ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals officially closed the book on their 2024-25 campaign, with general manager Chris Patrick and president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan holding their final availability of the year as they discussed the road ahead this offseason. When it comes to potential moves, the team plans to explore internal and external options when it comes to filling key areas, and will approach the offsesaon as it usually does. "I think we're gonna follow the same process we always follow. We're gonna look at where our holes are and try to address the best ways to fix them," Patrick said. "I don't know if we necessarily need to be making personnel moves based on one team in our conference (like the Carolina Hurricanes), you know. I think we need to be ready to play against every team in the league and be ready to take what they do and be ready to counter it and have the best players that fit within our system to be able to do that." Patrick added that the front office will get together this week to discuss their pending free agents and areas they want to address, though he hinted that the bottom-6 is an area the team will look to explore. "Going into next year, I think that's definitely an area that we need to look at to find ways to improve, and I think we have both internally, some options with some younger players in our system," Patrick said. "We'll also see what else is out there externally." When it comes to big-name free agents and making a splash this summer, Patrick wouldn't rule anything out, but did note that the prices will likely be higher, and that's something he'll have to keep in mind given the team's cap space. At the end of the day, Washington is focused on doing what it can to improve and get younger, and said that remains the goal at the end of the day, while also trying to remain focused on re-signing their key core pieces. "We're transitioning from this mature, older team into a younger team... we're going to inject a bunch of prospects into Hershey next year that we're pretty excited about," MacLellan said. "Not sure where they are in their development path, but over the next two years, we're going to be adding young guys hopefully complemented with a good transaction or two, free agency or the trade market."
