The Washington Capitals have finalized their Opening Night Roster. Washington officially announced Tuesday morning the 23-man squad that will take on the New Jersey Devils in the club’s first game of the season on October 12.
This year’s team will start the season with a roster consisting of 13 forwards, 8 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders.
Capitals’ Opening Night roster
Forwards
Alex Ovechkin
Pierre-Luc Dubois
Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane
Dylan Strome
Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael
Sonny Milano
Brandon Duhaime
Nic Dowd
Taylor Raddysh
Hendrix Lapierre
Jakub Vrana
Defensemen
John Carlson
Matt Roy
Jakob Chychrun
Rasmus Sandin
Trevor van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehervary
Alex Alexeyev
Dylan McIlrath
Goaltenders
Charlie Lindgren
Logan Thompson
Alex Ovechkin will lead the team into the 2024-25 campaign, his 20th career season in the NHL and 16th as the Capitals’ captain. He’ll be joined by John Carlson and Tom Wilson, other long-time Capitals, as the team’s primary leadership group under second-year bench boss Spencer Carbery.
The team has seven full-fledged newcomers, including Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane, Brandon Duhaime, Taylor Raddysh, Matt Roy, Jakob Chychrun, and Logan Thompson. Dubois and Mangiapane are expected to play top-six roles up front for Washington while both Roy and Chychrun will be slotted in as top-four defenders.
Jakub Vrana is the newest addition to the group, officially inking his one-year deal with the Capitals on Tuesday. Vrana is back with the club that drafted him after being traded during the 2020-21 season.
The race for the final spots on the roster was won by Vrana and defensemen Dylan McIlrath and Alex Alexeyev. McIlrath, 32, clinched a spot with Washington out of camp for the first time since joining the organization before the 2021-22 campaign.
Veteran forwards Nicklas Backstrom and TJ Oshie are also on the roster but will likely be on long-term injured reserve for the entirety of the season. Per PuckPedia, Washington sent Hendrix Lapierre to the AHL in a paper move to optimally reap cap savings when they inevitably place Oshie on LTIR. Lapierre will be recalled once that occurs.
The #ALLCAPS sent Hendrix Lapierre down prior to submitting their opening roster. It is $9.03M over cap with 21 (11F/8D/2G)
LTIR: Backstrom $9.2M
IR: Oshie $5.75MThey're $168K within optimal LTIR capture.
Can add $5.75M cap space w/ Oshie to LTIRhttps://t.co/WYTgGbMnSv
— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) October 8, 2024
Here is the Capitals’ full press release:
Capitals Announce 2024-25 Opening Night Roster
Caps host the New Jersey Devils in 50th season opener at Capital One Arena on Saturday at 7 p.m.
ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals have announced the 23 players who will make up the team’s roster for the season opener vs. the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena on Saturday, October 12 at 7 p.m., senior vice president and general manager Chris Patrick announced today.
Thirteen forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders make up the Capitals’ season-opening roster, led by captain Alex Ovechkin, who enters his 20th season, and alternate captains John Carlson and Tom Wilson. Last year’s leading point scorer Dylan Strome enters his third year in Washington, while Connor McMichael, Hendrix Lapierre, Nic Dowd, Martin Fehervary and Charlie Lindgren are among the many other returnees. The Capitals’ roster also features seven newcomers, all of whom are under the age of 30: forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois (26), Andrew Mangiapane (28), Brandon Duhaime (27) and Taylor Raddysh (26), defensemen Jakob Chychrun (26) and Matt Roy (29) and goaltender Logan Thompson (27).
As many as seven players can make their Capitals debut on Saturday. The Capitals have had six-plus players each make their team debut in the same game just three times in franchise history – Oct. 9, 1974 (the first regular-season game in franchise history), Oct. 6, 1982 (Rod Langway’s first game as a Capital) and Oct. 5, 2005 (Alex Ovechkin’s NHL debut).
Saturday’s season opener marks the start of the Capitals’ 50th season. The Capitals have qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs 33 times in the last 41 seasons dating back to 1982-83, which is tied for the second-most playoff appearances in the NHL in that span. In addition, Washington’s 1,656 wins since 1982-83 are the second most in the League.
The Capitals enter 2024-25 looking to make the playoffs for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons and the 34th time in franchise history. Washington’s 15 playoff appearances since 2007-08 are tied with the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins for the most in the NHL in that span.
With 853 career goals, Ovechkin needs 42 goals to pass Wayne Gretzky (894g) for first on the NHL’s all-time goals list. Ovechkin, who is signed with the Capitals for the next two years, would need to average 21 goals per season during that span to supplant Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer. Ovechkin has scored at least 42 goals in 13 of his 19 NHL seasons and 21 or more goals in each of his 19 seasons.
While Ovechkin resumes his chase for the NHL’s goals record, he also nears a major assists milestone. Ovechkin (697a) enters the season three assists shy of 700 career assists and can become just the sixth player in NHL history with 700-plus goals and 700 assists (currently Wayne Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr, Gordie Howe, Marcel Dionne and Phil Esposito). In addition, Ovechkin is 50 points shy of 1,600 career points and 74 games shy of 1,500 career games played.
Carlson enters his 16th season with Washington. Carlson, who is the franchise’s all-time leader in games played (1,009), goals (151), assists (523) and points (674) among defensemen, ranked first in the NHL in ice time per game (25:54) in 2023-24. Carlson enters the season 26 points shy of 700 career points, a feat achieved by only 29 defensemen in NHL history.
The Capitals, who had two defensemen with 20-plus points last season (Carlson: 10g-42a–52p in 82 GP; Rasmus Sandin: 3g-20a–23p in 68 GP), now have two more defensemen who exceeded 20 points in 2023-24 in Chychrun (14g-27a–41p in 82 GP) and Roy (5g-20a–25p in 81 GP). Last season, Chychrun ranked tied for third among NHL defensemen in power-play goals (7), seventh in shots (204) and 10th in goals.
The Capitals acquired Dubois from the Los Angeles Kings on June 19. The 6’4”, 225-pound center is a four-time 20-goal scorer and recorded a career-high 63 points (27g, 36a) with the Winnipeg Jets in 2022-23. The third overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft, Dubois is one of six players from his draft class to record four or more 20-goal seasons (also Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Alex DeBrincat, Patrik Laine and Clayton Keller).
Mangiapane, who was acquired from the Calgary Flames for a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft on June 27, recorded 40 points (14g, 26a) in 75 games with Calgary in 2023-24 and has reached the 40-point mark in each of the last three seasons. In 2021-22, Mangiapane recorded a career-high 35 goals and 55 points.
