The Washington Capitals have a couple of rookie forwards playing significant roles this season. While Ryan Leonard has earned more headlines and accolades for his scoring ability, the Caps have another youngster who has served in a utility role and played up and down the lineup: offseason trade acquisition Justin Sourdif.
After spending the previous three seasons as a minor leaguer in the Florida Panthers’ organization, Sourdif graduated from his fourth-line winger role, where he started the 2025-26 campaign, and is now operating in a top-six center spot. The promotion comes after a long-term injury to Pierre-Luc Dubois and early-season struggles from Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre.
The team’s other centers, Dylan Strome and Nic Dowd, have also battled through minor injuries and production issues. Head coach Spencer Carbery recently spoke about his approach and expectations for Sourdif in the 23-year-old’s freshman season.
“I want to tread very carefully because I don’t want to put any expectations, because I feel like his progression is the approach that I’ve taken with Mikey, with Pro, Marty Fehervary back in the day, not applying pressure to produce offensively,” Carbery said last week. “What Sourdi’s doing right now, I couldn’t care less what his goals and assists look like at the end of the night, and I couldn’t care less about what it looks like at the end of 82 games.”
Through 36 games, Sourdif has just nine points (3g, 6a), ranking him 14th on the team. He has fewer points than three defensemen, Martin Fehervary (11), Rasmus Sandin (10), Matt Roy (10), and is just ahead of bottom-six forwards Sonny Milano (7), Nic Dowd (7), Brandon Duhaime (6), and Lapierre (6). Sourdif is also currently without a goal in his last 14 games.
The lack of production comes despite Sourdif skating with Alex Ovechkin and previously receiving regular playing time with two of the team’s top forwards and arguably two of the league’s best five-on-five players: Aliaksei Protas and Tom Wilson. Ahead of Saturday’s game against the New Jersey Devils, the Sourdif, Protas, and Wilson trio have spent 172:55 of five-on-five ice time together, outscoring the opposition 12-4 during those minutes. Carbery, however, is more focused on Sourdif’s shift-by-shift control of the game than goals or assists.
“He’s able to give us solid minutes, he’s a reliable player, he’s controlling play, he’s putting pucks to good spots, he’s using his skill set, all those different things,” Carbery said. “That’s all I care about. He’s done a tremendous job of doing that thus far. The next step, maybe next season, is can he become a little bit more productive? And again, I say that very cautiously because I couldn’t care less if he’s productive this year from a goals-assist standpoint.
“So how does he get there? What does he need to do? Can he shoot it a little bit like Mikey has developed his shot? Can he get inside a little bit more? Can he finish around the net? Can he get to the net front? All those things that Pro and Mikey [have developed], didn’t happen overnight. It took more than one season to develop that. But I’m confident that Justin will get there, and he’ll put the necessary work in to get there. But I’m not concerned whether it happens in the next 5, 10 [games], or even this season.”
Sourdif has never been a tremendously productive offensive player. Still, he has shown some flashes of scoring ability in the AHL with the Charlotte Checkers and in the WHL with the Vancouver Giants and Edmonton Oil Kings. Ahead of this season, his previous career high at the pro level was 38 points (12g, 26a) in 58 games for the Checkers during the 2023-24 campaign.
In his final junior season, split between Vancouver and Edmonton, he recorded 71 points (26g, 45a) in 52 games. He then added 14 points (5g, 9a) in 19 playoff games for the eventual 2022 WHL champion Oil Kings.
For now, the Capitals and Carbery will have to settle for Sourdif dominating possession but with little to no end product. During his five-on-five minutes this season, the Caps have seen 55.1 percent of shot attempts, 53.9 percent of expected goals, 55.7 percent of scoring chances, and 56.3 percent of high-danger chances.
