Capitals have retooled roster on fly while Ovechkin closes in on Gretzky

Ovechkin’s age appeared to be catching up to him when he was held without a point in the four-game loss to the Rangers in the playoffs last season. Washington had barely qualified for the postseason as the second wild card in the Eastern Conference and some wondered if it were his last hurrah in the postseason.

Though injuries, particularly on defense, hampered the Capitals against the Rangers, their management — headed by former GM and still president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan and Patrick, promoted from assistant GM to GM on July 8 — was keenly aware they needed to continue revamping the roster regardless of the outcome of the series.

The process actually began following a first-round loss to the Florida Panthers in the 2022 playoffs. With the remaining core of the 2018 Stanley Cup championship team aging, Washington knew it needed to change its approach.

“We kind of said if there’s younger players available, we should be taking a harder look at it,” Patrick said. “In the past, it was more adding veteran pieces to a younger group, and I think it became the opposite of that.”

When Dylan Strome, who was 25 at the time, became an unrestricted free agent after he wasn’t given a qualifying offer by the Chicago Blackhawks, the Capitals signed him to a one-year, $3.5 million contract on July 14, 2022, and then a five-year, $25 million contract on Feb. 3, 2023 to lock him up long term. Strome has developed into a first-line center, succeeding Nicklas Backstrom, who stopped playing last season because of recurring issues with his hip, and leads Washington with 41 points (11 goals, 30 assists) in 38 games this season.

Next came defenseman Rasmus Sandin, who was 22 when he was acquired in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 28, 2023. The price for Sandin, who plays regularly in the Capitals top four, was defenseman Erik Gustafsson, who was a pending unrestricted free agent, and the Boston Bruins’ first-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, which they had acquired as part of the return for trading defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway, each potential UFAs.

“You sometimes think you don’t get good young players unless you’re drafting high,” Patrick said, “But as you can see with guys like that, there are reasons why teams are looking to move guys like that, and we were able to take advantage of that and hopefully will continue to do that in that future.”