Washington Capitals reveal their Opening Night roster for 2025-26 NHL season

The Washington Capitals finalized their Opening Night roster for the 2025-26 season on Monday.

All 32 NHL teams were required to submit their 23-man groups by a 5 pm deadline. The Capitals begin their season at home against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night.

To start the year, the team’s roster will consist of 13 forwards, 8 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders.

Capitals Opening Night roster

Forwards

8 Alex Ovechkin
9 Ryan Leonard
15 Sonny Milano

17 Dylan Strome
21 Aliaksei Protas
22 Brandon Duhaime
24 Connor McMichael
26 Nic Dowd
29 Hendrix Lapierre
34 Justin Sourdif
43 Tom Wilson
72 Anthony Beauvillier
80 Pierre-Luc Dubois

Defensemen

2 Vincent Iorio
3 Matt Roy
6 Jakob Chychrun
38 Rasmus Sandin
42 Martin Fehervary
47 Declan Chisholm
52 Dylan McIlrath (injured reserve)
57 Trevor van Riemsdyk
74 John Carlson

Goaltenders

48 Logan Thompson
79 Charlie Lindgren

Alex Ovechkin, just three goals shy of 900 in his career, will lead the team into the 2025-26 campaign, his 21st season in the NHL and 17th as the Capitals’ captain. He’ll be joined by John Carlson and Tom Wilson as the team’s primary leadership group under the guidance of third-year bench boss and reigning coach of the year, Spencer Carbery.

The lone newcomers from last year’s Capitals team are forward Justin Sourdif and Declan Chisholm. Both players were acquired via trade over the offseason, with Sourdif expected to play a bottom-six role up front and Chisholm penciled in as the club’s seventh defenseman.

Vincent Iorio makes the team out of camp for the first time since he was drafted in the second round of the 2021 NHL Draft. Iorio sticks with the team this fall, likely due to Dylan McIlrath suffering a lower-body injury in the Capitals’ preseason finale against the Columbus Blue Jackets. McIlrath was placed on injured reserve shortly before the roster was announced.

The other races for the final spots on the team were won by Hendrix Lapierre and Sonny Milano. The two had very strong preseasons, combining for 13 points (5g, 8a), leading to Lapierre retaking the third-line center spot he lost midway through last season and Milano getting another chance to impress after an injury-filled 2024-25 campaign.

In addition to placing McIlrath on injured reserve, the Capitals also loaned Ivan Miroshnichenko to the AHL’s Hershey Bears. He joined Clay Stevenson and Ethen Frank as the final cuts from the training camp roster.

Here is the Capitals’ full press release:

Capitals Announce 2025-26 Opening Night Roster

Caps host the Boston Bruins in season opener at Capital One Arena on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals have announced the 23 players who will make up the team’s roster for the season opener versus the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena on Wednesday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m., senior vice president and general manager Chris Patrick announced today.

Thirteen forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders make up the Capitals’ opening night roster, led by captain Alex Ovechkin, who enters his 21st season, and alternate captains John Carlson and Tom Wilson.

Wednesday’s season opener marks the start of the Capitals’ 51st season. The Capitals enter 2025-26 looking to make the playoffs for the 11th time in the last 12 seasons and the 35th time in franchise history. Since 2007-08, no team has made the playoffs more than Washington (16 playoff appearances in 18 seasons). In addition, The Capitals will also look to defend their Metropolitan Division title in 2025-26. Last season’s first-place finish marked Washington’s 14th division title in franchise history and 11th since 2007-08. The Capitals’ 11 division titles since 2007-08 are the most in the NHL, with the next closest teams having six division titles in the 18-year span (Boston and Vancouver, six each). It also marked the Capitals’ sixth Metropolitan Division title since the division was formed in 2013-14. No other Metro team has won more than two division titles in that time.

Eighteen players from this season’s opening night roster also made Washington’s opening night roster a year ago, which clinched the Eastern Conference’s top seed and finished with the second-best record in the NHL. Washington’s top eight goal scorers and top nine-point producers from a season ago are all expected to be back in the fold, as well as the team’s top six defensemen and both goaltenders.

Alex Ovechkin, who celebrated his 40th birthday on Sept. 17, scored 44 goals in 65 games last season to pass Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time goals leader. Ovechkin (897g-726a–1,623p in 1,491 GP) enters the season three goals shy of becoming the first player in NHL history to score 900 career goals and nine games shy of becoming the eighth player to play 1,500 games with one franchise. In addition, Ovechkin (1,623 points) needs 19 points to pass Joe Sakic (1,641 points) for 10th place on the NHL’s all-time points list.

Tom Wilson is entering his 13th season with the Capitals, making him Washington’s D.C.’s third-longest tenured athlete, behind only teammates Alex Ovechkin (21 seasons) and John Carlson (17 seasons). Last season, Wilson set career highs in goals (33), assists (32) and points (65). Wilson’s 33 goals ranked second on Washington, trailing only Alex Ovechkin (44g), and were the most by a Capital other than Ovechkin since T.J. Oshie scored 33 goals in 2016-17. Wilson also netted a career-best 11 power-play goals and six game-winning goals. The 6’4”, 225-pound forward led the Capitals and ranked 15th in the NHL in hits (233), making him the only player in the NHL with 30-plus goals and 200-plus hits.

Dylan Strome, Washington’s points leader in each of the last two seasons, recorded 82 points (29g, 53a) in 82 games in 2024-25 and established career highs in goals, assists and points. It marked the third straight season Strome set a new career high in points. The 28-year-old center became just the fifth Capital to record an 80-point season since 2001-02, joining Nicklas Backstrom (3x), Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alex Ovechkin (10x) and Alexander Semin. Since joining Washington ahead of the 2022-23 season, Strome ranks first on the Capitals in games played (245), assists (135) and points (214) and second in goals (79).

Pierre-Luc Dubois enters his second season in Washington. Dubois’ first season as a Capital was the most productive of his career as he established career highs in assists (46) and points (66) and reached the 20-goal mark for the fifth time in eight years. Dubois ranked tied for second on Washington in assists, tied for third in points and tied for sixth in goals. In addition, the 6’4”, 220-pound center ranked first on the team in primary assists (29), second in even-strength points (52), five-on-five points (46) and plus-minus (+27) and sixth in game-winning goals (4). Dubois became the fourth player since 2010-11 to reach the 50-point mark in their first season with the Capitals, joining Dylan Strome (65 points in 2022-23), T.J. Oshie (51 points in 2015-16) and Justin Williams (52 points in 2015-16).

Last season, Capitals defensemen combined for 200 points (38g, 162a), which was the fourth-highest total in the NHL. Six Capitals defensemen reached the 20-point mark in 2024-25, marking the first time in franchise history the team had had six blueliners with 20 or more points in the same season. The same six defensemen also appeared in 65 or more games. Only once in franchise history has Washington had six defensemen play 65-plus games during a regular season and then have all six return the following season (1995-96 to 1996-97: Sylvain Cote, Calle Johansson, Joe Reekie, Sergei Gonchar, Mark Tinordi & Ken Klee).

The Capitals acquired forward Justin Sourdif and defenseman Declan Chisholm in June to help round out their roster. Sourdif, 23, recorded 34 points (16g, 18a) in 43 games with the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2024-25. The 5’11”, 181-pound forward ranked fifth on Charlotte in goals and sixth in points despite appearing in just 43 games. During Charlotte’s run to the Calder Cup Finals last season, Sourdif ranked third on the team in scoring with 10 points (4g, 10a) in 18 postseason contests and tied for the team lead in game-winning goals (2). Four of Sourdif’s 10 points came in the Calder Cup Finals. Sourdif, who was originally drafted by Florida in the third round (87th overall) of the 2020 NHL Draft, scored his first career NHL goal in his lone appearance with the Panthers in 2024-25 on Feb. 25. Chisholm, 25, recorded 12 points (2g, 10a) in 66 games with the Minnesota Wild last season. The 6’1”, 190-pound defenseman established single-season career highs in assists, points, games played and shots on goal (69) in 2024-25.

Reigning Jack Adams Award winner Spencer Carbery enters his third season behind the Capitals bench. Carbery, who owns a 91-53-20 record (.616 point percentage) through two seasons, can become the 21st head coach in NHL history to reach the 100-win mark in 180 games or fewer. Carbery guided the Capitals to a record of 51-22-9 (111 points) in 2024-25, as the team finished first in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference and second in the NHL. The Capitals improved by 20 points in Carbery’s second season (2023-24: 40-31-11, 91 points), which marked the third-largest point improvement by a team from 2023-24 to 2024-25 (Columbus: +23; Anaheim: +21).

Titans Poised to End Three-Year Drought

It's hard to put into words how bad the Tennessee Titans have been these past few seasons. After rookie quarterback Cam Ward led them to their first win of the year, this next statistic should shed some light on their recent struggles. As Tennessee heads to Las Vegas in Week 6, they're looking to win back-to-back games for the first time since 2022.

Last year's 3-14 record has been discussed at nauseum, and it's a record head coach Brian Callahan doesn't plan on revisiting. After starting 0-4, they seemed destined to land in that category. Now, they may be in contention to finish with a record similar to 2022. There's still a lot of work to be done, but November 13 and November 17, 2022, was the last time Tennessee won two consecutive games.

Not only did they win back-to-back games in Week's 10 and 11 of the 2022 season, they did so on a short week. With just three days rest, Tennessee went to Lambeau Field and took down the Packers, 27-17, just days after they defeated the Denver Broncos, 17-10.

While a 7-10 record seems fantastic compared to what the Titans have done in their past few seasons, 2022 turned out to be a disaster. After starting 0-2, Tennessee won five straight games. Sitting at 5-2, they won of two of their next three and were a dominant 7-3. From there, they lost seven straight. Somehow, they fell to second place in the division after winning it back-to-back years.

Last year, the Titans had wins in Week 4, 9, and 12. In 2023, they had wins in Week 2, 4, 8, 12, and 14. Despite two of three on two occasions, they were never able to string together any wins. If they want to save their 2025 season, a win against the Raiders is crucial. While all hope was lost at 0-4, losing to a 1-4 team coming off an electric first win could be the final nail in the coffin.

Looking ahead, there are only a few instances where back-to-back wins seem possible. From Weeks 12-14, the Titans could sneak out wins against the Seattle Seahawks and Jacksonville Jaguars, or Jaguars and Cleveland Browns. Then at the end of the season, they have a chance to steal a pair of wins from the New Orleans Saints and Jaguars. Knowing how well the Jaguars have been playing, those wins are much easier said than done. With key games against the Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Kansas City Chiefs, the Titans sure have their work cut out for them.

Titans Can Breathe Sigh of Relief After First Win

The Tennessee Titans are in the win column after a 22-21 victory against the Arizona Cardinals.

The win eliminates the embarrassment of a potential winless season and gives the team some confidence going into the rest of the season. Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons explains how important it was for the team to pull out a win.

"It's a relief," Simmons said.

"We talk about just learning, finding a way to finish games, (and) finding a way to make a play. I think that's what we talk about. We've been talking about it… just fight to the end and we showed that today. Shoutout to even the special teams plays. Things like that change games. To be able to get a turnover and take care of the ball in 'two minutes' (two-minute situations). We worked the hell out of 'two minutes' (on) Thursday."

"We worked two minutes in the game. We talk about being good in situational football and I think that showed today. In 'two minutes' (QB) Cam (Ward) went down, had a hell of a drive, (found) 'Rid' (WR Calvin Ridley) on the sideline, and set it up for (K) Joey (Slye). It feels good as hell to finally get a win."

The Titans had fought all season long, but it was never enough for a win. Each week, it appeared the Titans were moving backwards despite progress in practice.

However, the Titans are no longer feeling that pressure after a win against the Cardinals. The victory could carry some momentum into future weeks.

"Winning solves everything," Simmons said.

"When you win a football game in the National Football League, that builds confidence. I think us winning today shows guys that we can win in this league even when we were down 21-6 going into the fourth quarter. Nobody stopped believing. We kept believing in each other and (knew) everyone was going to do their job when it really mattered. ... It feels good as hell to finally get a win."

The Titans can start a winning streak in Week 6 against the Las Vegas Raiders, but it will require them to showcase some of the growth they had ahead of the Cardinals game.

If the Titans can build on the foundation they have established over the past few weeks, they might be able to pull out a second consecutive road win.

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