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The Capitals have the second-oldest projected roster in the NHL heading into the 2023-24 season

By Chris Cerullo

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September 16, 2023 2:28 pm

The Washington Capitals and general manager Brian MacLellan went into this recent offseason looking to embrace the team’s younger players and add more via free agency or trades. They brought in one of the league’s youngest head coaches in the league in Spencer Carbery, but haven’t quite gotten much younger on the ice.

Instead, the biggest additions to the Caps’ roster came in the form of two veterans in their thirties. The Caps signed 34-year-old Max Pacioretty in free agency and dealt two draft picks to get 30-year-old defenseman Joel Edmundson.

According to CapFriendly, the Caps are projected to open their season with the second oldest roster in the National Hockey League with an average age of 29.7. Coincidentally, their season opener will come against the projected oldest team in the league, the Pittsburgh Penguins (30.8).

The Penguins, Capitals, and New York Islanders are the only teams with an average age over 29, with only the Pens crossing over the 30 mark. Last season, the Caps also ranked second to Pittsburgh but Washington has trimmed their average age by 0.3 to dip under 30. The Dallas Stars (28.8) and Carolina Hurricanes (28.7) round out the top five.

The average age of all NHL players at the start of last season was 27.4.

Here’s how the opposite end of the spectrum stacks up. The Metro Division combats having four teams in the top-five oldest in the league with having two in the top-five youngest with the Columbus Blue Jackets (25.5) and New Jersey Devils (25.9).

Those projections could change, however, with Carbery recently emphasizing the importance of getting younger players significant playing time under his watch.

“In the salary cap era, having that relief from entry-level players being able to come into your lineup and play, that’s something that we will emphasize,” Carbery said. “Having those relationships with a lot of our younger players that the expectations aren’t going to change. The rope — obviously I understand young players and I’ve talked about this before — they’re going to make mistakes, they need opportunity, and time, and they will develop, and I’ve seen that firsthand.”

While the Caps missed the playoffs last season for the first time since the 2013-14 campaign, their AHL affiliate Hershey Bears won the franchise’s 12th Calder Cup, with major contributions coming from Washington’s prospect group. Players from that Hershey team including Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas, Vincent Iorio, Hendrix Lapierre, Beck Malenstyn, Lucas Johansen, Riley Sutter, Ethen Frank, and Hunter Shepard will try and push their older peers once training camp begins in a few days.

A injection of youth from some of those names could prove pivotal after the clear impact injuries to key veterans had on the Caps’ postseason absence. We already know that Pacioretty will not be ready for the start of the season after undergoing surgery on his second achilles tear. TJ Oshie missed swaths of games in part due to a nagging back problem that is not going to fully go away and he had surgery on. Nicklas Backstrom (hip) and Tom Wilson (knee) also had well-documented issues that limited their utility even after they returned to play.

None of those players are getting any younger. To get back to the playoffs, the Caps will need to beat not only their opponents on the ice but also the undefeated Father Time if the projections remain accurate.

Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB