The Washington Capitals are seemingly set for a busy offseason with over $33 million in cap space and a hoard of draft picks and prospects.
While all indications are that the club will primarily seek to add to their existing roster, there are also some rumblings that they may be considering the futures of some players already in DC. According to The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta, one of those players is apparently veteran center Dylan Strome.
“Some people are curious to see Ilya Protas, if he’s coming up, and they’ve got the two brothers there,” Pagnotta said on Thursday’s episode of the DFO Rundown. “Where does that leave some of the other depth pieces on this club? There were some people that are curious what the longevity is of Dylan Strome there, perhaps others. And, this is all Ovechkin aside, so we’ll see where they go.
“This is going to be an interesting offseason, I think, for the Caps. They want to remain competitive, they want to get back into playoff contention, but they’re also letting some of their younger guys eat more minutes and get more action.”
Strome, who turned 29 this past March, is signed for two more seasons with the Capitals at a $5 million cap hit. The 2025-26 season was the worst of his four years with the organization, as he posted 58 points (19g, 39a) in 80 games, far from the 82-point (29g, 53a) campaign he had the season prior.
Perhaps more concerning than his total production output was Strome’s performance at even strength, as he notched just 29 five-on-five points (11g, 18a), despite starting 74.9 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone. With that favorable five-on-five deployment, which came almost exclusively with Alex Ovechkin on his wing, the Capitals still only saw 49.1 percent of shot attempts, 49.9 percent of expected goals, 48.8 percent of scoring chances, and 48.7 percent of high-danger chances with Strome on the ice.
Moving Strome could make sense as the Capitals get ready for Ilya Protas to make the full-time move to the NHL next year, and doing so would ensure Protas top-six minutes and likely more power-play ice time. The team is currently set to enter the 2026-27 season with Strome, Protas, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Justin Sourdif as their four centermen, with Sourdif the only one of the four above the 50th percentile in max skating speed, per NHL Edge.
The offseason market for a high-scoring center like Strome is also set to be lively, as teams like the Utah Mammoth, Seattle Kraken, Edmonton Oilers, Buffalo Sabres, Minnesota Wild, and Los Angeles Kings are all rumored to be looking to make a big-time addition up front and could be set to overpay. Washington could net futures in any trade, move Protas into their top-six forward group, and then use those futures to upgrade the roster elsewhere.
On the flip side, the Capitals could bet that the 2025-26 season was just a down year for Strome, as it was for many players on the team’s roster. He has shown that he can score with the best in the NHL in the past, and the answer may just be to upgrade around him rather than use him to upgrade other parts of the team.
After losing so much veteran leadership at the trade deadline, Strome may also be seen as an integral cog in the locker room, as he is beloved by his teammates. His $5 million cap hit is also incredibly cheap for the level of production he maintains, and he clearly loves the club and the area, as the Capitals were the first of his three NHL teams to really commit to him long term.
Strome has been Ovechkin’s primary center for the majority of his four-year stint with the Capitals, and if the 2026-27 season is to be the captain’s last of his career, the team could not want to split that connection up just yet. Either way, the organization has some big decisions to make in the coming years as their stockpile of draft picks and prospects continues to turn into NHL-ready talent.
