Hendrix Lapierre’s debut with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday could not have gone better.
In a 7-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, Lapierre registered two points, including his first goal with his new team and a primary assist on an Evgeni Malkin power-play goal. His five-on-five analytics were sterling on the Penguins’ new-look third line. With Lapierre on the ice, the Penguins held huge five-on-five advantages in goals (3-0), shot attempts (19-3), scoring chances (11-0), high-danger chances (5-0), and expected goals (1.48-0.06, 96.3 percent).
The Capitals, who will play their first game of the 2026-27 season Friday night against the defending champion Carolina Hurricanes, were aware of Lapierre’s big night back home in DC. For some, it warmed them.
“I just saw, like, obviously the stats,” Aliaksei Protas, Lapierre’s former linemate in Hershey, said. “I saw he played great, which is awesome for him.”
“I couldn’t be happier for a guy like that,” Dylan McIlrath, Lapierre’s former AHL captain, added. “He worked his butt off here. Definitely, it was time for him to get a new opportunity. But yeah, just so happy for him, just knowing what kind of guy he is and how much he cares and works, it was cool to see him have a good start.”
McIlrath continued, “Hopefully it’s the first of many goals for him. I know last year it was tough sledding, getting goals. It was hard on him mentally.”
Lapierre struggled to establish himself offensively during his first full season in the NHL with the Capitals, recording just 16 points (4g, 12a) in 74 games while skating a career-low 8:50 per night. He opened the season back at center but eventually lost that role to Justin Sourdif and spent much of the year playing limited minutes on the third line, skating both on the wing and as an injury replacement up the middle. Most glaringly, Lapierre failed to score in his first 48 games of the season, extending a drought from the previous campaign to 90 consecutive NHL games before finally breaking through against the Calgary Flames on January 23.
Despite the lack of production, the Capitals kept Lapierre in the lineup, and his underlying results were strong: Washington controlled 54.5 percent of shot attempts and 55.7 percent of expected goals with him on the ice at five-on-five. His play and confidence improved later in the season, earning him some opportunities higher in the lineup, but general manager Chris Patrick said after the year that Lapierre still needed to prove he could become a consistent “point-getting guy” at the NHL level.
Lapierre’s slow start in the NHL came after he was a major cog in both of Hershey’s back-to-back Calder Cup championship teams. As a rookie in 2023, he recorded six points (3g, 3a) in 20 playoff games while skating with Sam Anas and Aliaksei Protas and scored the game-tying goal in Game 7 of the Calder Cup Finals. A year later, the Capitals’ 2020 first-round pick broke out as one of the AHL’s top postseason performers, leading the 2024 playoffs with 22 points (7g, 15a) in 20 games and winning the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as playoff MVP.
The Capitals moved on from Lapierre over the summer, though, trading him to the Penguins, a team that had gotten a close look at him over the years in the NHL and AHL. Lapierre’s former coach in Hershey, Todd Nelson, is the team’s power-play coach, while defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk followed Lapierre out the door, signing with Pittsburgh as an unrestricted free agent.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery, who worked closely with Lapierre to develop him, said he watched the Penguins-Flyers game Thursday morning before practice and admitted Pittsburgh was firing on all cylinders.
“That was an interesting game, just the start of it,” Carbery said of the Metropolitan Division matchup. “Pitt was just like, they had all sorts of pressure, and Philly just couldn’t win any puck battles and just kept chasing the game.”
Lapierre’s multi-point night was also a highlight.
“I was happy for Lap, too,” Carbery said. “I’ll always (be happy for former players) whether it’s Riemer, Lappy, Brandon Duhaime.”
But that happiness for Lapierre had its limits, especially now that he’s a member of the franchise’s biggest rival and in the same division.
“Guys that move on, yeah, when you’re against us, you certainly don’t want them to have big nights,” Carbery said. “But I’m always pulling for those guys to be successful.”
McIlrath and Protas were with Carbery.
“I mean, divisional,” McIlrath said. “I can’t cheer for him too much because that directly impacts us. Hopefully he has a good season there, just not against us.”
“I mean, wish him, like, all the best,” Protas concluded. “Not against us, though.”
