more opportunity to play the role he wanted to play,' Patrick said. 'We viewed him as a guy that thrives to play against the other team's top lines, and he was definitely going to get that opportunity with us. So that helped us kind of get comfortable on the type of player we were getting.'
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The Caps were modest buyers at the deadline despite their first-place standing, adding forward Anthony Beauvillier.
'Going into the deadline, we looked at it as three ways we can go,' Patrick said. 'We could do absolutely nothing and probably be fine. We could do what we did and add a piece that we thought would be very helpful and useful to us. Or we could go for a bigger splash.
'The prices, to me, were elevated this year. There were fewer sellers, and there were teams in the mix actually saying, 'We're going to shop a bit here, too, instead of just holding firm.' So, to me, the price not only in picks but the level of prospects that were moving was kind of high for us. We have some prospects that we really like, and I think other teams like them, too. We just didn't feel that was the right time to be making those types of deals.'
So they went the moderate route with Beauvillier, whom they feel is a great fit. They also could bring in top prospect Ryan Leonard once his college season is over.
'We'll make a push for him and see if he's ready to come out (of college) and join us,' Patrick said. 'That would be almost like a deadline add.'
There's been contract work in-season, too. Both Caps goalies were pending unrestricted free agents, Thompson enjoying a career season and Charlie Lindgren having his breakout year the season before. It wasn't easy to navigate having two goalies on expiring deals and knowing it was impossible to get both signed at the exact same time. But both got extended.
'It was very hard, and credit to both players for being very professional throughout, and credit to both their representations for understanding the position I was in and being good to work with to trying to find something to get something done,' Patrick said. 'In both cases, it felt like we got a really good point on both players and deals that made sense for both sides.
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'With the goaltending position, it's hard, because you want to support your teammate, but there's also that inherent competition in that only one of you gets to play every night. So you're dealing with different things than maybe with a forward or a defenseman. But it speaks to both Logan and Charlie being really good professionals, really serious about their craft and really buying into what we're trying to do in Washington and wanting to stick around for it.'
An extension has not yet happened, though, with Chychrun, also a pending UFA.
'We'll continue to talk,' Patrick said. 'I'm hopeful we'll get something done, and I think Jakob is in the same boat. I think he's really liked the situation in Washington. I think it's been good for both sides. He's been a good fit for our group and I think our group is good for him.'
The group, of course, is still led by captain Alex Ovechkin, who continues to close in on Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record. So far, that story, which is getting bigger and bigger by the day, hasn't taken away from the team's focus in the stretch run. Patrick feels that's a testament to No. 8, who doesn't want to let it become a distraction.
It wasn't that long ago that a lot of people looked at an aging Caps team and figured Ovechkin one day would be trying to chase down the goals record on a bottom-dweller in for a long rebuild. The cherry on top, to be sure, is that the goals chase is happening during the renaissance.
'They kind of go hand in hand,' Patrick said. 'The better the team that's around Alex, the better chance that he's going to score goals, in my opinion. Not only the talent level of players around him, but our ability to get him matchups where he's going to have a better chance to exploit opportunities to score. I think a lot of stuff we did last summer helped in that regard.
'So for me, I'd be lying if I said this is exactly where we thought we'd be a year ago. But I mean, the goal was, 'Let's not just send Alex out there and say go score goals.' We have to have a supporting cast around him that allows us to put him in a position to score. Because at the end of the day, he's 39 years old playing a game that 39-year-olds don't play. So we had to recognize that we had to build up as much as we can around him.'
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The funny thing about a Caps team running away with the Eastern Conference top seed is that they're still not that popular a pick to come out of it. In fact, the most popular narrative out there (which I'm guilty of) is saying that the East this year is as wide open as it's been in a long time. That there is no juggernaut team in the East.
Are the Caps offended they seemingly still have to keep proving themselves to people? Nah.
'I'm completely fine with that,' Patrick said, smiling. 'As a front office, we're not one that wants to be mentioned in every article, and we don't want all the accolades. For us, it's the team on the ice. We think we've put them in a good position to have success. But as everyone knows, once the playoffs start, it's a whole new season and everybody's points go back to zero. And every team that's in there has a chance to win. There's so much parity now in the league.
'So yeah, I'm not going to sit here and worry, 'Are we getting enough credit?' Because we need to keep our heads down and keep working and be ready for a whole new level of play once Game 1 starts.'