The Washington Capitals made a surprise move on Thursday night, acquiring an unproven Justin Sourdif from the Florida Panthers for a 2026 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick. The relatively high price came despite Sourdif playing just four career NHL games in his three years as a pro.
The 23-year-old forward, who was set to become a restricted free agent after playing out his entry-level deal with the Panthers, signed a two-year, $1.65 million contract with the Capitals on Saturday morning. Capitals general manager Chris Patrick got his first chance to evaluate the trade and signing publicly during his media availability after the 2025 NHL Draft.
“Yeah, he’s a guy we’ve liked for a few years,” Patrick said on Saturday. “We’ve tried to get him a couple times from Florida. We see a guy that’s competitive, smart, can play wing and center, plays both special teams at the AHL level. I think in Florida, it was a situation where he was getting boxed out a little bit.
“They had a bunch of people calling on him, so it got to be a competitive situation. So, like I said at the trade deadline, we had to decide, ‘Do we want the guy and are willing to pay up for it, or do we want to take a back seat?’ And for us, it felt like these are the kind of deals that we’ve had success with in the past with a guy like Rasmus Sandin, where we use a first to get him. Now, obviously, he was more established in the NHL, but we view it as a similar type (of) deal.”
The competition to acquire Sourdif, combined with the Capitals’ consistent admiration for the player, contributed to the high price they ultimately paid to pry him away from the Panthers. Patrick added that the bidding war came down to the Capitals and another team, and the other team’s second-round pick was likely to be higher than theirs, causing the Caps to add in the sixth-round pick.
Capitals assistant general manager Ross Mahoney also relayed on Saturday that the Caps were higher on Sourdif than most other teams during the 2020 draft, but simply didn’t have the picks to select him.
“We like Justin a lot,” Mahoney said. “He’s a terrific skater, he has good skill, and works hard. Actually, I just saw him in one of the Hershey games — I thought he was the best player in the game. His draft year, I think we probably had him around a second-round pick. I think Florida took him in the third, but we would have taken him in the second. That’s where we had him graded.
“He can really skate — no fear in his game. He was also captain of the Vancouver Giants. I know the general manager spoke really highly of him. The general manager of Moose Jaw was the head scout in Vancouver when Justin was drafted. As soon as we got him, I got a text right away from the manager in Moose Jaw, [saying], ‘Good pickup.'”
Mahoney, previously a player and later an assistant coach for the Regina Pats, has deep connections within the WHL. Sourdif played five seasons in the junior league, recording a career high 71 points (26g, 45a) in 52 games for the Giants and Edmonton Oil Kings.
Sourdif’s new deal with the Capitals will keep him with the club through the 2026-27 season, after which he will again become a restricted free agent. The Caps view him as a key piece of the youth movement they started last offseason and plan to continue this summer.
“We’re getting a young guy that might be in our organization for a lot of years,” Patrick said. “We think he can be a really key contributor to our team going forward, kind of that next wave of younger players. I think, as far as his role with us, he gives [head coach Spencer Carbery] options. He can try him at the wing, he can try him at center. I think he’s going to have a good chance here to prove that he’s a good NHL player.”
According to PuckPedia, with Sourdif on the roster, the Capitals are left with $8.55 million in cap space. The team will also need to sign defenseman Declan Chisholm to a contract after acquiring him from the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.
