The next five games, recent results and the full 2026-27 season on the Washington Capitals schedule, with start times and the Canadian TV channel, plus the roster, injuries, stats and odds.
| Market | Odds | Implied chance |
|---|---|---|
| Capitals Stanley Cup oddsFull odds | +1500 | 6.2% |
at Records, the schedule and TV listings come from the NHL’s published data and are checked twice a day. The Cup price is Bet99’s board on 30 July 2026 and will have moved since. 19+ (18+ in AB/MB/QC). Please play responsibly. ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600 (ON).
The Washington Capitals schedule for 2026-27 has 84 regular-season games, 42 at Capital One Arena and 42 on the road, starting on Friday 2 October away to the Carolina Hurricanes. The last is on Saturday 10 April, and the page is checked against the NHL’s own data twice a day, so times, TV listings and results stay current. 19+ (18+ in AB, MB and QC).
Washington Capitals team details
| Washington Capitals | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1974, as an expansion team that joined the NHL with the Kansas City Scouts |
| In the NHL since | 1974-75 |
| City | Washington, DC |
| Arena | Capital One Arena, opened December 1997, 18,573 seats for hockey |
| Previous homes | Capital Centre, 1974-1997 |
| Owner | Monumental Sports & Entertainment, led by chairman and chief executive Ted Leonsis, who has owned the club since 1999 |
| General manager | Chris Patrick, general manager since 8 July 2024, working under president Brian MacLellan |
| Head coach | Spencer Carbery, in his fourth season, hired on 30 May 2023 and signed to a multiyear extension on 18 June 2026 |
| Captain | Alex Ovechkin |
| Most famous player | Alex Ovechkin, the NHL’s career goals leader and captain of the 2018 Stanley Cup team |
| AHL affiliate | Hershey Bears, Calder Cup champions in 2023 and 2024, beaten by Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the Atlantic Division semifinals in 2026 |
| Division | Metropolitan Division, Eastern Conference |
| Stanley Cups | One, in 2018 |
| Retired numbers | 4 |
| 2025-26 | 95 points, 4th in the Metropolitan, missed the playoffs |
| 2026-27 record | Starts Friday 2 October |
| Schedule | 84 games: 42 home, 42 away, 2 October to 10 April 2027 |
Washington Capitals 2026-27 season outlook
Written 28 September 2026. Washington open 2026-27 at Carolina on 2 October, and coach Spencer Carbery expects Alex Ovechkin to be ready after a lower-body injury kept the captain out of the whole preseason. Ovechkin, who turned 41 on 17 September, signed a one-year contract on 2 July for a 22nd NHL season. He starts it with 929 regular-season goals and 1,006 including the playoffs, 10 short of Wayne Gretzky’s combined record of 1,016.
The 2025-26 season was a step back from 111 points. The Capitals went 43-30-9 for 95 points, 12th in the league, but finished fourth in the Metropolitan Division, four points behind Ottawa for the East’s last wild card, and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2023. Ovechkin led them with 32 goals and 64 points in all 82 games, and defenceman Jakob Chychrun set career highs with 26 goals and 60 points.
General manager Chris Patrick added three forwards and a defenceman. Jordan Kyrou came from St. Louis on 23 June for Connor McMichael, prospect Milton Gästrin and the 16th pick in the draft, and Alex Tuch arrived from Buffalo the next day in a sign-and-trade for David Kampf and a 2027 third-round pick. Boone Jenner, Columbus’s captain for the past five seasons, and defenceman Vincent Desharnais signed as free agents on 1 July. John Carlson, traded to Anaheim in March, signed with Tampa Bay, Trevor van Riemsdyk left for Pittsburgh, and Washington drafted Finnish centre Oliver Suvanto 18th overall.
Logan Thompson is the starter again. He made Canada’s 2026 Olympic team and started 58 games last season, going 31-21-6 with a .912 save percentage, and Charlie Lindgren is again his backup. Defenceman Rasmus Sandin is out after surgery in April on a torn ACL in his right knee, with a recovery estimate of six to nine months, while Pierre-Luc Dubois, limited to 29 games last season by injuries, is healthy again.
Ryan Leonard, who scored 20 goals as a rookie, and Justin Sourdif signed eight-year extensions on 15 September, the last day before the new collective bargaining agreement limited contracts to seven years. Tom Wilson, who scored 30 goals last season, is signed through 2030-31, and 20-year-old defenceman Cole Hutson, who had 10 points in 14 games after turning pro in the spring, is expected to play a regular role. On Bet99’s July board the Capitals were +1500 for the Stanley Cup, eighth of 32.
Washington Capitals schedule 2026-27
The next five Capitals games, the last five results and the full 84-game regular season, updated twice a day. Use the tabs to switch between them. Times are Eastern, TV is the Canadian broadcaster listed by the NHL, and “2nd night” marks the second game of a back-to-back. The Capitals play 14 back-to-backs this season, and March is the busiest stretch with 16 games.
Where to watch Capitals games in Canada
Counting the NHL’s own listings for the 84 regular-season games, 19 on TVA Sports, 15 on Sportsnet+, 10 on Sportsnet, 4 on Sportsnet 360, 3 on TVA Sports 2 and 1 on Prime Video. Regional listings add 3 on RDS, 2 on Sportsnet Pacific, 2 on TSN5, 2 on Sportsnet East, 2 on TSN2, 2 on TSN3, 1 on RDS2 and 1 on TSN4. 39 games have no Canadian network in the NHL’s listings. A game can appear on more than one channel, so the counts overlap, and listings change through the season.
Of the 39 games without a Canadian network, 34 are the Capitals’ US regional broadcasts and five are US national games. In Canada, Rogers holds the out-of-market rights, so those games stream on Sportsnet+ Premium, which is sold on its own rather than through a TV package, and NHL Centre Ice through a TV provider is the other route. Blackouts apply.
Washington Capitals roster 2026-27
The current Capitals roster has 24 players, 11 of them born in Canada. Until opening night this is the club’s training-camp list, so it shrinks as players are sent down before the season starts. The status column shows any player on the injury report.
Forwards
| No. | Player | Pos | Shoots | Age | Height | Weight | Birthplace | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Alex Ovechkin | LW | R | 41 | 6’3″ | 238 lb | Moscow, Russia | Day-to-day |
| 9 | Ryan Leonard | RW | R | 21 | 6’1″ | 205 lb | Northampton, MA | |
| 17 | Dylan Strome | C | L | 29 | 6’4″ | 200 lb | Mississauga, ON | |
| 21 | Aliaksei Protas | LW | L | 25 | 6’6″ | 250 lb | Vitebsk, Belarus | |
| 22 | Boone Jenner | C | L | 33 | 6’2″ | 204 lb | Dorchester, ON | |
| 25 | Jordan Kyrou | RW | R | 28 | 6’1″ | 189 lb | Toronto, ON | |
| 34 | Justin Sourdif | C | R | 24 | 6’0″ | 195 lb | Richmond, BC | |
| 43 | Tom Wilson | RW | R | 32 | 6’4″ | 225 lb | Toronto, ON | |
| 53 | Ethen Frank | RW | R | 28 | 5’11” | 188 lb | Aurora, CO | |
| 62 | Ilya Protas | LW | L | 20 | 6’6″ | 225 lb | Vitebsk, Belarus | |
| 63 | Ivan Miroshnichenko | LW | R | 22 | 6’1″ | 185 lb | Ussuriysk, Russia | |
| 72 | Anthony Beauvillier | RW | L | 29 | 5’11” | 181 lb | Sorel-Tracy, QC | |
| 80 | Pierre-Luc Dubois | C | L | 28 | 6’4″ | 220 lb | Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, QC | |
| 89 | Alex Tuch | RW | R | 30 | 6’4″ | 219 lb | Syracuse, NY |
Defence
| No. | Player | Pos | Shoots | Age | Height | Weight | Birthplace | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Matt Roy | D | R | 31 | 6’2″ | 220 lb | Detroit, MI | |
| 6 | Jakob Chychrun | D | L | 28 | 6’2″ | 215 lb | Boca Raton, FL | |
| 27 | Timothy Liljegren | D | R | 27 | 6’1″ | 200 lb | Kristianstad, Sweden | |
| 42 | Martin Fehérváry | D | L | 26 | 6’2″ | 215 lb | Bratislava, Slovakia | |
| 44 | Cole Hutson | D | L | 20 | 5’11” | 175 lb | St. Louis, MO | |
| 52 | Dylan McIlrath | D | R | 34 | 6’5″ | 240 lb | Winnipeg, MB | |
| 73 | Vincent Desharnais | D | R | 30 | 6’7″ | 225 lb | Laval, QC |
Goalies
| No. | Player | Pos | Catches | Age | Height | Weight | Birthplace | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | Clay Stevenson | G | L | 27 | 6’4″ | 195 lb | Drayton Valley, AB | |
| 48 | Logan Thompson | G | R | 29 | 6’4″ | 207 lb | Calgary, AB | |
| 79 | Charlie Lindgren | G | R | 32 | 6’2″ | 190 lb | Lakeville, MN |
Washington Capitals injuries
| Player | Pos | Status | Reason | Est. return |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patrick Thomas | C | Day-to-day | Upper Body | 3 Oct |
| Alex Ovechkin | LW | Day-to-day | Lower Body | 2 Oct |
Estimated returns are ESPN’s projections from club guidance. The full league list is on our NHL injury report.
Washington Capitals stats
The 2026-27 season has not started, so these are the final 2025-26 numbers for everyone who played for Washington Capitals, including players who have since left. The tables switch to this season after the first games.
Top scorers
| Player | Pos | GP | G | A | P | +/- | PPG | S% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Ovechkin | LW | 82 | 32 | 32 | 64 | -5 | 5 | 13.1 |
| Tom Wilson | RW | 72 | 30 | 32 | 62 | +15 | 7 | 19.6 |
| Jakob Chychrun | D | 80 | 26 | 34 | 60 | +20 | 8 | 11.8 |
| Dylan Strome | C | 80 | 19 | 39 | 58 | +2 | 6 | 13.3 |
| Aliaksei Protas | LW | 76 | 25 | 27 | 52 | +20 | 0 | 15.7 |
| Connor McMichael | LW | 78 | 14 | 32 | 46 | +8 | 2 | 9.9 |
| John Carlson | D | 55 | 10 | 36 | 46 | +11 | 0 | 8.7 |
| Ryan Leonard | RW | 75 | 20 | 25 | 45 | +2 | 4 | 13.1 |
| Justin Sourdif | C | 78 | 15 | 20 | 35 | +17 | 3 | 13.9 |
| Rasmus Sandin | D | 73 | 5 | 24 | 29 | +4 | 0 | 5.6 |
Goaltending
| Goalie | GP | W | L | OTL | SV% | GAA | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Logan Thompson | 58 | 31 | 21 | 6 | .912 | 2.44 | 4 |
| Charlie Lindgren | 21 | 9 | 8 | 3 | .879 | 3.52 | 1 |
| Clay Stevenson | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | .921 | 2.00 | 0 |
League-wide races are on our NHL scoring leaders page.
Washington Capitals odds and how the market sees them
The Capitals markets with the most depth are the season-long futures: the Stanley Cup, the Eastern Conference, the Metropolitan Division, a regular-season points total and a yes-or-no price on making the playoffs. On Bet99’s board on 30 July 2026 the Capitals were +1500 to win the Stanley Cup, eighth of the 32 teams on the board and, after Florida, the shortest price of any team that missed the 2026 playoffs. Our Stanley Cup odds page carries the current prices for all 32 teams.
Three things move a Capitals price during the season. The starting goalie matters most, and the injury section above tracks him. The schedule is next: the Capitals play 14 back-to-backs, and second nights are where tired legs and backup goalies show up in the lines. Then there is form, which our power rankings measure each week, and the race itself in the playoff picture. Picks for the weekend slate are in our Saturday predictions column.
These are the NHL sportsbooks we rate for Canadians, listed by province, with the full comparison on our NHL betting sites page:
Washington Capitals history
The NHL awarded Washington an expansion franchise in June 1972, with Abe Pollin as owner, and the Capitals joined for 1974-75 alongside the Kansas City Scouts. They lost their first game 6-3 to the Rangers in New York on 9 October 1974 and finished that season 8-67-5, a .131 winning percentage that is still the worst in NHL history. Home was the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. In September 1982 a trade with Montréal brought defenceman Rod Langway, who won the Norris Trophy in each of his first two seasons in Washington. The Capitals made the playoffs for the first time in 1983, the first of 14 straight appearances, and reached the conference final in 1990, where Boston swept them.
Captain Dale Hunter led the 1998 team past Boston, Ottawa and Buffalo to Washington’s first Stanley Cup Final, where Detroit swept them. Ted Leonsis bought the club in 1999, and the 2004 draft brought Alex Ovechkin with the first overall pick. The Capitals won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2009-10, 2015-16 and 2016-17 but did not reach another conference final until 2018. That spring, under coach Barry Trotz, they got past Pittsburgh, who had knocked them out in each of the two previous years, beat Tampa Bay in seven games and then beat Vegas in five for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup. Lars Eller scored the winner in the 4-3 clincher in Las Vegas on 7 June 2018, and Ovechkin, who led the playoffs with 15 goals, won the Conn Smythe Trophy.
After the Cup, Washington lost in the first round in each of the next four seasons, missed the playoffs in 2023 and were swept by the Rangers in 2024. In Spencer Carbery’s second season, 2024-25, the Capitals went 51-22-9 for 111 points and finished first in the East, and on 6 April 2025 Ovechkin scored his 895th goal, against the Islanders, to pass Wayne Gretzky’s career record. They beat Montréal in five games and then lost to Carolina in five in the second round. In 2025-26 Washington traded John Carlson, the club’s leader among defencemen in games, goals, assists and points, to Anaheim in March and missed the 2026 playoffs, four points behind Ottawa for the East’s last wild card.
Most famous player: Alex Ovechkin
Washington took Ovechkin first overall in 2004, and he scored 52 goals as a 20-year-old rookie in 2005-06 to win the Calder Trophy. In 2007-08 he scored 65 goals and 112 points, winning the Art Ross Trophy and the first of his three Hart Trophies, and he was named captain on 5 January 2010. His nine Rocket Richard Trophies as the league’s top goal scorer are an NHL record. In 2018 he captained the club to its only Stanley Cup, leading the playoffs with 15 goals and winning the Conn Smythe Trophy.
On 6 April 2025 he scored his 895th goal, against the New York Islanders, to pass Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s career leader, and on 5 November 2025 he became the first player to reach 900. He finished 2025-26 with 929, all for Washington, and he also holds the NHL records for power-play goals (331), game-winning goals (141) and 30-goal seasons (20). Counting the playoffs he has 1,006 goals, 10 short of Gretzky’s 1,016. Nicklas Bäckström, with 762, is the only Capital with more assists.
Alex Ovechkin’s Capitals totals, from the NHL’s official statistics: 1,573 games, 929 goals, 758 assists and 1,687 points.
Stanley Cups
The Capitals have won one Stanley Cup, in 2018. They have lost the Final once, in 1998.
Arenas
| Arena | Years | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Capital Centre | 1974-1997 | In Landover, Maryland, just outside the Capital Beltway. It became USAir Arena in 1993 and US Airways Arena in 1996, staged its last Capitals game on 26 November 1997 and was demolished in 2002. |
| Capital One Arena | 1997-present | Opened as the MCI Center in the Chinatown section of Washington’s Penn Quarter. A planned move to Alexandria, Virginia, fell through in March 2024, and a phased renovation under a deal with the District is due to be completed by 2028. |
Capital One Arena holds 18,573 for hockey. It opened in December 1997 as the MCI Center, became Verizon Center in 2006 and Capital One Arena in 2017.
Retired numbers
| Number | Player |
|---|---|
| 5 | Rod Langway |
| 7 | Yvon Labre |
| 11 | Mike Gartner |
| 32 | Dale Hunter |
The Capitals have retired four numbers. Yvon Labre’s No. 7 went up first, in November 1981, and Mike Gartner’s No. 11 is the latest, raised on 28 December 2008.
Franchise leaders
| Category | Player | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Points | Alex Ovechkin | 1,687 |
| Goals | Alex Ovechkin | 929 |
| Assists | Nicklas Backstrom | 762 |
| Games played | Alex Ovechkin | 1,573 |
| Goalie wins | Olie Kolzig | 301 |
| Shutouts | Braden Holtby | 35 |
Regular-season totals for the whole franchise, from the NHL’s official statistics, updated as the season goes on.
Every champion since 1927 is on our Stanley Cup winners page, and the other 31 clubs are on our NHL teams page.
Metropolitan Division rivals
| Rival | Meetings in 2026-27 | Next meeting |
|---|---|---|
| Carolina Hurricanes | 4 | Fri 2 Oct (away) |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 4 | Sat 26 Dec (home) |
| New Jersey Devils | 4 | Sat 17 Oct (home) |
| New York Islanders | 4 | Wed 30 Dec (away) |
| New York Rangers | 4 | Fri 9 Oct (home) |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 4 | Wed 28 Oct (home) |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 4 | Wed 7 Oct (home) |
Washington Capitals FAQ
The next Capitals game is away to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday 2 October at 7:00 PM ET, at Lenovo Center. In Canada it is on Sportsnet and TVA Sports.
National listings this season: 19 on TVA Sports, 15 on Sportsnet+, 10 on Sportsnet and 4 on Sportsnet 360. Regional listings: 3 on RDS, 2 on Sportsnet Pacific and 2 on TSN5. Of the 39 games without a Canadian network, 34 are the Capitals’ US regional broadcasts and five are US national games. In Canada, Rogers holds the out-of-market rights, so those games stream on Sportsnet+ Premium, which is sold on its own rather than through a TV package, and NHL Centre Ice through a TV provider is the other route. Blackouts apply.
Alex Ovechkin is the captain for the 2026-27 season.
Spencer Carbery, in his fourth season, hired on 30 May 2023 and signed to a multiyear extension on 18 June 2026.
One, in 2018.
Alex Ovechkin. He is the NHL’s career leader in goals, with 929, all for Washington, and he captained the Capitals to their only Stanley Cup in 2018, when he won the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Chris Patrick, general manager since 8 July 2024, working under president Brian MacLellan.
Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, which opened in December 1997 and holds 18,573 for hockey.
84 regular-season games, 42 at home and 42 on the road, from 2 October to 10 April 2027.
19+ (18+ in AB/MB/QC) | Please play responsibly | Schedule, roster and statistics come from the NHL’s published data and injuries from ESPN’s NHL injury data | ConnexOntario: 1-866-531-2600 (ON); your province’s helpline is on our gambling awareness page.
Last updated 28 September 2026.