How will Capitals balance ice time with deep roster?
The Washington Capitals have been one of the most aggressive teams in the NHL this offseason after going from Metropolitan Division champions in 2024-25 to out of the playoffs altogether this past season.
The team’s front office has made major moves to add speed and scoring ability off the rush with the acquisitions of players like Jordan Kyrous and Alex Tuch, but with Alex Ovechkin back in the fold, a winger group that already included Ryan Leonard, Tom Wilson and Aliaksei Protas suddenly looks quite crowded.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by former NHL video coach Steve Peters to discuss how head coach Spencer Carbery can make sure everybody gets the ice time they need.
Tyler Yaremchuk: How big of a challenge, and we love Spencer Carbery on this show, one of our favorite coaches in the league, but this is going to be a legit challenge for him. Just to rattle off the guys who could score 30 next year: Tuch, Kyrou, Wilson, Ovi, Dylan Strome not necessarily a goalscorer, Protas is a guy who you know wants to get 30. Ryan Leonard’s going to want to get his touches, like this coaching staff to balance like who gets the power play time? Because remember, Ovi plays the full two minutes every power play. How do you balance this and keep everyone involved through 84 games?
Steve Peters: That’s going to be tough. It is, but one thing through 80-84 games is you’re going to get injuries. You’re going to get guys in and out of the lineup. And with Ovechkin, there may be the possibility of limiting your role. You’ve got him penciled in on the Daily Faceoff website right now on the top line… He might have to diminish his ice time. He really might, he might be just a power play specialist at this time because of the speed of this league. I think you’re going to be able to roll four lines. I think you’re going to get secondary scoring. The question is going to be on the power play where a guy plays a complete two minutes, and I don’t know if you’re going to have to dial back his ice time. I think you’re going to have to if you want to have team success at the expense of an individual’s records, and I think you’re going to see Ovi’s role diminish so that you can get these players like Kyrou more ice time that they’re going to need to add the offense that they want.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…