One point short, and a season that came apart
One point. That was the gap between Washington and Philadelphia when the regular season ran out, and it cost the Capitals their first playoff berth since 2022-23. The fall was steep. This group had finished top of the Eastern Conference twelve months earlier, and they opened the campaign at 17-9-2 by early December. Then the second half arrived. Injuries piled up, the goaltending stopped holding up, and the whole thing slid away.
Key numbers
2025-2026 record: 43-30-9 (263 goals for, 244 against)
2025-2026 NHL finish: 4th in the Metropolitan Division
2025-2026 top scorer: Alex Ovechkin (32)
2025-2026 top assist man: Dylan Strome (39)
2025-2026 points leader: Alex Ovechkin (64)
Average age of roster (2026-2027): 28.3 years
Available cap space (2026-2027): $0.075M
Recent moves (offseason)
Arrivals:
- Jordan Kyrou (F)
- Alex Tuch (F)
- Jonny Brodzinski (F)
- Vincent Desharnais (D)
- Boone Jenner (F)
Departures:
- Connor McMichael (F)
- Hendrix Lapierre (F)
- Declan Chisholm (D)
- Trevor Van Riemsdyk (D)
- Brandon Duhaime (F)
Two 30-goal scorers inside 24 hours
Washington Capitals, future contracts and draft picks
The front office did not sulk about missing the playoffs. It went shopping, and it went hard. Two 30-goal scorers landed in Washington inside a single day: Jordan Kyrou, pried loose from St. Louis for Connor McMichael, and Alex Tuch, brought in from Buffalo through a sign-and-trade after agreeing to an eight-year deal worth $10.5m a season. Few summers in the league were busier.
Those two signings did their job in the room, too. Alex Ovechkin put pen to a one-year extension and will return for a 22nd season at 41, still chasing a career goal total that has long since stopped making sense.
The books are in reasonable order behind all that. Pierre-Luc Dubois and Jakob Chychrun are locked in long term, and even after spending on Tuch, Washington holds a first-round pick in every draft through 2029. Chris Patrick has not hidden the thinking: this was never only about giving Ovechkin a better send-off, but about a roster that still functions once he is gone.
A final run at two speeds
There is something gripping about watching a 41-year-old with 929 career goals and the all-time NHL record already banked come back for one more year with a brand new cast around him. Ovechkin still ranks inside the top 10 forwards league-wide for shot power and long-range attempts, according to the tracking data. The shot has not aged.
What has changed is everything around it. Kyrou and Tuch have each cleared 30 goals three times in four years, and they give the top six pace and invention it badly lacked. Dylan Strome is still the primary distributor. And in net, Logan Thompson, snubbed in last season’s Vezina voting despite elite underlying numbers, remains one of the more underrated goalies in the sport.
So the identity has shifted. Less dependent on one man, deeper up front, still organised around a captain who refuses to slow down. Whether that blend of veterans can turn a wasted year into a serious Cup push before the clock wins is the whole question in Washington.
Player to watch: Alex Tuch, at $10.5m a year
Tuch lands in Washington off a 33-goal, 66-point year in Buffalo, his third 30-goal season in four. The cost was heavy: eight years at $10.5m a season, the richest deal ever handed to a 30-year-old in a thin free-agent market.
Big, versatile, trusted on every special team, he slots either next to Ovechkin or into the new Kyrou-Strome look. Production is not the worry. He has been reliable for years. The worry is traffic, because Protas, Wilson, Leonard and Dubois are all pushing for the same top-six minutes.
Settle him quickly and Washington have a second player who can decide games on his own. Get it wrong and this becomes very expensive depth, spread thin across a dressing room that already had plenty.
The bar Ovechkin set out loud
Projected Washington Capitals lines, 2026-2027
Missing the postseason by a single point has moved the goalposts. Getting back in is no longer the ambition. Ovechkin said it himself: “When you look at our lineup, this is a team that can win the Stanley Cup.”
Translated into practical terms, that means an attack that actually converts what Kyrou and Tuch bring, a power play dragged up from the 25th spot it sank to, and a full season of Logan Thompson looking like a top-five goalie rather than a well-kept secret. Spencer Carbery is saying far less in public. He would rather the standings do the talking.
A playoff return with the contender talk backed up would vindicate one of the most aggressive summers any front office put together. Falling short again, with this attacking group, would be a failure nobody in the building could pin on Ovechkin’s birth certificate.
My pick
Washington look to me like the one team in this division capable of going toe-to-toe with the reigning champions. The roster is strong, balanced, freshly reworked. They are going to win a lot of hockey games.
Photo credit: wallpapersafari.com | stevenr52
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