The Capitals defenseman will miss significant time after suffering a knee injury at the end of the season.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals will be without Rasmus Sandin for some time going into next season, as he underwent surgery on Tuesday to repair a torn ACL in his right knee.
A more concrete timeline for his return to play will be determined based on how he progresses, but the typical recovery is six to nine months, the team announced on Thursday. If Sandin's recovery takes the maximum amount of time, he would be back at some point in January.
Sandin suffered the tear on April 11 against the Pittsburgh Penguins, when his skate got stuck in the ice and he took a hit on a pick play from Justin Brazeau. His leg buckled under him, and he was unable to put much weight on his leg and needed help getting off the ice.
"It was just an unlucky play... I had pretty much all my weight on that leg," Sandin said. "If I could just shift a little bit of my weight to my other leg, I don't think anything maybe would've happened. I haven't really checked the play after, you're just kind of pissed it happened."
Sandin had a strong showing in the 2025-26 campaign, being promoted to the top pairing and moving to the right side following the John Carlson trade. Through 73 games, he put up five goals and 24 assists for 29 points, ranked third on the team in blocks and was a plus-4.
With Sandin out long-term and for a good portion of the 2026-27 campaign, general manager Chris Patrick said earlier in the week that Washington will look to address the right side of the defensive corps and add there to help fill the void.