The Washington Capitals made seven big moves over the offseason to transform the team after squeaking into the playoffs with a win in the final game of the regular season and then being swept by the New York Rangers in the first round.

Capitals management acquired center Pierre-Luc Dubois, defenseman Jakob Chychrun, and goaltender Logan Thompson in trades. They also signed forwards Andrew Mangiapane, Taylor Raddysh, and Brandon Duhaime; and defenseman Matt Roy to free-agent contracts.

Brian MacLellan seemed to indicate that Alex Ovechkin was excited by the moves telling the press that the Capitals captain sent an approving thumbs-up emoji in text after the Capitals acquired Dubois. “He’s a big emoji guy. We got more emojis than dialogue,” MacLellan said smiling.

Saturday, Ovechkin commented on the moves and the current status of the Capitals at a tournament named after him in Russia entitled the Ovi Cup. The Great 8 even gave props to the Hershey Bears who became back-to-back Calder Cup champions in June.

“There have been changes in the team, and their best side is the young players who played in Hershey and got that playing experience that is hard to come by,” Ovechkin said to R-Sport and translated by Google Translate. “They played in the playoffs, spent most of their time in Washington, grew as athletes. As for my desire to win another Stanley Cup, we’ll see. We’ll do everything we can to make it happen.

“The club’s management has strengthened the team and signed good players,” he added. “We will do everything possible to get into the playoffs and try to make some noise there.”

The impetus for change and to get younger comes as the Capitals were inconsistent throughout the year, barely qualifying for the postseason.

Ovechkin seemed to finally show age-related regression, tallying only eight goals in his first 43 games (0.19 G/GP). He rallied big in the second half of the year, notching 23 tallies in his final 36 appearances. The 31 goals were the lowest goal-scoring total Ovechkin’s had in a full 82-game NHL season. The 2024-25 campaign will mark Ovechkin’s age-39 season.

The newly-acquired players not only address big holes in the Capitals lineup but should help take pressure off Ovechkin to be The Man every night. Dubois arrives after the Capitals lost their top-six centers last year: Nicklas Backstrom (LTIR) and Evgeny Kuznetsov (trade). The Capitals also revamped their defense after surrendering the tenth-most five-on-five goals in the NHL (175). Roy and Chyuchrun are highly regarded and can play in the Capitals’ top four.