The Washington Capitals’ 2023-24 season was a microcosm of the team’s fortunes since its 2018 Stanley Cup triumph. The old guard of Alex Ovechkin, 38, T.J. Oshie, 37, and John Carlson, 34, did enough to keep the team out of the basement, but was too far removed from its collective prime to advance past the opening round for the first time since that glorious spring six years ago; the New York Rangers summarily swept their old rivals in four games.

The youth brigade of Connor McMichael, 23, Rasmus Sandin, also 23, and Martin Fehevary, 24, played a part in the Caps’ improbable run to the postseason, but the team has contended for too long to load up on high-end prospects; 2023 No.7 overall selection Ryan Leonard was Washington’s first top-10 pick since 2007. Too good to be bad and too bad to be good, the Capitals have become the poster child of the dreaded ‘murky middle.’

With franchise legends Ovechkin and Carlson tying up 20% of their cap space until 2026, the Caps’ brass seemed content to do just enough to give ‘Ovi’ a dignified exit as he pursued Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal record. No real changes, no real path to contention. As it turns out, erstwhile Caps GM Brian MacLellan was tired of that strategy.

MacLellan started his offseason by swapping Darcy Kuemper’s bad contract for Pierre-Luc Dubois’s terrible one. By solving one problem, center depth, while creating a new one in the seven remaining years of Dubois’ $8.5-million AAV contract, MacLellan made the sort of desperate lateral move that often digs middling teams deeper into the hole. In the days and weeks after the trade, it became clear it was the start of a wider, more coherent plan.

Over the next 11 days, MacLellan would add winger Andrew Mangiapane, goaltender Logan Thompson, and defensemen Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy via trade or free agency. The veteran executive’s flurry of top-of-the-lineup acquisitions cost him, in total, Kuemper, 34, right-shot defenseman Nick Jensen, 33, a second-round pick, a third-round pick, and just under 29% of his cap space.

Most teams mired in a slow descent would be happy to part with Jensen and Kuemper for a second and a third. MacLellan took the opposite approach, expertly identifying potential impact players that would cost him little more than middle-round picks, veteran trade bait, and the money they’re owed. The best part? The oldest of the quintet, Roy, is just 29.

There are reasons that lowball offers landed each player (barring the UFA Roy) in the U.S. capital. The L.A. Kings are thrilled to be rid of Dubois, who responded to a superstar payday with the worst season of his career (40 P in 82 GP, -9). Mangiapane is in the last season of a three-year, $5.8-million AAV contract that he struggled to live up to for the Calgary Flames after his 35-goal breakout in 2021-22. The left-handed Chychrun was miscast as a right-side defender with the Ottawa Senators and limped to a team-worst -30 despite impressive offense (14 G, 41P). Thompson (2.70 GAA, .907 SV%) could never keep playoff ace Adin Hill out of his rearview in Vegas.

Where better to rehab their reputations than Washington, who are as close to a blank slate as a playoff team gets?

The new forwards especially will have a chance to shine in high-leverage minutes. The Caps badly need Dubois’s size and strength down the middle, where Evgeny Kuznetsov’s defensive impacts fell off a cliff in recent seasons before his trade to Carolina. With Oshie likely to join fellow 1,000-game vet Nick Backstrom in injury-induced semi-retirement, Mangiapane’s similar motor makes him a good bet to join Ovechkin (team-high 31 G in 79 GP) and top center Dylan Strome (team-high 67 P in 82 GP) on the first line. Dubois and Mangiapane will also push guys like Sonny Milano (26 G, 55 P in 113 GP for WSH) and 2024 rookie Hendrix Lapierre (8 G, 22 P in 51 GP) into a suddenly respectable bottom-six already featuring veteran penalty killer Nic Dowd and newly arrived enforcer Brandon Duhaime. This is already a more balanced group than the one the Rangers unceremoniously dispatched.

The Capitals’ blueline was already a strength before Roy and Chychrun were on board but relied too heavily on Carlson, who led the NHL in ice time (25:54) under first-year coach Spencer Carbery. Carbery might get even more out of the ever-dangerous Carlson (10 G, 52 P in 82 GP) with Roy (56.77% share of high-danger chances in 2023-24) available to take on the toughest assignments. Roy, formerly of the Kings, is a big upgrade over Jensen and gives the talented but mercurial Chychrun a readymade foil in Washington’s top four. If Carlson continues to develop his burgeoning chemistry with the defensively sound Fehevary, the smooth-skating Sandin and veteran Trevor van Riemsdyk will give Washington an overqualified third pair. Where the Capitals’ forwards are just now beginning to resemble an NHL group, their defensive corps already looks like the real deal.

Ditto for the goaltending duo of Thompson and incumbent starter Charlie Lindgren, whose strong play in 2023-24 unseated Kuemper and eventually made him expendable. Lindgren’s raw numbers (2.67 GAA, .911 SV%, NHL-best 6 shutouts) were actually better than Thompson’s, but a 1:1 split to start the season seems a foregone conclusion. An impending battle for the starter’s crease and the end of their respective bargain contracts ($1,866,667 combined cap hit) mean Washington’s netminders will enter the 2024-25 season with a point to prove.

None of this guarantees an improvement on the 91-point season the Capitals somehow scraped together in 2023-24 despite a -37 goal differential and the NHL’s fifth-worst scoring offense. Washington might not be so fortunate in tight games next season, and the New Jersey Devils, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Ottawa Senators are just a few of the teams gunning for their spot.

The busy offseason doesn’t make any promises about the future, either. Dubois is a massive risk. Mangiapane will have to agree to a pay cut to stick around long-term. Thompson and Lindgren are out of contract in a year and awaiting their first real NHL paydays. Chychrun might not be thrilled at the prospect of signing a bridge deal until it’s time for Ovechkin and Carlsson to either sign for hometown discounts or retire.

MacLellan, who now serves solely as president of hockey ops now with protege Chris Patrick onboard as GM, did the right thing anyway. The phrase ‘retool’ is supposed to mean improving a flawed roster without committing to a long and painful rebuild or jeopardizing the future in risky deals. It’s more often used by executives who have run out of ways to meaningfully upgrade a lousy, aging roster. The Capitals were at risk of falling into the latter category. Instead, they brought in players who will make them better on opening night without gutting their prospect pipeline or draft capital. Whether or not they stick the landing, MacLellan and Co. found a place in the murky middle that doesn’t feel hopeless. That’s more than a win, it’s a minor miracle.