The Washington Capitals are trying to right the wrongs of last year

The Capitals made a couple of big adds on the wings after a weird year that saw them miss the playoffs

Last year was a weird season for the Washington Capitals.

After finishing the 2024-25 season with 111 points, the Capitals came back down to earth in 2025-26 and missed the playoffs entirely. This summer, Washington has quickly made sure that won’t happen again. The Capitals have made a couple of big moves for wingers Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch in a bid to once again be contenders.

It’s challenging to figure out what exactly went wrong for the Capitals. They were obvious regression candidates after having what was, at the time, the highest five-on-five shooting percentage ever recorded (10.7 percent) since the start of the analytics era with the 2007-08 season. Regression did come for the Capitals in a way — they scored 25 fewer goals this past season than the year prior — but they still shot over 10 percent at five-on-five. Washington actually posted a higher PDO at five-on-five this year because while the Capitals’ shooting percentage declined slightly, Logan Thompson was a wall in goal.

The Capitals’ underlying numbers were pretty similar the last two seasons — decent but not great — and they overperformed them by a similar amount. One year, they’re one of the best teams in the league. The other, they’re out of the playoffs entirely.

The power play was the main culprit for last year’s disappointment, which is borderline sacrilege in Washington. Some of that was just bad luck, as the Capitals only scored 42 goals on 51 expected. But finishing well above expected is the expectation when you have Ovechkin.

But after a down year, the Capitals are doubling down on this core. Tuch was set to be the top free agent on the market in an otherwise dismal UFA class, but the Capitals nabbed him in a sign-and-trade with the Sabres. In return for Tuch, who will be getting paid $10.5 million per year through 2034, the Capitals only had to give up a third-round pick and David Kampf.

The term for Tuch is risky for the Capitals, but for now, Tuch is a nice add for Washington. Tuch is not only a solid play-driver, but he’s also a clinical finisher, especially at five-on-five. Over the last four seasons at five-on-five, Tuch’s 1.15 goals per 60 minutes rank 13th in the league, and his 22.9 goals scored above expected rank fifth. At all strengths, Tuch has shot above 15 percent in three of his last four seasons. Part of that is that Buffalo is seemingly just a high-scoring environment, but he was obviously contributing somewhat heavily to that.

Before last year, Kyrou was putting up similar numbers. Between the 2020-21 and 2024-25 seasons, Kyrou was sixth in the league in goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five and 15th in points per 60 minutes. Throw in some decent underlying numbers, and Kyrou was one of the more underappreciated players in the league.

And then last year happened.

Kyrou’s shooting slumped, and his goal total of 36 in 2024-25 was halved in 2025-26. Kyrou’s 10.4 percent shooting percentage at all strengths was his lowest since 2019-20. This all happened despite the fact that Kyrou’s underlying numbers were excellent.

Kyrou had the third-best expected goal share in the league, with the Blues owning 61.9 percent of the expected goals at five-on-five with Kyrou on the ice. Without him, that number plummeted all the way down to 46.9 percent. Even in a down year for him production-wise, he was still dominating his minutes. It’s easy to see him rebound in his new environment in Washington. At his best, he’s a legitimate top-line forward.

Washington didn’t have to give up an arm and a leg for him, either. Washington sent the 16th overall pick in this year’s draft, Connor McMichael and Milton Gastrin. McMichael came into the league with a lot of promise, but he hasn’t been able to put it all together from a play-driving perspective. Throw in a couple of futures, and it’s a good bet for a Capitals team that is clearly trying to win now while ultimately not giving up a ton.

Adding Tuch and Kyrou gives the Capitals more firepower up front, especially as they try to figure out how and when the Ovechkin era ends. The Capitals don’t necessarily have a star anymore, but they’ve stockpiled a bunch of solid players while complementing them with a bunch of promising young players.

The big thing for Washington is to be a better team at five-on-five and to be less reliant on either historic shooting percentages or league-leading goaltending to steal games. Tuch and Kyrou will help on that front with their play-driving abilities, and both can be clinical finishers as well. Over the last two seasons, Washington ranks 13th in expected goal share, and that’s the big difference between it and the likes of the Hurricanes, Golden Knights, Avalanche and the Panthers (when healthy).

It’s nice to see the Capitals try to compete as they eventually transition away from the Ovechkin era when everyone expected the bottom to fall out. But is this enough to become a Stanley Cup contender? Or is Washington doing all of this just to get eliminated in the second round for the umpteenth time?

If youngsters like Ilya Protas, Cole Hutson and Ryan Leonard all take a step next year, the Capitals could be a serious problem, and they’re clearly banking on that happening in the near future. Whether or not the Capitals can take their game to another level, it’s clear that they’re still trying to be as competitive as possible.

All stats are from Hockey Stats unless otherwise noted.