How aggressive should the Capitals be this summer?
After finishing the 2024-25 season as the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Washington Capitals were one of the most surprising teams to miss out on the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
A combination of scoring drying up, injuries and less effective special teams caused Spencer Carbery’s squad to finish 43-30-9, a mark that would have made the postseason most years.
For general manager Chris Patrick, the combination of young, emerging talent throughout the organization combined with Alexander Ovechkin’s decision on whether or not he will continue to play in the NHL makes this summer a fascinating one.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed what the summer should look like for a Capitals team that could feasibly go younger or push to move back into contention.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I’m just curious how aggressive they’ll kind of be, I guess. You know, like they have some really good young pieces coming up. Ilya Protas had an unreal season in the American League, came up four points in four games in the NHL. Cole Hutson came up, looked really, really good. Ryan Leonard had 46 points as a rookie. Like there’s some good young pieces coming here, and I guess where I’m curious on like how hard will they push? You have that extra first-round pick from the Anaheim Ducks. Do you use both your first-round picks and say, ‘Hey, let’s keep stocking the cupboards,’ and let’s have, you know, not a five-plus year view on this, but let’s have a two to three year view on kind of how we go about this off season or do they sit there and say, ‘Hey, we have an extra first round pick. Let’s add some scoring.’ I love their blue line. I love the goaltending. Do they be aggressive or do they say, ‘Hey, let’s see how this young core develops over the next 18 months?
Carter Hutton: Well, I think it’s being strategic on where you’re at. You still have a really good young coach too. And I think that’s where the feeling out process is going to be with management through Spencer Carberry. The factor is you just don’t want to leverage yourself too much for the future. That’s like the big question marks, but I think you can do it strategically and still be competitive in a Metro where there’s not a big demand, depending what Ovi wants to do. Like I think that’s a big, big storyline here. Hopefully he’s back, and hopefully he just takes a decent number so it doesn’t really handicap them either, Ty.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…