The Washington Capitals were one of the more surprising teams in 2024-25. While Alex Ovechkin missed 16 games with a broken leg, the team did not crumble, but instead had the best record in the Eastern Conference. They return much of their roster from the prior campaign, and it is time to make some bold predictions for their 2025-26 season.
It was a historic season for the Capitals in 2024-25, seeing Ovechkin break the all-time goals record on the way to winning 51 games and amassing 111 points. The offseason did not see many changes. They saw Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie both move on in the next chapters of their careers, but neither played last season anyways. Andrew Mangiapane and Taylor Raddysh also both signed with new teams. They signed some lower-level free agents, but most of the Caps' NHL Free Agency movement was to retain current players.
Regardless, this roster is largely similar to the one that was great last season. They still have Ovechkin leading the way, plus a fantastic tandem in goal. Further, there is young talent primed to become stars. Ovi has lifted the Cup just once in his career, but as he enters what could be his last season, he will make a run at one more.
Ryan Leonard has a breakout season
For the fans who rock the red to see another Cup run, they also need to see young stars break out. It happened in 2024-25. Aliaksei Protas lit the lamp 30 times while adding 36 assists. Both of those marks were career highs. Connor McMichael also broke out in 2024-25, scoring 26 goals while adding 31 assists. Like Protas, both of those were career highs.
The two helped the Capitals' success last year. The next breakout star is Ryan Leonard. The former No. 8 overall selection played nine games with the NHL squad in 2024-24, finding the back of the net once. He also added a point in the playoffs. Still, he has all the tools to make a breakout in his first full season.
To begin with, his time at the World Juniors showed his dominance. He has been the MVP of the tournament and helped the United States win gold twice. In 14 games over two tournaments at the World Juniors, he scored eight goals while adding eight assists, including amassing 10 points in seven games when he was named the tournament MVP. Meanwhile, at Boston College, he averaged .78 goals per game while averaging 1.4 points per game at the NCAA level.
In his time at the NHL level, his shot total, shot blocking, and hit rates were all fantastic. He averaged eight shots per 60 minutes of play. If he plays third-line minutes and all 82 games, that would equate to roughly 180 shots in a season. Using his expected goals metric based on his shot production, he could have between 20 and 25 goals in his rookie campaign. Even if that falls short, but he is a 30 to 40 point producer on the third line, the Capitals will be sure to benefit.
Alex Ovechkin breaks even more records
Ovechkin is already the all-time leading goal scorer in NHL history. Ovi is going to hit some more milestones this year. He has scored 897 career goals, so he will become the first player in NHL history to hit the 900-goal mark this season. He has also played in 1,491 games, meaning that with his ninth game of the season, he will become the 24th player to play in 1,500 career games, assuming Brent Burns makes it there first. If he plays in 74 games, the Great Eight will move into third all-time in most games played with a single franchise.
He is also in striking distance of the most hits in NHL history. Since hits started being tracked in 2005-06, he has laid the boom 3,743 times, the third most all-time according to the NHL. He would need 287 more hits to break the record held by Cal Clutterbuck, and that would be a career high. If he decides to play one more season, he will have a shot. Regardless, he needs just 194 to move into second place. He has surpassed that mark nine times in his career.
While all nice milestones, there is one record he will break this year. Last season, he scored 44 goals while also missing time. Further, he had one of his best shooting percentages of his entire career. He has scored 40 or more goals 14 times in his career, while eclipsing 50 nine times. In 1968-69, Gordie Howe scored 44 goals, the most by a player aged 40 or older. With how the Caps used Ovi last season, he is going to make it to 45 goals this year as long as he stays healthy, adding another record to the list.
The Capitals come out of the East for 1st time since 2018
At the time of writing, the odds provided by FanDuel have the Washington Capitals sitting sixth in terms of favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup final. Still, they have a legitimate shot to make a run at the Cup.
The Florida Panthers sit as the top option, and they have shown depth, and goaltending is what is needed to win it all. If players like Leonard break out, Washington will have depth. Meanwhile, Logan Thompson has shown to be a top-quality goaltender, having a 2.49 goals against average and a .910 save percentage last year. Further, a team has not played in four straight Cup Finals since the 1980s.
The Carolina Hurricanes sit tied with the Panthers, but while they signed Nikolaj Ehlers, goaltending could be a concern there. The New Jersey Devils have yet to show consistency in the playoffs with this current core. The Toronto Maple Leafs have been the same and lost Mitch Marner. That leaves the Tampa Bay Lightning, who may not have the same level of depth. They have also struggled to get past the Panthers.
There is also the extra motivation of, if this is Ovechkin's last year, sending one of the best players in history out as a champion. The Capitals have all the pieces and should be a solid team once again.
If it can all come together, we could be hearing, “We're not going to be f***ing suck this year. We're the Stanley Cup champions!” one more time in the incredible career of No. 8.
