Dylan Strome is out to the best start of his NHL career. The 27-year-old center has recorded 34 points (8g, 26a) through 26 games, leading the Eastern Conference’s top team in scoring.
Strome’s hot start has him on pace for a 107-point campaign over the full 82-game slate, placing him in a conversation among the very best players in the league. Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery was asked what exactly Strome still has left to do to cement himself among the elite.
“He’s right there to me, and he’s shown that through the first 25 games of the season,” Carbery said Friday. “I think the next, sort of last little bit is him being able to go up against these top lines and play them straight up.
“You’re not going to win that matchup every night, but being able to hang in that matchup and go toe-to-toe and it’s half and half O-zone time each, it’s half and half scoring chances each, and maybe Stromer ends up on the right ledger of that.”
Carbery got an immediate look at one of those matchups just hours after his comments on Friday. Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube matched Auston Matthews’ line, which also featured superstar winger Mitch Marner and Matthew Knies, out against Strome’s. Matthews is a two-time 60-goal scorer while Marner has hit 90-plus points three different times in his career.
During that 4:55 of five-on-five ice time, the Capitals came out on top in shot attempts (7-5), shots on goal (4-0), scoring chances (2-1), high-danger chances (1-0), and expected goals (0.47-0.10). Strome skated with Tom Wilson and Aliaksei Protas.
Matthews, Marner, and Knies finished with a combined zero points and a minus-6 rating.
“That’s a first-line center,” Carbery said. “To be able to do that consistently through 80 games, and again, you’re not going to do it every single night, but if you can outplay or out-match the Nathan MacKinnons, Austons – that’s what he’s trying to do and trying to get into those conversations of being one of those elite first-line centermen in the NHL.”
While Strome drove his line to great results against Toronto, Carbery continued to give Pierre-Luc Dubois’s line more of the most important matchup minutes (5:16), as he has consistently done this year. Washington also won with Dubois on the ice, meaning the Capitals could have an entire bulletproof top-six forward group if Strome’s line keeps up their great two-way play.
Strome’s big breakout year comes after he’s set a new career-high in points each of the past two seasons. The Capitals signed the former third-overall draft selection in 2022 free agency after the Chicago Blackhawks relinquished all rights to him by not tendering him a qualifying offer.
“He’s gotten off to a tremendous start from where he’s come, from the start of his career, and just sort of chipping away and finding a home in Washington and now even elevating his game to another level this season,” Carbery said. “He’s been tremendous.”
