In the NHL’s current era of tremendous parity, a team can go from the top of the standings one year to missing the playoffs entirely the following season.

The Capitals put together the second-best record in the 2024-25 regular season, finishing with 111 points. That was just five points behind the President’s Trophy-winning Winnipeg Jets.

But this past season Washington won eight fewer games, fell to fourth in the Metropolitan Division, and missed the playoffs by three points.

The Caps made it clear this summer they don’t intend on undergoing an extended rebuild at the end of the Alex Ovechkin era. Instead, they chose to retool on the fly, and Chris Patrick quickly served notice he’s going to be a front-runner for the NHL’s Jim Gregory Award as the league’s top general manager.

Projecting that the Capitals will claim the top spot in the Metro this season feels like a bridge too far, as the Cup-champion Carolina Hurricanes had a whopping 12 more wins and 15 more points than the next-best team, the Pittsburgh Penguins. But second place in the division is a realistic goal for the Capitals to target.

To his credit, Patrick transformed his team this summer, acquiring proven veterans like wingers Alex Tuch and Jordan Kyrou, center Boone Jenner, and defenseman Vincent Desharnais. They nearly spent to the salary cap ceiling, trying to drastically improve the lineup and make the Capitals a realistic contender.

Washington finished 15th in goals-for per-game this past season, and their new additions of Kyrou, Tuch, and Jenner will significantly help them in that department. With rising stars Ryan Leonard, Cole Hutson, and Ilya Protas also growing into impactful contributors, the Capitals should have offensive improvements from their home-grown talent as well.

As long as the injury bug doesn’t hit their roster, the Caps will deservedly have a lot of pressure to do big things in ‘26-27. Patrick is a young man in an old boy’s club that is the GM community, but he deserves a ton of credit for the work he's done in his short tenure. 

It would be nothing short of a catastrophic season if they failed to make the playoffs. But the truth is that, even if they get into the post-season and they’re trounced in the first or second round, there’ll be a lot of disappointment.

Washington has spent almost every dollar available to them, and these new acquisitions must prove Patrick's investment in them was the right thing to do.

A lot can change between now and the time when the 2026-27 Jim Gregory Award finalists are revealed, but Patrick has set a high bar for his colleagues to clear this off-season.

If the Caps go on to make a ton of noise next season, Patrick will deserve recognition for a job well done.

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.