Chris Patrick has only been the general manager of the Washington Capitals for a matter of days, but he's inheriting a team that is already vastly improved from last season. Before passing the torch, former GM Brian MacLellan — who is still president of hockey operations — made a flurry of huge moves, adding Pierre-Luc Dubois, Matt Roy, Andrew Mangiapane and Jakob Chychrun, among others, to keep the Caps competitive in 2024-25 and beyond.
And the team should be well-positioned to make a run at a postseason spot again in 2025 after being swept by the New York Rangers in Round 1 last season. But the GM is also playing the long game, and preparing for life post-Alex Ovechkin in a few years.
“My intention is to be competitive,” Patrick said when he was introduced as the franchise's seventh general manager on Tuesday, per NHL.com's Tom Gulitti. “I’m not a guy who likes losing. I truly believe that we can transition, for the lack of a better term, past the Ovechkin era with a competitive team.”
That is going to be a very tough thing to do, especially as the front office is making it clear they want to be competitive for the last two seasons of Ovechkin's contract. The prospect cupboards are already pretty thin, and the future likely won't be bright in the nation's capital once No. 8 hangs them up.
But that's still a ways away. The Russian superstar, who led the organization to a maiden Stanley Cup championship in 2018, will be an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of the 2025-26 campaign, and there's no guarantee he will play any longer than that.
Still, it's at least two more seasons of Ovechkin in Washington, and one of the greatest goal scorers to ever lace them up is reportedly very happy with the moves the team has made this summer — and for good reason.
Capitals got a ton better this offseason
MacLellan was busy this summer before passing the torch, trading for Dubois and signing Roy out of Los Angeles, finding a new potential starting goaltender in Stanley Cup champion Logan Thompson, adding Mangiapane from Calgary and acquiring Chychrun from Ottawa.
At first glance, this team is already looking much, much better than last year.
“I think we made a statement already with what we’ve done this offseason,” said Patrick, who had a hand in all of the team's summer moves.
“It’s easy for people to say, ‘Your superstars are aging, it’s time to rebuild, blow it up and do it all over again.’ I think in actuality that can be a lot harder than it sounds. You’ve seen a lot of teams try it and kind of get stuck in an endless cycle of tearing it down and building it up and tearing it down and building it up and never getting where they want to be. You’ll see some teams that were able to transition from an older core to a younger team that’s competitive. I think that is definitely on the table for us.”
That will be important in the future, but as for now, all eyes in Washington are on Alex Ovechkin and co. in their quest to make one more run for the Stanley Cup.
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