Recently acquired Washington Capitals defenseman Declan Chisholm said he was in awe meeting his new captain, Alex Ovechkin.
“It was pretty cool, he walked into the gym and he just dapped me up and he was like, ‘Hey, I’m Alex,'” Chisholm described to reporters at the team’s training camp on Saturday. “I grew up watching him. He’s an all time great and [I was] definitely in a bit of shock there.”
The 25-year-old rearguard wished he’d broken the ice with a disarming joke.
“I should have said Alex who?” Chisholm added to the delight of the gathered press. “That’s what my parents said. All my family were like, ‘Did you say Alex who?’ I was kind of in shock but it was good to meet him.”
Chisholm, who was traded from the Minnesota Wild during the NHL Draft in June, said he arrived in Washington as soon as possible to try and mitigate that kind of nervous energy.
“I came down a week early just to get to know the staff and be familiar with just getting to the rink. I think I got lost the first time trying to get up the ramp,” he said chuckling. “That was huge and valuable definitely to just get to know everyone before camp.”
He didn’t have to introduce himself to everyone, however. Chisholm reunited with some familiar faces on the Caps that he previously served with at other clubs.
“I knew [Pierre-Luc Dubois] just from Winnipeg. [Training] camps and stuff. His dad coached me for three, four years [in the AHL] and I played a little bit with him,” Chisholm explained. Éric Dubois is a defensive coach with the Jets’ AHL affiliate – the Manitoba Moose.
“So that was nice to know one face and then [Brandon] Duhaime also. I played [with him] for a month in [Minnesota]. So it was a couple familiar faces coming in here. But other than that, I didn’t really know anyone,” he continued.
Chisholm didn’t have to worry much about housing when he arrived in DC. The Ontario native simply called up his old training partner, Taylor Raddysh, and took over his lease. Raddysh played 80 games for the Capitals last season but signed with the New York Rangers in free agency.
“It’s funny, he got moved and I got picked up by here,” Chisholm said. “He was like, ‘Yeah, you want to take my place?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, for sure.’ So it worked out easy.”
Chisholm played a career-high 66 games for the Wild in 2024-25, logging another career-best 12 points (2g, 10a). He signed a two-year contract with the Capitals on June 30 that will see him with the team through the 2026-27 campaign.
