Capitals' return to contention depends upon health, youth

The Washington Capitals had their worst campaign in nearly a decade during the 2022-23 season, finishing 35-37-10 and missing the postseason for the first time since 2014.

Most of that was due to two factors: the injury bug and a lack of development of the team's young prospects under former head coach Peter Laviolette. Whether or not the Caps return to the playoffs this season depends on if those problems are solved.

There's no solution to preventing injuries, of course; they're simply a case of luck of the draw. That being said, one would have to think that Washington can't possibly be as unlucky in that regard this season as it was last season, when Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson, John Carlson and T.J. Oshie — four of the Caps' longtime top contributors — combined to miss 158 games due to various ailments.

Over the offseason, the Capitals signed veteran winger Max Pacioretty, who is mending from an Achilles injury and will miss the first month or two of the 2023-24 campaign. Besides him, though, the rest of the team seems to be at full health, and Washington will have to hope it stays that way.

More importantly to the Capitals' hopes of a bounce-back, however, is the fact that they have one of the NHL's oldest rosters. That's where new head coach Spencer Carbery will be most crucial, as unlike his predecessor, he should be a beneficial figure for the team's youth movement.

Carbery, the former coach of the Caps' AHL affiliate Hershey Bears, has experience working with and developing many of Washington's younger prospects. Players such as Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas and Alex Alexeyev should be prioritized much more highly in Carbery's system than they were in Laviolette's.

Washington will need at least one or two of those names to emerge into dependable pieces if the team is to return to its competitive norm not just this season, but for the foreseeable future. Backstrom (35), Carlson (33), Oshie (36) and of course Alex Ovechkin (38) are in the latter stages of their careers, and the sooner the Caps can begin transitioning into the next era, the better.

Wilson will be around for a while to help bridge that gap, and Evgeny Kuznetsov is also still here, despite the trade rumors last spring and summer. Kuznetsov was another player who clashed with Laviolette and could perhaps be in for a resurgence under Carbery. Every Caps fan knows what Kuznetsov is capable of at his best, and this season may be his last chance to prove he can still deliver.

The talk surrounding the Capitals this season will likely center on Ovechkin's chase of Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record. (He's currently 72 from tying the record.) While Caps fans can always expect Ovi to be Ovi, the team's performance as a whole will depend upon the development and reliability of those around him.