Devils 2024-25 Metro Opponent Preview: Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals snuck into the playoffs over the New Jersey Devils in 2023-24, but that should change this coming season.

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Continuing with our Metropolitan Division team previews, today we'll look at the Washington Capitals, who made the playoffs with one of the worst goal differentials of the salary cap era in 2023-24.

The Capitals were quite active this offseason, making some big moves to stay competitive in the Metro. But even so, the New Jersey Devils should be better, especially with some of the moves they made this summer to improve their roster.

Capitals Offseason Moves

• Signed Matt Roy

• Signed Brandon Duhaime

• Acquired Jakob Chychrun

• Acquired Pierre-Luc Dubois

• Acquired Logan Thompson

• Acquired Andrew Mangiapane

Key Departures:

Darcy Kuemper, Max Pacioretty, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Beck Malenstyn, Nick Jensen

Devils Forwards Should Be More Explosive Than the Capitals'

Nope, the Capitals are not blowing it up yet. But even though they look like they're trying to remain competitive in the final years of Alex Ovechkin's career, they're still a hard team to assess. On the one hand, they did improve this offseason. But on the other, are they much better than they were a season ago?

Let's start with the Capitals' forward group, which got some upgrades this offseason. I've never been a big Pierre-Luc Dubois fan, even during his time with the Winnipeg Jets. But if he rebounds next season and returns to being a 20-25 goal scorer who puts up around 60-65 points, the Capitals' offense should be a bit better.

Andrew Mangiapane has become more of a middle-six winger over the last two seasons, averaging 43 points per 82 games. But he should also be an upgrade to what the Capitals had last season, though the bar is very low.

Sure, the Capitals squeaked into the playoffs, but their offense was putrid. They only scored 216 goals as a team, the fifth-worst total in the NHL. They averaged just 2.38 expected goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five, a bottom-10 rate as well.

This team has gotten younger upfront, with players like Dylan Strome, Hendrix Lapierre, and Connor McMichael carving out regular roles. However, Ovechkin and Tom Wilson are showing signs of decline, specifically Wilson, who may be free-falling. And that probably hurts the Capitals' offense.

Even if Dubois bounces back and Mangiapane adds 40-50 points, the Devils' forwards and offense should be more explosive. Despite injuries to Dougie Hamilton and Jack Hughes last season, the Devils still scored 264 goals, the 12th most in the NHL.

Hopefully, with Hughes and Hamilton healthy this season, the Devils should have one of the top offenses in the NHL, even if I have questions about the middle of their lineup up front. But if Tomáš Tatar and Ondřej Palát put up 40-50 points, then there's no question the Devils' offense should be much better than the Capitals'.

Still, even if Tatar and Palát underperform, the foursome of Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier and Timo Meier is more explosive than the Capitals' top players. The Devils still averaged 2.81 expected goals per 60 at five-on-five last season, ranked fifth in the NHL. Barring something unforeseen, the Devils should have a big leg up here.