Despite an injury setback, Ryan Leonard emerged from his rookie season a better player. And as he looks ahead, he’s focused on being a go-to guy in Washington.
When Ryan Leonard first arrived on the NHL scene, he felt a tinge of anxiety – and maybe a little bit of fear.
Making his NHL debut on April 1, 2025, in Boston, where he’d spent the past two years dominating the NCAA with Boston College, Leonard was toeing the line between familiar and unfamiliar territory.
After all, this wasn’t college hockey. These were the Boston Bruins, and Leonard wasn’t the big fish in the pond anymore. At this level, the game demanded so much more, and he was just wondering if he could keep up.
“Speaking for myself, the game was moving really fast last year, and I couldn’t do a whole lot out there,” he said. “It was a little bit of a different role last year, but the game felt a lot quicker than it did this season. It’s a completely different side of the world.”
Leonard joined the Capitals after they had already clinched a playoff spot, but he got into two intense rounds of post-season action. After that, he had an off-season to reflect and adapt to the various demands of being a pro, including living on his own for the first time after staying with Pierre-Luc Dubois for a short while.
Leonard burst onto the scene this season, emerging as a vital secondary scorer for Washington. The 21-year-old had fine-tuned different areas of his game, and it was clear the hard work had paid off.
His play helped spark the Capitals’ struggling power play, and his emergence also came at a time when the team was trying to stay afloat despite key players battling the injury bug.
But a hit from Anaheim Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba on Dec. 5 left Leonard with shoulder and facial injuries that sidelined him for seven games. With Leonard on the shelf, Washington’s season started to go off the rails.
“When he got injured in Anaheim, our season took a hit,” said president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan. “He was projecting really well, and his game was taking off. Then he got injured, and it really hurt our overall team performance. Whereas if he had continued on that trajectory, it would’ve been really good for our team and really good for him.”
As for Leonard, he saw it as a learning opportunity.
“Having a little bit more awareness and knowing who I’m out against, that probably helped me,” he said. “It wasn’t the best way to figure it out, but you have to find out somehow.”
Another consequence of the injury was the time it took Leonard to return to the level at which he was playing. It was the first time he’d suffered a serious injury, and he was essentially left starting from scratch. At the same time, though, the game refused to slow down.
During the Olympic break, with Washington out of a playoff spot and Leonard still looking for consistency, the freshman phoned home, wondering if 20 goals was still within the realm of possibility. On the other end of the line, his parents did what parents usually do, offering advice where they could.
“They both just mentioned, ‘Keep believing and trust in myself,’ ” Leonard said.
That call changed the landscape for Leonard, who found his confidence again and maintained consistency for the Capitals down the stretch.
Ryan Leonard scored 20 goals and 45 points in his rookie season. (David Kirouac-Imagn Images)Over the final 20 games of the season, Leonard led the Capitals with 10 goals while boasting a shooting percentage of 22.2 percent. His performance helped him hit the 20-goal mark and showed he could find chemistry with just about anyone in the lineup.
“It was a goal I had in mind for myself,” he said. “They started to go in for me toward the end, and I could really contribute to some of these team wins.”
While the Capitals ultimately came up short of a playoff spot, they stayed in the thick of it until the very end – thanks, in large part, to Leonard, who finished eighth in Calder voting. Leonard didn’t want to pump the brakes on the season, however, so he kept skating and was chosen to represent the United States at the World Championship in Switzerland, earning a spot on the top line and helping spark Team USA’s offense with three goals and five points in eight games.
IT WAS A LITTLE BIT OF A DIFFERENT ROLE LAST YEAR, BUT THE GAME FELT A LOT QUICKER THAN IT DID THIS SEASON– Ryan Leonard
Going into next season, Leonard isn’t hoping just to replicate this year. He wants to build on it.
“I want to work on everything – just whatever I was doing here at the end,” he said. “You try to do everything you can to make it game-like, so I’m seeing what the actual pro game is about and what areas of my game I can improve on to help me be better next year and help this team win more games. There’s a certain point in the year where you realize who you are, when you have the puck and how much more time you have. With that, you kind of figure out a little bit how this league works. I’m not even close to figuring it out at all. It’s one year, and I’m still 21 years old, so, hopefully, I have a lot more time in this league and the game just continues to slow down.”
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This article appeared in The Hockey News' Champions 2026 issue.
This edition features several stories on championship-winning teams from around the world and at different levels, ranging from the NHL to the Memorial Cup, the NCAA, and more. It also features in-depth looks at players from each NHL team who could break out in the 2026-27 season.
