With Nicklas Backstrom away from the team for the foreseeable future, the Washington Capitals have a void in their leadership group as the Swedish center has been an alternate captain with the team since the 2010-11 season.
Thursday after the team’s morning skate, head coach Spencer Carbery revealed what the Capitals will do moving forward, starting tonight against the New York Islanders at Capital One Arena.
“So what we’ve decided is we’ll toggle that ‘A’ between Tom Wilson and TJ Oshie,” Carbery said to RMNB’s Katie Adler as he completed his press conference.
The promotion is a natural step for both players. While the Capitals grappled with injury over the last two seasons, Oshie served as an alternate captain off-and-on during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns under Peter Laviolette while Wilson is long believed to be the future captain of the Capitals after Alex Ovechkin retires.
Wilson has sported an ‘A’ on a handful of occasions in the past, most recently rocking the letter during the Capitals’ preseason game against the Boston Bruins on October 3. He also did so in regular season games under former head coach Peter Laviolette against both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Arizona Coyotes. Before that, he was alternate captain in a 2019 preseason game under Todd Reirden and a 2016 preseason game under Barry Trotz.
Behind-the-scenes, Wilson has long been viewed as captain material and a player to whom prospects and young players go for advice. Wilson has naturally taken to the role as he entered a veteran Caps locker room during his first days as a NHL player.
“You could see the raw physicality and the skating,” goaltender Braden Holtby said in 2020. “But he was also one of those guys that once he got here, even when he was a rookie, you could tell that he was meant to be a captain in this league.
“He’s evolved as a player over the years,” Holtby added, “but those intangibles, he had them right from day one.”
John Carlson will now serve as the Capitals’ primary alternate captain with Backstrom out, first being elected to the Capitals’ leadership group in 2019 under former head coach Todd Reirden. Notably, Oshie was also a finalist for the position back then.
Alex Ovechkin has been captain of the Capitals since January 5, 2010 when the then-24-year-old first got the nod ahead of a game against the Montreal Canadiens.
