2016–17 Washington Capitals season

2016–17 Washington Capitals
Presidents' Trophy Winners
Metropolitan Division Champions
Division	1st Metropolitan
Conference	1st Eastern
2016–17 record	55–19–8
Home record	32–7–2
Road record	23–12–6
Goals for	263
Goals against	182
Team information
General Manager	Brian MacLellan
Coach	Barry Trotz
Captain	Alexander Ovechkin
Alternate captains	Nicklas Backstrom Brooks Orpik
Arena	Verizon Center
Minor league affiliations	Hershey Bears (AHL) South Carolina Stingrays (ECHL)
Team leaders
Goals	T.J. Oshie Alexander Ovechkin (33)
Assists	Nicklas Backstrom (63)
Points	Nicklas Backstrom (86)
Penalties in minutes	Tom Wilson (133)
Plus/minus	Brooks Orpik (+32)
Wins	Braden Holtby (42)
Goals against average	Philipp Grubauer (2.04)
<2015–16	2017–18>

The 2016–17 Washington Capitals season was the 43rd season for the National Hockey League franchise that was established on June 11, 1974. They finished the season as President's Trophy winners for the second consecutive year, and third time in team history.

Standings

Divisional standings

Metropolitan Division

Pos Team GP W L OTL ROW GF GA GD Pts 1 z – Washington Capitals 82 55 19 8 53 263 182 +81 118 2 x – Pittsburgh Penguins 82 50 21 11 46 282 234 +48 111 3 x – Columbus Blue Jackets 82 50 24 8 48 249 195 +54 108 4 x – New York Rangers 82 48 28 6 45 256 220 +36 102 5 New York Islanders 82 41 29 12 39 241 242 −1 94 6 Philadelphia Flyers 82 39 33 10 32 219 236 −17 88 7 Carolina Hurricanes 82 36 31 15 33 215 236 −21 87 8 New Jersey Devils 82 28 40 14 25 183 244 −61 70

Player statistics

Final Stats

Skaters

Regular season

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM
Nicklas Backstrom	82	23	63	86	17	38
Alexander Ovechkin	82	33	36	69	6	50
Evgeny Kuznetsov	82	19	40	59	18	46
T. J. Oshie	68	33	23	56	28	36
Marcus Johansson	82	24	34	58	25	10
Justin Williams	80	24	24	48	14	50
Matt Niskanen	78	5	34	39	20	32
John Carlson	72	9	28	37	7	10
Andre Burakovsky	64	12	23	35	13	14
Dmitry Orlov	82	6	27	33	30	51
Jay Beagle	81	13	17	30	20	22
Lars Eller	81	12	13	25	15	36
Brett Connolly	66	15	8	23	20	40
Daniel Winnik	72	12	13	25	15	49
Tom Wilson	82	7	12	19	9	133
Nate Schmidt	60	3	14	17	22	16
Karl Alzner	82	3	10	13	23	28
Brooks Orpik	79	0	14	14	32	48
Taylor Chorney	18	1	4	5	8	11
Jakub Vrana	21	3	3	6	2	2
Zach Sanford‡	26	2	1	3	0	6
Paul Carey	6	0	0	0	-2	0
Riley Barber	3	0	0	0	0	0
Aaron Ness	2	0	0	0	-1	0
Liam O'Brien	1	0	0	0	0	0
Chandler Stephenson	4	0	0	0	0	0
Kevin Shattenkirk†	19	2	12	14	4	10

Playoffs

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	+/−	PIM
Alexander Ovechkin	13	7	6	13	-2	8
Brett Connolly	7	0	0	0	–2	0
Justin Williams	13	3	6	8	0	6
Nicklas Backstrom	13	6	7	13	0	6
Lars Eller	13	0	5	5	-2	10
Daniel Winnik	13	0	0	0	–4	0
Paul Carey	1	0	0	0	0	0
Tom Wilson	13	3	0	3	-2	34
Andre Burakovsky	13	6	4	10	5	2
T.J. Oshie	13	4	8	12	2	4
Jay Beagle	12	0	0	0	–5	4
Marcus Johansson	13	2	6	8	-1	2
Evgeny Kuznetsov	13	5	5	10	–1	8
Matt Niskanen	13	1	3	4	0	19
Dmitry Orlov	13	0	3	3	-1	2
Kevin Shattenkirk	13	1	5	6	–2	4
Brooks Orpik	12	0	2	2	–5	9
John Carlson	13	2	2	4	1	4
Nate Schmidt	11	1	3	4	6	2
Karl Alzner	7	0	0	0	1	2

Goaltenders

Regular season

Player	GP	GS	TOI	W	L	OT	GA	GAA	SA	SV%	SO	G	A	PIM
Braden Holtby	63	63	3680:10	42	13	6	127	2.07	1690	.925	9	0	0	0
Philipp Grubauer	24	19	1264:34	13	6	2	43	2.05	585	.927	3	0	0	0

Playoffs

Player	GP	GS	TOI	W	L	GA	GAA	SA	SV%	SO	G	A	PIM
Braden Holtby	13	13	803:28	7	6	33	2.62	364	.909	0	0	0	2
Philipp Grubauer	1	0	18:34	0	0	2	6.46	9	.778	0	0	0	0

^†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining the Capitals. Stats reflect time with the Capitals only.
^‡Denotes player was traded mid-season. Stats reflect time with the Capitals only.
Bold/italics denotes franchise record.

Transactions

The Capitals have been involved in the following transactions during the 2016–17 season.

Trades

Date	Details		Ref
June 24, 2016 (2016-06-24)	To St. Louis Blues 1st-round pick in 2016	To Washington Capitals 1st-round pick in 2016 WSH's 3rd-round pick in 2016
June 24, 2016 (2016-06-24)	To Montreal Canadiens 2nd-round pick in 2017 2nd-round pick in 2018	To Washington Capitals Lars Eller
February 15, 2017 (2017-02-15)	To Los Angeles Kings Future considerations	To Washington Capitals Tom Gilbert
February 27, 2017 (2017-02-27)	To St. Louis Blues Zach Sanford Brad Malone 1st-round pick in 2017 conditional 2nd-round pick in 2019	To Washington Capitals Kevin Shattenkirk Pheonix Copley

Notes

Free agents acquired

Date	Player	Former team	Contract terms (in U.S. dollars)	Ref
July 1, 2016 (2016-07-01)	Joe Cannata	Utica Comets	1 year, $575,000
July 1, 2016 (2016-07-01)	Darren Dietz	Montreal Canadiens	1 year, $575,000
July 1, 2016 (2016-07-01)	Christian Thomas	Springfield Falcons	1 year, $575,000
July 1, 2016 (2016-07-01)	Brett Connolly	Boston Bruins	1 year, $850,000
July 2, 2016 (2016-07-02)	Brad Malone	Carolina Hurricanes	1 year, $575,000
March 2, 2017 (2017-03-02)	Mason Mitchell	University of Alaska-Anchorage	2 years, entry-level contract
March 7, 2017 (2017-03-07)	Kris Bindulis	Lake Superior State University	3 years, entry-level contract
March 7, 2017 (2017-03-07)	Hampus Gustafsson	Merrimack College	2 years, entry-level contract

Free agents lost

Date	Player	New team	Contract terms (in U.S. dollars)	Ref
July 1, 2016 (2016-07-01)	Michael Latta	Los Angeles Kings	1 year, $600,000
July 1, 2016 (2016-07-01)	Jason Chimera	New York Islanders	2 years, $4.5 million
July 21, 2016 (2016-07-21)	Erik Burgdoerfer	Buffalo Sabres	1 year, two-way contract

Claimed via waivers

Player	Previous team	Date	Ref

Lost via waivers

Player	New team	Date	Ref

Lost via retirement

Date

Player

Ref

Player signings

Date	Player	Contract terms (in U.S. dollars)	Ref
June 24, 2016 (2016-06-24)	Paul Carey	1-year, $575,000
June 24, 2016 (2016-06-24)	Aaron Ness	2-years, $1.225 million
June 30, 2016 (2016-06-30)	Zach Sill	2-years, $1.225 million
June 30, 2016 (2016-06-30)	Tom Wilson	2-years, $4 million
July 1, 2016 (2016-07-01)	Connor Hobbs	3-years, entry-level contract
July 11, 2016 (2016-07-11)	Zach Sanford	3-years, entry-level contract
July 20, 2016 (2016-07-20)	Marcus Johansson	3-years, $13.75 million
September 21, 2016 (2016-09-21)	Dmitry Orlov	1-year, $2.57 million
March 2, 2017 (2017-03-02)	Lucas Johansen	3-years, entry-level contract
March 2, 2017 (2017-03-02)	Colby Williams	2-years, entry-level contract
March 30, 2017 (2017-03-30)	Garrett Pilon	3-years, entry-level contract
April 10, 2017 (2017-04-10)	Beck Malenstyn	3-years, entry-level contract
April 10, 2017 (2017-04-10)	Nathan Walker	2-years, $1.3 million contract extension

Draft picks

See also: List of Washington Capitals draft picks

Below are the Washington Capitals' selections at the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, held June 24–25, 2016 at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York.

Round	#	Player	Pos	Nationality	College/Junior/Club Team (League)
1	28	Lucas Johansen	D	Canada	Kelowna Rockets (WHL)
3	87	Garrett Pilon	C	Canada	Kamloops Blazers (WHL)
4	117	Damien Riat	LW	Switzerland	Geneve-Servette HC (NLA)
5	145	Beck Malenstyn	LW	Canada	Calgary Hitmen (WHL)
5	147	Axel Jonsson-Fjallby	LW	Sweden	Djurgarden-jr. (Swe-Jr)
6	177	Chase Priskie	D	United States	Quinnipiac Bobcats NCAA
7	207	Dmitriy Zaitsev	D	Russia	Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights (NAHL)

Draft notes

• The Washington Capitals’ first-round pick went to the St. Louis Blues as the result of a trade on June 24, 2016 that sent a first-round pick and Washington’s third-round pick both in 2016 (28th and 87th overall) to Washington in exchange for this pick.
• The St. Louis Blues’ first-round pick went to the Washington Capitals as the result of a trade on June 24, 2016 that sent a first-round pick in 2016 (26th overall) to St. Louis in exchange for Washington’s third-round pick in 2016 (87th overall) and this pick.
• The Washington Capitals' second-round pick went to the Toronto Maple Leafs as the result of a trade on February 28, 2016 that sent Daniel Winnik and Anaheim's fifth-round pick in 2016 to Washington in exchange for Brooks Laich, Connor Carrick and this pick.
• The Washington Capitals' third-round pick was re-acquired as the result of a trade on June 24, 2016 that sent a first-round pick in 2016 (26th overall) to St. Louis in exchange for a first-round pick in 2016 (28th overall) and this pick.

St. Louis previously acquired this pick as the result of a trade on July 2, 2015 that sent T. J. Oshie to Washington in exchange for Troy Brouwer, Pheonix Copley and this pick.

• The Anaheim Ducks' fifth-round pick went to the Washington Capitals as the result of a trade on February 28, 2016 that sent Brooks Laich, Connor Carrick and a second-round pick in 2016 to Toronto in exchange for Daniel Winnik and this pick.

Toronto previously acquired this pick as the result of a trade on March 2, 2015 that sent Korbinian Holzer to Anaheim in exchange for Eric Brewer and this pick.

References