After trading Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre, the Washington Capitals had just three restricted free agents remaining in Ryan Hofer, Garin Bjorklund, and Jesper Vikman. They elected not to extend qualifying offers to any of them ahead of the June 29 deadline, making all of them unrestricted free agents.
All three players were depth pieces, playing this past season with the Capitals’ AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, or their ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays. Hofer and Bjorklund attended Washington’s training camp last fall.
Hofer, a forward, was selected in the sixth round of the 2022 draft by the Capitals and has split his time in the organization between the Bears and the Stingrays. In 2025-26, he appeared in 11 games with Hershey, recording just one assist. He spent most of his year in South Carolina, notching 18 points (2g, 16a) and 109 penalty minutes in 55 combined regular-season and playoff games.
Bjorklund is also a sixth-round pick, selected by the Capitals in 2020. The Alberta native saw time at all three levels of Washington’s organizational pyramid last year, including a stint as Clay Stevenson’s backup with the Caps, but primarily split his time between the AHL and ECHL. In 17 games with the Bears, Bjorklund had trouble finding his game, going 5-9-3 with a 3.72 goals-against average, a .876 save percentage, and one shutout.
Vikman, a Swedish goaltender, was acquired by the Capitals when they dealt Nic Dowd to the Vegas Golden Knights at the trade deadline. Vikman played just one game with the organization, making his debut with the Stingrays on April 11 in a loss, during which he posted a .929 save percentage.
The crop of new UFAs will join Alex Ovechkin, Trevor van Riemsdyk, and Brandon Duhaime as players without a contract heading into the opening of NHL free agency on July 1.
