At the Capitals’ Breakdown Day on Saturday, veteran center Nic Dowd revealed that he could require surgery over the offseason.

Dowd missed the final three games of the season with an undisclosed injury. It marked the second prolonged absence of his season; he had missed 16 games earlier in the season following a big hit from the New York Islanders’ Cal Clutterbuck.

“I’m still dealing with some things,” Dowd told the media Saturday. “Have some stuff going into the offseason I’m sure you guys will hear about. [I’ll] still be working through some things here in the next couple of weeks.”

Dowd declined to comment on the nature of his injury but noted that he and the team weren’t yet sure whether surgical intervention would be necessary.

“It’s to be decided,” he said. “We’re still kind of working through some stuff. But obviously, we won’t take too long granted now that we have an opportunity to get that stuff done early this summer.”

After four years in the playoffs with Washington, an extended break could give Dowd the opportunity to heal more fully.

“The only benefit [to missing the playoffs] would be to obviously get healthy,” he said, “but I…would trade that in to get into the playoffs.”

He noted that the injury was not so severe that it would have kept him out of the playoffs, but he would have still had to miss some time.

“As of right now I would still be dealing with a couple things but you know, maybe if we were still playing maybe within a week, 10 days I could potentially be back to play,” he said. “Now that we have some time, there’s some longer-term things that can be fixed with the extended time.”

Even while dealing with injury and a subpar Capitals season, Dowd had an excellent year individually. He set a career high in goals (13), as well as a career high in points (25). Primarily playing on the team’s shutdown line and penalty kill, Dowd regularly faced off against the most skilled players on opposing teams. He has two years remaining on his contract where he makes $1.3 million annually.

With an extended summer ahead of him, Dowd noted that he probably won’t tune in to the Stanley Cup Playoffs as they commence on Monday. Instead, he is likely to spend the time with his wife, Paige, as well as his two children, Louie and Ruby.

“I generally don’t watch any hockey during the regular season,” he remarked. “I mean, every now and then I might turn it on. But between that and Paw Patrol, Paw Patrol tends to win out most of the time. And my wife’s not going to sit and watch hockey with me.”

“Paw Patrol is exciting!” quipped a reporter offscreen.

“Paw Patrol’s not bad,” Dowd confirmed with a smile.

Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB