The Washington Capitals have been one of the most active teams in the NHL early during the 2026 offseason, and they may not be done making moves yet.
After adding top-six wingers Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch to their forward group, the Capitals plan to keep adding to address perceived holes on defense. General manager Chris Patrick recently spoke with The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, telling him that the club will look to free agency to fill the void left by Rasmus Sandin after his ACL tear late last season.
“We’ll probably look at what the free agent market looks like July 1 and might try to fill a few gaps through there,” Patrick told LeBrun. “Rasmus Sandin is going to miss a lot of time. There’s still kind of a hole back there, at least for a good part of the season. So we’ll evaluate what’s available July 1 and see what we want to do.”
Head coach Spencer Carbery echoed Patrick’s thoughts during an appearance on 106.7 The Fan’s “Grant and Danny on Thursday.
“That’s one of our targets, July 1, trying to find a defenseman, because with Sandy probably being out for the first part of the season, the left side of our D-corps is real solid,” Carbery said. “Probably going to need to add one defenseman on July 1.”
Sandin underwent surgery to repair his injured knee in late April, and the Capitals announced a 6-to-9-month recovery timeline, which could see him return anytime between late October and late January. With the late-season emergence of top prospect Cole Hutson, Carbery had been playing Sandin on the right side of the club’s defense, with Hutson, Jakob Chychrun, and Martin Fehervary occupying the three spots on Sandin’s natural left side.
Given that those three lefties will be back in those same roles at the start of next season, the Capitals will assuredly seek to add strength to the right side of their defense corps. The team currently has three right-sided blueliners under contract for the 2026-27 campaign: Matt Roy, Timothy Liljegren, and Dylan McIlrath, and the latter two often served as healthy scratches down the stretch last year.
While this year’s free agency class is relatively shallow, there are a few solid right-handed rearguards set to become unrestricted free agents next week. Among the top options are Capitals franchise legend John Carlson, Rasmus Andersson, Jacob Trouba, Nick Jensen, John Klingberg, Radko Gudas, and Erik Gudbranson.
Carlson would obviously be the most natural fit, playing 17 seasons with the Capitals before being traded to the Anaheim Ducks at the trade deadline. While the Tampa Bay Lightning are thought to be the frontrunners to sign Carlson, the 36-year-old former alternate captain has also maintained ties to the DC area since his departure, wearing a University of Maryland hat during his Breakdown Day interview in Anaheim and hanging out with goaltender Logan Thompson in May.
After trading defenseman Declan Chisholm to the New Jersey Devils on Thursday, the Capitals currently have just over $14.3 million in cap space. Previous reporting from LeBrun indicated that before the trade, Carlson was in talks with the Caps on a two-year contract extension worth $9 million per season.
