Ryan Leonard is set to hit the 100-game mark in his young NHL career against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.
Ahead of the milestone game, head coach Spencer Carbery remarked on how quickly Leonard has gone from an exciting young prospect to an established NHL player. To do so, he first reflected on the hype and circumstances surrounding Leonard’s highly anticipated NHL debut against the Boston Bruins on April 1, 2025.
Before that, though, Leonard made perhaps an even bigger splash — having a fun night out with Alex Ovechkin that went viral.
“Well, you can’t forget Boston, Ovi taking him out with the boys on the BC campus, right?” Carbery said. “I saw those videos surfacing from that. It was great to see.”
Leonard, fresh out of college hockey, met up with a group of Caps players, including Ovechkin and Jakob Chychrun, for sushi upon Washington’s plane landing, just hours after Leonard signed his first professional contract in Boston College’s locker room. Leonard was initially stunned by Ovechkin’s text message asking to meet up and explore his college campus, and he even paused to wonder with his BC teammates if it was fake before replying.
“They were like, ‘What? I don’t know if you should respond to that,’” Leonard said. “I was like, ‘I kinda have to.’ It was pretty cool.”
The introductory dinner turned into an extended adventure as the Capitals contingent later met up with Leonard’s Eagles teammates at a local bar. During their stay at The Circle Tavern, Ovechkin was filmed singing Jakob Chychrun’s then-new goal song, “Bandz A Make Her Dance,” as players laughed and danced.
Videos of the Capitals-Eagles get-together spread widely online, and soon the bar was packed with people trying to catch a glimpse of one of hockey’s greats.
“Ovi wanted to see where I went to school, so (we) went there for probably 30 minutes to an hour, just to show him, and he loved it,” Leonard said.
After making his debut against the Bruins the next night, Leonard went on to play in 17 combined regular-season and playoff games for the Capitals at the end of the 2024-25 season. His most notable moment came in the same game that Ovechkin tied Wayne Gretzky for the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring lead, when Leonard scored his first career goal into an empty net 12:11 after Ovechkin’s milestone marker.
“I just think back to when he came in; we were having a really, really good year,” Carbery said. “And, yeah, just him coming in and becoming part of our group and how he integrated so quickly. He started playing playoff games right away and has continued to just grow his game and get better and better and better, and he continues to develop for us.”
After scoring just once in those 17 introductory games, Leonard followed that first stint up with 20 goals and 45 points in 75 games during his rookie campaign in 2025-26. After 15 games this year, Leonard is on pace to surpass those totals, with 28 goals and 62 points.
Ryan Leonard’s NHL career statistics
| Season | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -4 | 11 |
| 2025-26 | 75 | 20 | 25 | 45 | +2 | 47 |
| 2026-27 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 11 | +2 | 8 |
| Career totals | 99 | 26 | 31 | 57 | 0 | 66 |
Carbery added that Leonard’s rise mirrors similar progression from some of his peers, who are changing the definition of a veteran as the NHL’s talent pool gets increasingly younger.
“Even as a young player, you know, once you get to game 100, and I even think of Leno, like, geez, he’s still just a young, young player in this league,” Carbery said. “And now it’s like, oh, Ryan Leonard, a veteran player. It’s good to see 100 games this early in your career.
“That’s common now with players, where that used to be a few years it would take guys to get to that. But nowadays these young players are so skilled and so NHL-ready that they can come in, and some of them just don’t even touch the American League and come right to the NHL, as Leno did.”
Leonard still has plenty of room to grow, but the Capitals have already gotten a glimpse of what their young forward can become. Carbery has been impressed with Leonard’s scoring uptick, but he also continues to praise the leaps he has made in his overall game.
However, the 21-year-old winger is still playing less ice time per game (14:04) than he did last year (14:24), as the Capitals added a ton of forward depth over the offseason. Leonard has recently been skating on the team’s “fourth line,” but holds a consistent spot on the club’s power play, where he is averaging 2:05 of ice time per game.
When previously asked whether he wants to find ways to give Leonard more minutes overall, Carbery said the decision will depend on whether the young winger can keep building on his strong start and how the entire Capitals lineup performs.
“It’ll be based on how everyone plays and what it looks like,” Carbery said. “It won’t be, ‘Hmm, let’s really try to manufacture Ryan Leonard more minutes here and take them away from player X.’ It’ll be a product of his play and forcing us to play him more.”
The Capitals will take the ice against the Senators for Leonard’s 100th game at Canadian Tire Centre, an arena where he has played just once before. In three career games against the Senators, Leonard has recorded two assists.
