ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The Washington Capitals named Chris Patrick general manager Monday, with longtime general manager Brian MacLellan remaining as president of hockey operations.
Patrick, 48, who was also named executive vice president, had served in various roles with the Capitals since 2009, including the past three years as assistant general manager under McClellan. The son of longtime team president Dick Patrick, he previously served as director of player personnel after a long career as a professional scout and is now the seventh general manager in the franchise's 50-year history.
“Chris is a dedicated and hard-working executive who is completely ready for the next step in his career,” owner Ted Leonsis said in a statement. “His vision, extensive experience, hockey acumen and player evaluation make him the perfect leader to lead our team moving forward.”
McClellan, 65, served as general manager for 10 years after succeeding George McPhee in 2014. He was instrumental in building the team that won the franchise's first Stanley Cup in 2018.
“I am confident that our dynamic leadership team with Dick Patrick as chairman, Brian as president and Chris as general manager will continue to lead our hockey operations department forward,” Leonsis said. “Brian's leadership, experience and vision for our hockey team, combined with Chris' impressive track record and successful tenure as an executive, talent evaluator and guardian of our minor league partnerships, will position our hockey operations team for success in the future.”
The front-office shakeup is the latest across the NHL to see an established GM move up the ranks and hand over day-to-day operations. This comes after the Avalanche won a Cup with Colorado in 2022, with Chris McFarland replacing Joe Sakic as GM and Sakic becoming president of hockey operations. Meanwhile, St. Louis has laid out a succession plan that sees Alexander Steen and Doug Armstrong follow a similar path.
In Washington, Patrick will take over the agile restructuring effort that McClellan has been working on for the past few weeks to keep the team in contention for a championship with captain Alex Ovechkin still in the final two years of his contract. McClellan has replaced nearly a quarter of his roster and is looking to make the move. They traded center Pierre-Luc Dubois, winger Andrew Mangiapane, defenseman Jakob Chychrun and goaltender Logan Thompson separately and signed free agents Matt Roy, Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh.
“I think we're better,” McClellan said last week, though he made no mention of promotion at the time. “I just think we're a better-positioned team. We should be better offensively. We'll see. Overall, I think we have more depth and we're a better-organized team than we were last year.”
The Capitals narrowly made it into the playoffs on a tiebreaker as the Eastern Conference's second and final wild card: they were swept in the first round by the eventual Presidents Trophy winners, the New York Rangers, who then lost to eventual Cup winners Florida in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The team has reached the postseason in 15 of the past 17 seasons, known as the Ovechkin era. The Russian superstar and face of the franchise since being drafted No. 1 in 2004 is 42 points away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's career goals record and turns 39 in September.
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