Still, the front-office transition will likely go a lot smoother than the one on the ice. Ovechkin, Oshie, 37, Carlson, 34, and Wilson, 30 are the only remaining players from the Cup team, and Oshie’s playing future is in doubt because of recurring back issues.
Age is also catching up to Ovechkin, who dropped from scoring 42 goals in 2022-23 to 31 last season. That was still enough to lead the Capitals, though, and he scored 23 goals in his final 36 regular-season games to help them qualify for the playoffs as the second wild card from the Eastern Conference with 91 points (40-31-11).
Leonsis and MacLellan promised Ovechkin before he signed his current contract to continue to try to win while he chases the goals record. So, the Capitals have been trying to get younger and retool around him.
They’ve been particularly aggressive this offseason, acquiring forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois, 26, and Andrew Mangiapane, 28, defenseman Jakob Chychrun, 26, and backup goalie Logan Thompson, 27, in trades and signing forwards Taylor Raddysh, 26, and Brandon Duhaime, 27, and defenseman Matt Roy, 29, as unrestricted free agents.
Patrick was part of that decision-making on those moves with MacLellan, who called it, “a group process.” The Capitals see potential in how the new players will fit alongside those previously added such as forward Dylan Strome, 27, and defenseman Rasmus Sandin, 24, and maturing young players acquired through the NHL Draft such as forwards Connor McMichael, 23, Aliaksei Protas, 23, Hendrix Lapierre, 22, and Ivan Miroshnichenko, 20, and defenseman Martin Fehervary, 24.
It’s unlikely a next Ovechkin is among them, but generational players are rare. Washington must try to do it by committee, and Patrick believes they’ve made a good start in that direction.
“I think we made a statement already with what we’ve done this offseason,” he said. “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.”
