Ryan Leonard made his NHL debut on Tuesday night in the Washington Capitals’ 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins. The 20-year-old winger was immediately placed in the Capitals’ top-six forward group by head coach Spencer Carbery, showing the level of faith the team has in the young prospect’s skillset.
By playing him in the game, the Capitals burned a year off Leonard’s three-year, entry-level contract, but the team believes it will all be worth it in the end. General manager Chris Patrick discussed the team’s decision-making process with the media shortly before puck drop.
“I think if you watch him play through college, internationally, he looks like a guy that can come in and play right now at the NHL level,” Patrick said. “So, it’s definitely worth whatever risk there might be of burning that year to have him here and available to us both for the regular season and the playoffs.”
College players and teams have the option to sign “future contracts,” which will take effect at the beginning of the next league year, or a “current contract” that is effective immediately. The Capitals utilized both this past week, signing prospect David Gucciardi to a future contract and Leonard to a current contract.
Leonard’s situation is different than that of teenage-aged prospects who can play up to nine NHL games before the first year of their contracts gets burned. The first year on current contracts get burned even if the player plays in just a single game that season, and playoff games do count toward that.
The obvious downside to having a year “used up” on Leonard’s contract is that the Capitals will only have two years with him at a relatively cheap cap hit instead of three. If he were to reach his star potential within those two years, the Caps would need to spend a lot more to extend him and incur a larger cap hit earlier than expected.
The “predicament” is one that the Capitals haven’t really run into much as they’ve been a near perennial playoff team ever since Alex Ovechkin tasted the postseason for the first time in 2007-08. Their constant team success has led to them either dealing first-round picks for immediate lineup help or drafting near the end of the round if they still own their pick.
All of those factors, and Leonard’s starring performance in the NCAA with Boston College after being taken eighth overall by the Capitals in 2023, have led to his first games with the Caps being more hyped than any other of the club’s rookies in recent history.
“Yeah, we were talking about that today with the coaches,” Patrick said. “Actually, Brett Leonhardt had a good stat. I think since Karl Alzner, this is the highest pick we’ve had debuting for us of our own picks. So it’s been a long time since we’ve had this kind of anticipation for a guy for his debut with us.”
Patrick and the Capitals had previously tried to get Leonard to leave college after his freshman season last year, but after some late-night consideration and consulting with his family, Leonard decided to go back for his sophomore season at BC. He responded by becoming the first NCAA player with back-to-back 30-goal seasons in nearly 15 years.
The Caps supported his decision, and Patrick confirmed that the team was encouraged by talks with Leonard’s agent this season that he’d be ready to depart college this spring. Unfortunately for the Eagles, that day came sooner than they had wanted after being eliminated in the NCAA Tournament before the Frozen Four.
“Yeah, I mean, I felt fairly confident, I guess, probably from about halfway through this season, that this was going to be a decision point for him,” Patrick said. “And, you know, we just wanted to make sure we gave him the space to finish his college season and not put too much pressure on him, but it felt like from our discussions with his representation that this is where it was heading. So, felt good about it, and that’s why at the trade deadline, we made sure we left room for him to come in post-deadline.”
The Capitals have plenty of time to see where Leonard fits best as the team still has eight games remaining on their regular-season schedule. Patrick sees the remaining runway before the playoffs as an opportunity not only for the young forward but for others on the club’s roster to see some action.
“We’ve got some guys that haven’t played a lot,” Patrick said. “Maybe we’ll get some opportunities to get guys in down the stretch here. We can manage minutes a little bit and still try to get the team working towards getting to that next level for game one of the playoffs.”
