The Boston Bruins want to retool quickly. The Washington Capitals, the team that beat them 4-3 Tuesday night at TD Garden, provide a great, recent blueprint for what that looks like. They also provide an interesting case study this spring for what kind of roster can win in the playoffs.
How that first part relates to the Bruins is obvious. The Capitals sold off pieces two trade deadlines ago amid a down year, including sending Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway to the Bruins for a first-round pick, second-round pick and third-round pick. One year later, they squeaked into the playoffs while still being mid-retool. This year, they have the best record in the Eastern Conference and look like a Stanley Cup contender. That kind of two-year turnaround would be just about the best-case scenario for Boston.
The second part is also of interest to the Bruins, though, because the Capitals are doing this without the kind of elite, franchise-altering No. 1 center that most recent Cup winners have had. And if they go on a deep run or win it all, that would provide some hope for the Bruins and other teams that don’t have that kind of player centering their top line. On the other hand, if the Capitals fall short in part because their centers don’t hold up in the playoffs, well, that would only provide further evidence that you need to find that franchise center to win in the spring.
To be clear: the Capitals’ top two centers (Dylan Strome and Pierre-Luc Dubois) are having very good seasons. They have 72 and 63 points, respectively, in 74 games. Both were highly touted at one time, as they were picked third overall in back-to-back drafts in 2015 and 2016.
But there’s also a reason Strome was on his third team by age 25, and Dubois his fourth by age 26. After a 57-point season in 2018-19, Strome’s play declined in Chicago to the point where the Blackhawks didn’t even issue him a qualifying offer as a restricted free agent in 2022. The Capitals initially signed him to a one-year, $3.5 million prove-it deal, a move that has paid major dividends in the three years since.
Meanwhile, it was only last year that Dubois’s eight-year, $68 million contract looked like one of the worst in the NHL as he registered just 40 points in 82 games in a disastrous season with the Los Angeles Kings. That after wearing out his welcome in two previous stops in Columbus and Winnipeg. Again, the Capitals took a chance, acquiring Dubois over the summer and taking on the remaining seven years of his contract and his full salary. One year in, it’s already paying off.
Even still, no one is going to confuse Strome or Dubois for Aleksander Barkov, Jack Eichel, Nathan MacKinnon, Steven Stamkos or even Brayden Point. They both play under 17:30 per game, not the 20-plus minutes a true workhorse No. 1 center gets. Neither kills penalties. Strome gets the highest percentage of offensive zone starts on the team – even ahead of Alex Ovechkin (who, by the way, scored career goal No. 891 Tuesday to pull within three of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record).
Whether Strome and Dubois ultimately give Washington good enough center play to win a Cup remains to be seen. Regardless, they’re the kind of calculated risks that can accelerate a retool. The same could be said of Jakob Chychrun and Rasmus Sandin on the Capitals’ defense.
The Bruins have actually already done some of this. While they’re not quite apples to apples, Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie are both players that have gotten more opportunity in Boston than they were getting elsewhere, with mostly positive results following. They’re hoping Casey Mittelstadt will be another, and maybe Marat Khusnutdinov too.
Of course, even if you hit on some trades and free-agent signings, that’s just one part of a retool. There’s also drafting and developing, which the Capitals have done well recently, and which the Bruins will need to be better at in the years to come.
The Capitals had patience with youngsters like Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael, who have emerged as top-six forwards this season, five years after being drafted. They have a wave of promising prospects on the way who could help them sustain this success, including 2023 eighth overall pick Ryan Leonard, the Amherst native and Boston College product who made his NHL debut Tuesday night.
Ryan Leonard on what he felt like during his first NHL game:
“I can’t really explain it honestly. If you’d told me a couple of years ago it just wouldn’t feel real… It’s just really cool, just trying to embrace the moment.” pic.twitter.com/f0I6J2BQ53
— Bridgette Proulx (@bridgetteproulx) April 2, 2025
They also made a terrific coaching hire in 2023 with Spencer Carbery, who previously had no NHL head coaching experience. The Bruins reportedly interviewed Carbery a year earlier before going with Jim Montgomery to replace Bruce Cassidy. They would love to find the next Carbery this offseason if they elect to go with a younger coach.
It takes a lot to go right to do what the Capitals have done in just two years. But they are the proof that the Bruins and their fans might need to see to believe that a quick retool is possible after an extensive firesale.
