While the Washington Capitals are set to celebrate their 50th anniversary during the 2024-25 season, owner Ted Leonsis is celebrating a personal milestone of his own.
Tuesday, July 9, 2024, marked 25 years since Leonsis purchased the Capitals as part of the Lincoln Hockey LLC ownership group. It’s a moment that, no matter how you feel about the team’s ownership, changed the direction of the franchise forever.
To celebrate the milestone, Leonsis showed off a document marking the purchase while introducing Chris Patrick as the seventh general manager in franchise history during a press conference along with Capitals chairman Dick Patrick and president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan.
“Dick (Patrick) and I signed an asset acquisition statement on this day, 25 years ago,” Leonsis said. “This was just given to me to close on buying the Washington Capitals. And, it’s been quite the ride. I’m very, very grateful always to Dick for his leadership. And Dick’s not only our chairman. Dick is my partner and is owner of the team. Dick has done an unbelievable job in building management and our franchise really is one of the world-class operations in the entire NHL.”
Leonsis held up a copy of the Form 8594 that he received. The IRS describes it as an Asset Acquisition Statement.
Since acquiring the franchise from Abe Pollin, Leonsis has put his full resources into the team and the Capitals have prospered. Per Capitals PR, the Caps have made the playoffs 18 times — tied for the most in the NHL — and have 991 wins (third most) under Leonsis’ ownership. The Caps won their first Stanley Cup in 2018 and have won three Presidents’ Trophies as the NHL’s best regular-season team.
Leonsis would directly answer emails from fans (like me) via his AOL address and showed a commitment to fixing problems as tiny as broken ketchup dispensers at the then MCI Center. He even showed just how committed he was to winning on the ice two years and two days after taking over the team, working with then-general manager George McPhee to acquire Jaromir Jagr from the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“This puts on the national scene, because we now have a really, really great hockey team,” Leonsis said then. “Now’s the time to prove this is a hockey town, that it loves sports, and we’re as good a team as any others.”
The move didn’t pan out, but it did eventually lead to a full rebuild of the team, which Leonsis supported. The Capitals, after learning some hard lessons, drafted Alex Ovechkin first overall, committing to a full youth movement in Washington and building the right way. That patience paid off with the team’s first championship nearly 13 years after Ovi’s debut.
During that time, Leonsis built the Capitals a new practice facility in Arlington, VA. He was supportive of bloggers getting access to the team, helping grow the passion level for the team. He responded to fans on Twitter and used to post daily to his Ted’s Take blog.
“We’ve had a great run for 25 years,” Leonsis said. “We had a huge rebuild. And even with that, with that rebuild, I saw a stat the other day that for those 25 years, we’re tied for the most playoff appearances of any team in the league. And we have the third-best record, most wins, most points. So, these are big shoes to fill. We don’t want to take steps back. We want to keep going. Our goal is over the next 25 years to win more Stanley Cups and I think we have the right team to do it.”
There have been some serious low moments as well, including a widely panned attempt to move the franchise to Northern Virginia last year. Monumental also owns the broadcast rights of the Capitals, meaning sometimes fans are subject to propaganda on TV over analysis of the team.
But one thing’s for sure, Ted’s put his full passion into the team over the last 25 years to try and make the Capitals one of the best organizations in the NHL. One’s ultimately judged by winning and the Capitals have done a lot of it since Ted took over.
On this day in 1999! Today marks 25 years since I purchased the @Capitals.
I'm so proud of all that we have accomplished in the last 25 years, an incredible run of sustained competitiveness and stability, including the 2018 Stanley Cup Championship. Here's to the next 25! https://t.co/vRsRL8c9CP
— Ted Leonsis (@TedLeonsis) July 9, 2024
