Better luck next year: The Washington Capitals need another big move

They were aggressive last summer. They should be again this offseason. They might need to be.

Welcome back to Better Luck Next Year, a series that will focus on each team as they get eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention and the Stanley Cup Playoffs. What went wrong, why it went wrong, what (if anything) went right, and what is next. We continue today with the next team to be eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs: The Washington Capitals.

Maybe it’s because there is no clear line on who is actually making the final roster decisions for the Washington Capitals, but it was a huge whiff in the general manager of the year award this season when nobody from their front office was a finalist. But whether it’s president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan or general manager Chris Patrick making the actual call is irrelevant, the bottom line is their front office did one of the best jobs in the league during the 2024-25 season.

They saw a badly flawed team that barely snuck into the playoffs in 2023-24, recognized it wasn’t good enough as constructed to do that again, and made several big moves in the summer of 2024 to make sure it would be good enough.

Almost everything they did that summer was a hit.

• Trading goalie Darcy Kuemper for center Pierre-Luc Dubois was one of the best win-win trades the NHL has seen in years. Both players got a badly needed fresh start, the Kings got the goalie upgrade they were seeking and the Capitals ended up with a matchup center that played shutdown defense and scored 60 points.

• Adding Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy to the defense significantly upgraded that unit, with Chychrun scoring 20 goals.

• Andrew Mangiapane didn’t score a ton, but was a strong two-way presence as a middle-six forward and a fine add for a second-round pick.

• Getting Logan Thompson for two third-round picks was a steal and helped solidify the goalie position.

Having some additional salary cap flexibility due to the injury situations involving Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie certainly helped their situation, but management still had to take advantage of that and make the right moves.

They did.

And it helped produce a team that finished with the second-best record in the NHL, won a playoff series for the first time since their Stanley Cup winning season in 2017-18 and had mostly strong underlying numbers offensively.

Not every season needs to end in a championship for it to be considered a success, and if you’re a Capitals fan this season should have been seen as a massive success (and an entertaining one as well).

They made an effort to get better, they did, and it was a fun season.

They might need their front office to come through with another big move this offseason if they are going to sustain that success and build on it going into the 2025-26 season. Because there is likely some regression lurking this season for some returning players.

Let’s talk about it.