The Washington Capitals were one of the busiest teams in free agency, adding or re-signing 8 different players.

Monday, the Capitals officially announced the players’ new numbers, several of which are rare picks that will take some getting used to. One of them may also bring a side of emotional pain too.

Not noted below, Marcus Johansson will retain number 90 and Matt Irwin will rock Mike Green’s number 52 again next season.

The biggest free agent acquisition by the Capitals was starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper. The 32-year-old goalie signed a five-year deal with the Caps after leading the Colorado Avalanche to their first Stanley Cup in two decades. Kuemper will become the 13th player in Capitals history to wear number 35 and he’ll be the first since Henrik Lundqvist to do so.

The three-five has been worn by some of the better names in Capitals goalie history including Olie Kolzig (rookie year), Don Beaupre, and Byron Dafoe.

Kuemper also wore no. 35 with the Avs.

Full list

Michel Belhumeur 1976
Rollie Boutin 1979
Wayne Stephenson 1980-1981
Al Jensen 1982-1987
Don Beaupre 1989
Jim Hrivnak 1990
Olie Kolzig 1990
Byron Dafoe 1993-1995
Sebastien Charpentier 2002-2004
Frederic Cassivi 2007
Justin Peters 2015
Henrik Lundqvist 2021
Darcy Kuemper 2022

The tendy who has the inside track to be Kuemper’s backup is Charlie Lindgren, who signed a three-year deal worth $1.1 million per season with the Capitals.

Lindgren will become only the second player in Capitals’ history to rock number, joining our former hoppin’ kangaroo, Nathan ‘Crikey’ WALLLL-KAH.

Full list

Nathan Walker 2018-2019
Charlie Lindgren 2022

The Capitals’ biggest free agent acquisition at forward was undoubtedly former Blackhawks forward Dylan Strome, who is expected to take over for Nicklas Backstrom at second-line center.

Strome wore number 17 for the Hawks and will continue to do so in Washington. He will be the 22nd player in Capitals franchise history to wear the number, joining notables Ilya Kovalchuk, Chris Clark, and Chris Simon. Recent trade acquisition Michael Raffl was the last guy who wore the digits.

Full list

Willie Brossart 1975
Rod Seiling 1975
Jean Lemieux 1976-1977
John Paddock 1976
Tom Rowe 1978-1980
Tim Coulis 1980
Wes Jarvis 1981
Timo Blomqvist 1982-1985
John Blum 1987
Mike Ridley 1987-1994
Sergei Gonchar 1995
Chris Simon 1997-2003
John Gruden 2004
Chris Clark 2006-2010
Brian Sutherby 2008
D.J. King 2011-2012
Wojtek Wolski 2013
Dustin Penner 2014
Aaron Volpatti 2015
Ilya Kovalchuk 2020
Michael Raffl 2021
Dylan Strome 2022

Joining Strome in the top six will be Connor Brown, who will serve as the temporary replacement for injured winger Tom Wilson. Brown will become the new inhabitant of Alex Semin’s legendary number 28 – the same digits he wore while with the Ottawa Senators.

Brown will be the 26th player in team history to wear the two-eight. Highlights include Dean Evason, now the head coach of the Minnesota Wild, John Slaney, and 2018 Stanley Cup champion/reserve defenseman Jakub Jerabek.

Full list

Gord Lane 1977-1980
Glen Currie 1980-1982
Chris Valentine 1982-1984
Dean Evason 1985
Mark Taylor 1985-1986
Gary Sampson 1987
Paul Cavallini 1988
Grant Ledyard 1988
Chris Felix 1989-1991
Brad Schlegel 1992-1993
John Slaney 1994-1995
Eric Charron 1996-1997
Martin Gendron 1996
Jan Benda 1998
Jeff Brown 1998
James Black 1999-2001
Jason Marshall 2001
Matt Pettinger 2001
Peter Ferraro 2002
Alexander Semin 2004-2012
Kris Beech 2006
Paul Carey 2016-2017
Jakub Jerabek 2018
Brendan Leipsic 2020
Daniel Carr 2021
Connor Brown 2022

This one will take some serious getting used to, especially if Henrik Borgstrom forces his way onto the team during training camp. Borgstrom will rock the number 13 and be the first Capitals player to do so since… Jakub Vrana. Weird!

Borgstrom is the sixth player in franchise history to wear the mark.

Full list

Andrei Nikolishin 1997-2002
Bates Battaglia 2004
Joey Tenute 2006
Jiri Novotny 2007
Jakub Vrana 2017-2021
Henrik Borgstrom 2022

Erik Gustafsson is one of a number of depth defenders who could end up battling their way onto the Capitals third pairing out of training camp. The Swede will wear number 56. He will be the fourth player to ever do so for the Capitals and the last since defenseman Patrick Wey, who had to retire due to concussion issues.

Full list

Garret Stroshein 2004
Chris Bourque 2008-2010
Patrick Wey 2014
Erik Gustafsson 2022

Capitals 2022 first-round pick, Ivan Miroshnichenko, may not arrive in Washington for a while, but when he does, he will become the 16th player in team history to wear number 10, formerly the digits of goal-scoring extraordinaire Daniel Sprong.

The number has a rich history and has been worn by plenty of memorable Caps including Kelly Miller, Ulf Dhalen, Brett Connolly, and, oh no, Martin Erat. I’m going to imagine, until told otherwise, that Ivan chose 10 as an homage to current Capitals scout Matt Bradley, who once fought for a famous Capitals Russian.

Full list

Ron Anderson 1975
Gord Brooks 1975
Bill Clement 1976
Doug Patey 1977
Bob Girard 1978
Walt McKechnie 1978
Rolf Edberg 1979-1981
Bob Carpenter 1982-1987
Kelly Miller 1987-1999
Ulf Dahlén 2000-2002
Matt Bradley 2006-2011
Martin Erat 2013-2014
Mike Richards 2016
Brett Connolly 2017-2019
Daniel Sprong 2020-2022
Ivan Miroshnichenko ???

Number histories tabulated via the Capitals media guide and Hockey Reference.