General manager Brian MacLellan wants to bring more youth into the mix and will explore all avenues this summer.

ARLINGTON, V.A. -- Washington Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said that he doesn't want to make change just to make change but did acknowledge that there will be moves made this offseason following the team's disappointing 2022-23 campaign.

Mainly, those changes will come on their first and second lines.

"To me, our main work will be on our top-6 forwards, and then based on that, we'll see what we can do," MacLellan said.

The Capitals failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2014 and struggled to find consistency and success throughout the season. That also led to some issues when it came to secondary scoring, as Evgeny Kuznetsov and Anthony Mantha couldn't live up to expectations while the team also dealt with injuries.

When it comes to whether that involves wingers or centers, MacLellan said that nothing's off the table position-wise.

"We're talking all of it," MacLellan said. "I just think we need to be better in our top-6, so we'll examine all of it."

Not only will Washington look to improve its top-6, but the team will also look to incorporate more youth into the lineup while adding more around the veteran core.

"The ideal stuff for us to find young guys that have potential to grow their game," MacLellan said, citing the Rasmus Sandin trade as an example.

While the goal is to inject up-and-coming prospects into the mix, while also assessing where the likes of Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre are at, MacLellan also noted that he wants the team to remain competitive so that Alex Ovechkin and more key leaders have another chance at a Stanley Cup.

"Trying to stay competitive while getting younger is going to be challenging, but that's the stage we're at," MacLellan said. "That's the decision we've made here. We want to finish out a couple careers of important players in our organization and we want to stay competitive. But we also want to get younger. It's a challenge to be in a position to have all three of those things, but we're going to try."