The Washington Capitals will look very different when they open the 2026-27 regular season in October. After an offseason marked by big additions, the Caps potentially added their final piece on Thursday with the return of legendary captain Alex Ovechkin on a one-year contract.
Ovechkin’s deal comes after the Capitals had already traded for or signed Jordan Kyrou, Alex Tuch, Boone Jenner, and Vincent Desharnais. The Caps, who finished just outside the playoff picture this past year, seem determined not only to reverse those fortunes but also to go deep into the 2027 postseason.
With the major roster alterations all but assuredly complete, we can explore how head coach Spencer Carbery may deploy his troops come Opening Night.
Washington Capitals projected forward lines for 2026-27 season
First things first, while the Capitals are now a much deeper team up front, who counts as the team’s “top line” will likely remain ambiguous, as it has throughout Carbery’s tenure. So long as Ovechkin is on the roster, for instance, he’s almost certain to remain on the team’s official first trio, but that doesn’t mean his line will get the most ice time among forwards.
The Pierre-Luc Dubois trio, which will most likely see very even deployment across all three zones, will serve as the Capitals’ first line for this exercise. In that projected group, 21-year-old winger Ryan Leonard would be tasked with playing on his off-hand side, a role he’s said he’s happy to take on, forming a dangerous, two-way transition-scoring line with Dubois and the newly-inked Tuch.
In his 2024-25 campaign before losing time to injury last season, Dubois led the Capitals at five-on-five in both total assists (33) and primary assists (21). On this line, he’ll have two wingers who pride themselves on their finishing ability, and with Leonard likely set to take another step in his development, two prime candidates to score at least 30 goals.
Kyrou seems like a perfect match for Ovechkin and his primary center for the past few seasons, Dylan Strome. While with the Blues last season at five-on-five, Kyrou led the team in offensive-zone start percentage (67.8 percent) and provided St. Louis with dominant analytics during his minutes, as the club saw 54.4 percent of shot attempts, 59.4 percent of expected goals, 60 percent of scoring chances, and 58.7 percent of high-danger chances.
As was well publicized, Ovechkin received just six total five-on-five defensive-zone starts from Carbery last season. If Kyrou can repeat his success from last year in even kinder, more sheltered minutes, add a much-needed boost of speed to the line, and re-find his scoring touch, the Capitals could be cooking with gas. While Pavel Buchnevich and Jake Neighbours, Kyrou’s most frequent linemates from last year, are good players in their own right, they aren’t Ovechkin and Strome in the offensive zone.
The third line could see Carbery reunite the “700-pound line,” featuring Aliaksei Protas, Ilya Protas, and Tom Wilson. The three were tremendous together in a small, 38:34 sample at the end of last season, with the Capitals seeing 58.6 percent of shot attempts, 53.2 percent of expected goals, 61.8 percent of scoring chances, and 54.1 percent of high-danger chances during their five-on-five minutes.
Capitals general manager Chris Patrick has already declared the younger Protas “part of our center ice group,” ahead of the fall, after the teenager notched four points (1g, 3a) in his first four NHL games. His older brother and Wilson have formed a fantastic safety blanket for any center they have played with over the past few years, and have both scored 30 goals in the NHL.
The eventual fourth line is the most up-in-the-air portion of the team, especially given Carbery’s tendency to lean on it with ultra-defensive deployments. With Nic Dowd in Vegas, it’s assumed Justin Sourdif will move into the center-ice position, with the versatile Jenner ready to switch between wing and center at a moment’s notice. Anthony Beauvillier is penciled in as the other winger for now, but should expect training camp competition from names like Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ethen Frank, Bogdan Trineyev, Andrew Cristall, Jonny Brodzinski, and Josh Dunne.
Washington Capitals projected defense pairs and goaltenders for 2026-27 season
Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy formed one of the best defense pairings in the league when they played together last season, so the primary objective there is not to try to fix something that isn’t broken. During their 640:28 of shared five-on-five ice time, the Capitals controlled 54.2 percent of shot attempts, 55.7 percent of expected goals, 54.2 percent of scoring chances, and 56.4 percent of high-danger chances.
The only reason to split the two up would be to spread depth around the D-corps, but these are the two guys who are likely to soak up most of the minutes anyway. The only argument that could really be entertained is playing Roy with Martin Fehervary as an ultra-shutdown pair and moving Liljegren up with Chychrun into more sheltered minutes.
Fehervary needs to bounce back after struggling away from John Carlson last season. In the 399 minutes Fehervary played without Carlson, the Capitals controlled just 43.6 percent of the shot attempts and were outscored 31-22. Carlson won’t be back after signing in Tampa Bay, so Fehervary will need to develop some chemistry with someone else.
Cole Hutson and Vincent Desharnais are immediately an obvious duo for Carbery, as all Desharnais does is defend, and his primary duty will be to sit back and let Hutson work his magic up the ice. If you want a frame of reference, think about what Jeff Schultz used to do for prime Mike Green.
With the Sharks, Desharnais started in the offensive zone in just 33.7 percent of his five-on-five zone starts, the lowest mark among regular skaters on the team. Overall, San Jose was better with Desharnais on the ice at five-on-five than off of it, as he posted positive relative results in shot attempt percentage (0.02), expected goals for percentage (6.6), scoring chance for percentage (0.7), and high-danger chance for percentage (2.21).
Desharnais has also found success mentoring younger players, an added bonus for the 20-year-old Hutson (especially in Carlson’s absence).
In goal, it’s Logan Thompson‘s crease again. Thompson was arguably the best netminder in the NHL this past year, appearing in 58 of Washington’s 82 games. He should expect a similar playing-time split with Charlie Lindgren again in 2026-27, as Lindgren appears set for another season in DC despite some trade speculation.
Thompson went 31-21-6 last season with a 2.44 goals-against average, a .912 save percentage, and four shutouts. According to MoneyPuck, he led all goalies in goals saved above expected (29.3), after finishing third in the same category the season prior (26.0), behind only Connor Hellebuyck (39.6) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (29.2).
