(Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke — Imagn Images)
ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals didn’t make the moves they’d hoped for as free agency opened.
General manager Chris Patrick wouldn’t speak directly about Nikolaj Ehlers, though he did say his team had tried to do something big, and it fell through. Washington was in the mix for Ehlers late before he ultimately chose to sign a six-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes.
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With Ehlers off the table, and other desired targets choosing to re-sign with their original teams, the Capitals have been mostly quiet, with the only notable signing for next season being Anthony Beauvillier’s two-year extension.
“Some big names came off the board that would have been interesting for our group that we were evaluating, stayed with their current teams, and I think we looked to try to do something big and it didn’t go our way,” Patrick said.
He also noted that the team took care of a lot of its free agency work during the season by extending the likes of Jakob Chychrun, Logan Thompson, Nic Dowd and more.
The Capitals will continue to evaluate their options as they look ahead to training camp, including keeping an eye on the trade market.
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“(We’ll) see what’s out there,” Patrick said. “We’ve sent a lot of picks out the last few weeks, so we’re going to have to make sure we’re prudent with how we do it, but I think there potentially could be some interesting names out there.”
That being said, Patrick remained open to all possibilities, but noted the team will more than likely give its young prospects the chance to make an impression at camp rather than go after one fo the current remaining free agents on the market.
“You never want to say nothing’s possible, but we got to the point fairly early in free agency where we’d be looking at names, and it was, ‘Is this guy better than X young player in our organization?’ That’s what we’re kind of weighing,” Patrick said, adding, “We’re at a point where if we’re bringing in a guy just to bring in a guy because he’s played in the NHL before, he’s going to end up blocking one of our younger guys that might end up having a bigger, more positive impact on the team.”
Patrick listed Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ethen Frank, Hendrix Lapierre, Andrew Cristall, Henrik Rybinski and Bogdan Trineyev as players expected to compete for a roster spot in the fall. Sonny Milano is also set to return from an upper-body injury that held him out for almost the entirety of 2024-25.
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Ultimately, the team is always looking to improve, but does like where things stand going into training camp in September. Patrick also noted that the team has the assets to be aggressive later on this coming season, and the trade deadline is somewhere D.C. could look to be aggressive.
Now, it’s just a matter of how things play out.