The Washington Capitals’ 23-man Opening Night roster is set after completing their four-game preseason schedule and making their final training camp cuts on Sunday morning.
All NHL teams must officially submit their final rosters by 5 pm ET on September 28. The Capitals will open their regular season on the road against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday, October 2.
After Sunday’s 19 cuts, here’s how the 2026-27 Capitals are projected to look after their major offseason overhaul following their first playoff miss under head coach Spencer Carbery.
Capitals’ projected Opening Night roster
Players are presented in alphabetical order. Statistics are from the 2025-26 NHL regular season.
Forwards
| No. | Player | GP | G | A | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 72 | Anthony Beauvillier | 82 | 15 | 13 | 28 |
| 80 | Pierre-Luc Dubois | 29 | 5 | 14 | 19 |
| 53 | Ethen Frank | 62 | 12 | 12 | 24 |
| 22 | Boone Jenner | 67 | 13 | 25 | 38 |
| 25 | Jordan Kyrou | 72 | 18 | 28 | 46 |
| 9 | Ryan Leonard | 75 | 20 | 25 | 45 |
| 63 | Ivan Miroshnichenko | 13 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | Alex Ovechkin | 82 | 32 | 32 | 64 |
| 21 | Aliaksei Protas | 76 | 25 | 27 | 52 |
| 62 | Ilya Protas | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 34 | Justin Sourdif | 78 | 15 | 20 | 35 |
| 17 | Dylan Strome | 80 | 19 | 39 | 58 |
| 89 | Alex Tuch | 79 | 33 | 33 | 66 |
| 43 | Tom Wilson | 72 | 30 | 32 | 62 |
Defensemen
| No. | Player | GP | G | A | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Jakob Chychrun | 80 | 26 | 34 | 60 |
| 73 | Vincent Desharnais | 53 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| 42 | Martin Fehervary | 81 | 5 | 22 | 27 |
| 44 | Cole Hutson | 14 | 3 | 7 | 10 |
| 27 | Timothy Liljegren | 47 | 1 | 10 | 11 |
| 52 | Dylan McIlrath | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Matt Roy | 79 | 2 | 17 | 19 |
| 38 | Rasmus Sandin* | 73 | 5 | 24 | 29 |
Goaltenders
| No. | Player | GP | W-L-OT | GAA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 79 | Charlie Lindgren | 21 | 9-8-3 | 3.52 | .879 |
| 48 | Logan Thompson | 58 | 31-21-6 | 2.44 | .912 |
*Sandin is expected to begin the season on long-term injured reserve.
Capitals forwards
Extras: Ethen Frank and Ivan Miroshnichenko
The biggest news in the forward group is that the Capitals will carry two extra wingers up front, after typically carrying only one in the past few seasons. Those two extras appear to be Ethen Frank and Ivan Miroshnichenko based on how Carbery has lined up his team through the preseason games.
Frank, one of the fastest players in the NHL, recorded 24 points (12g, 12a) in 62 games for the Capitals this past season. The 28-year-old winger, who signed a two-year, $4 million contract extension to extend his tenure with the Caps this past March, played in three exhibition games this fall, recording two points (1g, 1a).
Miroshnichenko, 22, was seemingly the player most at risk of being squeezed off the roster by Washington’s big offseason moves, but the 2022 first-round pick is slated to begin the year in the NHL. After signing a two-year, $1.85 million extension last October, Miroshnichenko is no longer waivers-exempt, so the Capitals would have had to risk losing him for free to another team to send him back to the AHL’s Hershey Bears.
Outside of the inclusion of Frank and Miroshnichenko, there are no “surprises” with the rest of the forwards. Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is set for his 22nd NHL season despite not playing in any of the team’s four preseason contests due to a lower-body injury. He will be joined by three of the team’s major summer additions, Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou, and Boone Jenner, playing their very first campaigns with the Caps.
Capitals defensemen
Extras: Dylan McIlrath and Rasmus Sandin (IR)
The only relevant training camp story on the backend was the battle for the roster spot as the team’s seventh defenseman. The Capitals signed veteran defender Justin Holl in free agency, but Holl was not able to beat out locker-room favorite Dylan McIlrath, getting sent to the AHL earlier this week.
McIlrath has made the Capitals out of camp for a third straight season, but his future with the club will come into question again once Rasmus Sandin needs to be activated off of injured reserve. Sandin, the de facto “24th” member of the current roster, is still rehabbing from surgery to repair a torn ACL in his right knee. The Swedish defenseman’s initial return timeline put him on pace to be back as soon as late October.
Vincent Desharnais is the lone completely new face among the defense corps, while Timothy Liljegren is prepared for a much larger role after playing just four games for the Capitals post-trade deadline last season. Jakob Chychrun and Cole Hutson are expected to bring most of the offense from the rear, while Matt Roy and Martin Fehervary are set for heavy penalty-killing minutes.
Capitals goaltenders
The Capitals will have the same goaltending tandem for a third straight season as Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren partner up again. Thompson will be the team’s number-one goalie after appearing in a single-season career-high 58 games during the 2025-26 campaign.
Thompson finished fourth in 2026 Vezina Trophy voting after going 31-21-6 with a 2.44 goals-against average, a .912 save percentage, and four shutouts. According to MoneyPuck, Thompson was also the top goalie in the NHL in goals saved above expected, recording 29.3, which was the most by a goalie not named Connor Hellebuyck since Juuse Saros posted 46.7 during the 2022-23 campaign.
Despite offseason trade speculation, Lindgren sticks with the team as Thompson’s backup. The lone challenger to his roster spot, Clay Stevenson, was waived by the Capitals on Sunday in the hopes that they can sneak him through to the Bears for another season. Stevenson has previously drawn interest from other NHL teams and is coming off an impressive four-game stint with the Capitals this past season, going 3-1-0 with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage.
