Washington Capitals 2025-26 Season Preview | Steve Dangle Podcast

Washington Capitals 2025-26 Season Preview | Steve Dangle Podcast

The Washington Capitals finished second in the NHL in the regular season last year and they made it to the second round. Pretty good season for a team that barely squeaked in the year before and looked to be on the down spout. Uh and also, you know, they kind of rode the high of the Alexander Ovuchetkin beating Wayne Gretzky goal thing, which was amazing and magical. What makes this year interesting, they finished last year with 111 points. Bet MGM has their overunder at 107 and a half. That’s pretty high. Oh. Um I’m gonna say like 97 and a half. 96 and a half. Jesse, there you go. What? That’s right. And the over is the higher odds. And I think that’s really interesting because I’m not going to lie, I kind of agree. Yeah. No, the betting odds are like they they’re in line with like the Rangers. Yeah. You know, like y you don’t you think Oh, okay. What on earth? A lot of things went really really right for the I’m gonna spoil it right now. I have them first. You’re out of your mind. You’re out of your mind. No, I I think uh people are completely completely misreading the capital. Okay. So So first off, last year something that went really well for them was Logan Thompson. Uh Charlie Lingren was good. Logan Thompson was great. This if they’re going to take a step back, that’s where it is cuz that’s difficult to replicate. Yeah, I I agree with that concern. But it’s a good tandem. He’s already walking back. No. Doesn’t sound like a first place team, doesn’t it? 3 seconds into I’m not I’m not at him with Oh, the Ducks are going to make it. Oh, they stink. I didn’t. Oh, the Ducks stink and I hate them. They’re projecting right now. I hate Anaheim. He is. So, listen. Charlie Lingren had a good year the year before. Got them into the playoffs. Logan Thompson was really the star last year. If they can combine those things, I think uh ultimately it’s it’s the best goalending tandem in their division. No question. And and that’s, you know, if you know, unless you consider Shist Sturken a tandem. Yeah, he might be on his own. On his own. Um, those two guys are really, really great. But both guys in their careers have been prone to severe ups and downs. So, it’s a question of what happens. Now, what I see on the back end here, and again, I really respect what the Capitals have done because they were able to find um some of these guy like the Jake trade. You go back and you look at what they paid Ottawa for Jake. It’s robbery. It’s a pittance. Robbery and he’s resigned there. John Carlson’s deal is being uh discussed as we speak, but he’s making 8 million this year. UFA next. Matt Roy. Uh they outbid the lease for him uh because they were willing to go an extra year. Rasmus Sandin, Trevor Van Remdikeke, Farravari, um Mith Chisel. Like there’s some there’s some good players on this team. I think as far as defense goes, that’s that’s pretty great. Yeah. I mean, they’re one of the rare examples around the league where they basically got to keep the whole band together back there and Farravari and Sandine are each going to be a year older and you would think a year better. So, like in terms of how do I see the Capitals going backwards, it ain’t there. Mhm. If if anything, I I think they they could have moderate improvement. Well, one of the things that I saw I did a lot of the watch alongs for that first round against Montreal, and one of the things I saw, especially in the playoffs, was how well that defense core moves the puck. like Lane Hudson for Montreal. Beautiful puck mover, but it’s like him. The whole core does it. The whole core with with Washington can do it. And Washington has Cole. Cole Hudson. That’s right. Is going to be the better Hudson. The better Hudson. Yeah. And they got him thanks to trading Beck Malenstein to the Buffalo Sabers. That’s one of your favorite guys, I think, mostly because of his name. Beck Malenstein. Because because the trade came down. They’re like, “Oh, yeah, Beck Malenstein for a second.” And then I went, I listen, I know an insane amount of hockey players. Who is that? Yeah. Who is? And he’s fine. The second. Now, looking at their forward group, this is where the questions start to arise. We’ve already seen Alexander Ovuchkin tweak something. This might be his last year. It might not. We don’t know. Mhm. Pier Dubois. Boy, did that deal work out. Tom Wilson finally healthy. Dylan Stro, man, what a season. Alexi Pro and they’ve got his brother too. Yeah, Ilia the pro tie. They were even able to find huge minutes from Anthony Bavilier and everybody liked seeing Conor Mcichel take that step forward. I think Spencer Carbury deserves a ton of credit. I think he’s he’s a future Jack Adams winner and he’ll still be there. He will. Every Who did they lose? Everything everything in Washington went exactly right. No major injuries, no major losing streaks, right? And I don’t think that’s repeatable. And that’s where my question, especially with this forward group, everybody had a career year. So that is I mean that’s luck. And I don’t know how to account for that, right? Like we all make our predictions at the beginning of the season and if someone’s best player gets hurt and we had them first. Well, yeah, it’s going to screw my pick. Yeah. You know, oh, I think uh the Wild are going to contend for the President’s Trophy, uh Capriov’s down. Oh, they’re they might not make the playoffs. Like, you can’t account for that. The goalending, it’s difficult to replicate that. But I look at the whole rest of the team and I’m like, they’re all back. Plus a guy like Mcichael is older. Plus a guy like Prous is a year older. And the younger Prous is probably trying to crack the lineup this year. Ilia Prous is faking unbelievable. Uh if you watched Oh Wow. on SDPN last season, he was all over our highlights. Sand Dean’s going to be a year older and better. Faravari is going to be a year older and better. And they’re getting Ryan Leonard who they only had for a cup of coffee and he was great last year. Yeah. He played nine games. He was great. He was willing to fight. He can bang and crash. So you could argue on paper they’re they’re even better. Yeah. So I kind of look at the at Logan Thompson maybe taking a little step back and the improvements they’re going to make internally with their roster as a wash. Interesting. I see. Ah I didn’t mean to do that. The the the players you name Proise Mcichael and Proise Michael in particular like those performances are repeatable because they’re 24y old kids. Yeah. Like it’s okay. Protest scored it’s 30 goals last season. That is very repeatable for him at his age and his development curve. He should be repeating that report performance. So I think you could you should only expect the team to get better in those areas. Same with Mcichael, a 26 goal scorer. He can be a 30 goal scorer this season. So if you have those young pieces plus Ryan Leonard, I’m so happy you brought him up. He’s going to be a star. You should expect the veterans to kind of hold steady and do what they’re doing. Dylan Stum was a little bit of a surprise. Yeah, it’s but like it’s maybe this is just what he is at his career now cuz he’s still late 20s. Yeah, he was a high draft pick. Maybe a late bloomer. Yeah, maybe just a late bloomer. So, I think the young kids get better. The veterans stay steady. The defense is so solid and underrated from top to bottom. So, I don’t understand why the Washington can’t be like where they wereish last season. By the way, I just realized the answer to my question. Who the hell did they lose? Andrew Majapan. Yes, you’ll live. He’s a good player. He’s a very good player. And I think they expected to. Yeah, you will live. What the brilliance of the Washington Capitals was was they they took a bunch of Project guys, guys that were not working out where they were. Protest guys. Protest guys, too. They took those guys. But they they took um you know uh Logan Thompson, they took Charlie Lingren, they took Pier Luke Dubois, they took Andrew Mongji upon and they were able to find roles and make look at look at the money Mia got in Edmonton. That’s a really great um really great bounceback year for him. So why do you think they suck? I don’t think they suck. I have questions about how many points they’re going to be able to harvest from this division given that the Rangers are better. Uhhuh. Um, I think the I think the Pens are going to get worse. Um, I think that I’m I’m going to look at the rest of it. Um, I think Carolina is a very good team. I think New Jersey is not going to be as soft as they were last year. It’s so many injuries. That is where I see I think Carolina is the best team in the division. I think New Jersey until they prove they’re better than Carolina is number two. That means Washington’s number three. And and I think they took advantage of the fact that Carolina went through some transitions last year with the Miko Ranton and trade and all that stuff. New Jersey had major injuries. I think if things had played out and New York were non-competitive. What about the Islanders getting worse this season? Yeah, that’s true, too, Jess. I think though the Penguins and Islanders by the end of the season could be catastrophic. I just don’t think you can. We can I I can’t look at this division and go, “Yes, Washington is definitively better than New Jersey or definitively better than Carolina in the regular season.” And I saw what they did in the second round last year and I’m like I mean you listen. Yeah. You weren’t a fan of their playoff performance. I wasn’t. And and you know what they got Montreal and no disrespect to Montreal but Montreal’s not in the playoffs if Boston had played normal. Ironically Washington looked a lot like they did in 1617 with the Leafs. Yeah. Where it’s like why are you struggling with this? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I mean listen why aren’t you killing us? Montreal was Montreal is was just not at their level straight up. They finished in five games like they did. Yeah, it wasn’t like it was game seven with the Leaves OT here. It’s the playoffs. Like how many times do you see like a four games, you know, each game is 51 loss? You just don’t see it. But there were some things where I was like and then you saw in the second round they it’s the play it’s playoffs versus regular season though. I know. And and I looked at it differently than you did. I looked at the division and I go cuz they’re number one and I go how do I justify the Devils being above them because the Devils were good before this and Carol Washington was not snuck in the year. Yes. But you have to look at why right everything went right for Washington. New Jersey injury injury injury injury. The talent there was was still there though. And what what we have in front of us is like at the time we’re recording this Luke Hughes isn’t isn’t even signed. He doesn’t need to be. He is. Well, they’re good, but like if he’s going to make the amount of money that we think he’s going to, yes, he does need to be. He’s going to make that money because he’s really good. And as for the Hurricanes, I’m like, how do I what did they do to get over the Caps? And I just wasn’t able to do it. Well, they they don’t uh they they I over the Caps, no problem. I don’t think I think Carolina is the best team in the division. No question. What do they do to get over the hump in the in the playoffs? They don’t. No, I couldn’t justify putting them above the Capitals in the regular season. So So you have and like Yes, I have them first. And like, you know, is what Logan Thompson did repeatable? That that’s the big question with the Capitals. I look at the Hurricanes and I’m like, they have two spoy goalies. Like one of them is sploaty in that he may only get to 20 games, may play 50. And then Kachetkov is great on a lot of nights and then allows like six or seven. But Steve, they’ve had that for three years and they’ve gotten to the conference final two of those three years. Yeah, we’re talking about the regular. Where did you end up in the division? I have the Capitals first. Okay, Jess, where do you have them? I have them second. I have them third. Wow. I don’t think they’re better than New Jersey. Two, three on the panel. The overunder has them barely making the playoffs and I think that’s insane. That’s insane. Yeah, I would take the over on that. That is your Washington Capital season preview.

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde and Jesse Blake preview the 2025 Washington Capitals season. Can they repeat as division champs and stun the hockey world once again?

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