The Washington Capitals re-signed minor-league netminder Garin Bjorklund to a one-year contract. Although Bjorklund has played on an NHL contract since 2022, the deal signed today is an AHL contract.

Bjorklund, 24, was a 2020 sixth-round pick of the Capitals. Standing 6’2″, 195 pounds, Bjorklund was drafted after his debut WHL campaign, in which he posted a 20-5-1 record in 28 games with the Medicine Hat Tigers. He followed that up with a stellar 18-game run in the abbreviated 2020-21 WHL campaign, posting a .921 save percentage. In Bjorklund’s final WHL campaign, he took on the No. 1 goalie role for a rebuilding Medicine Hat team, and went 8-36-2 with an .877 save percentage.

After his final season in the WHL, Bjorklund joined the pro ranks with the Capitals organization and spent most of his first three seasons in the ECHL. By the end of his entry-level deal, which ran through 2024-25, Bjorklund had played in 57 games in the ECHL and just two in the AHL.

Still, despite playing almost exclusively in the ECHL, Bjorklund did enough to earn a contract extension with the Capitals. He went 21-4-3 with a .927 save percentage in 29 ECHL games during the 2024-25 campaign, a performance that likely went a long way in securing him an NHL deal for 2025-26. The Capitals paid Bjorklund a $110K AHL salary on a one-year contract extension for 2025-26.

This past season was a definite developmental step forward for Bjorklund. For the first time in his career, he spent the majority of the season in the AHL rather than the ECHL. He was the Hershey Bears’ No. 3 goalie, and got into a total of 17 games. While his .876 save percentage was notably lower than fellow goalies Clay Stevenson (.912) and Mitchell Gibson (.903), he did have his moments in the AHL.

Heading into 2026-27, the key for Bjorklund will be building on his recent developmental trajectory. After struggling in his debut season as a regular ECHL goalie with an .882 save percentage in 2023-24, he improved to a .927 the following year. He’ll now look to author a similar bounce-back in the AHL after a challenging first taste of the league.