When the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins square off, the storyline isn’t typically about how young their rosters are. The two teams have been among the oldest in the entire NHL for several years now. But the Capitals are trying to buck that trend.
Per the Capitals’ PR, this year’s team will have the most players 25-year-old or younger on their roster (8) since the start of the 2017-18 campaign (10). At the end of that year, the franchise won its first-ever Stanley Cup.
CAPS TODAY: The Capitals' opening night roster features eight players 25-years-old or younger. The eight players aged 25 or younger are the most on a Capitals’ first game roster since 2017-18. Read more about the team’s recently announced roster here: https://t.co/nfmCcjkD9Z pic.twitter.com/VuHxFcBOgJ
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 11, 2023
First, here are the eight young players from this year’s roster.
- Connor McMichael (22)
- Aliaksei Protas (22)
- Matthew Phillips (25)
- Beck Malenstyn (25)
- Martin Fehervary (24)
- Rasmus Sandin (23)
- Alex Alexeyev (23)
- Lucas Johansen (25)
Phillips and Sandin are the only two players acquired from outside the organization while the remaining six are Capitals draft picks. McMichael, Sandin, Alexeyev, and Johansen were all first rounders.
All eight players have already made their NHL debuts. Four players won the Calder Cup with the Hershey Bears last season and all four played previously under head coach Spencer Carbery in the AHL.
Here are the 10 names from the eventual Cup-winning team.
- Andre Burakovsky (22)
- Brett Connolly (25)
- Tyler Graovac (24)
- Evgeny Kuznetsov (25)
- Devante Smith-Pelly (25)
- Chandler Stephenson (23)
- Nathan Walker (23)
- Tom Wilson (23)
- Jakub Vrana (21)
- Christian Djoos (23)
Two players from that group, Wilson and Kuznetsov, remain on today’s Caps. Burakovsky (Seattle), Stephenson (Vegas), Walker (St. Louis), and Vrana (St. Louis) are the other four that remain in the NHL or in NHL organizations. Burakovsky and Stephenson have won Stanley Cups with their new teams.
Connolly (Switzerland), Graovac (Russia), and Djoos (Switzerland) have all moved abroad and are currently playing in Europe. Playoff hero DSP is the only retired player from the bunch.
Graovac is the lone player to not eventually factor into a playoff game during the Cup run. Seven of the 10 total were Capitals draft picks.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
