The 2025 NHL Draft is in the rear-view, and now, the Capitals have turned their attention to the summer and free agency, making moves involving a handful of restricted free agents.
Washington announced Monday that they have extended a qualifying offer to RFA forward Hendrix Lapierre, but did not tender offers to defenseman Alexander Alexeyev, forward Pierrick Dubé, goaltender Mitchell Gibson.
The Caps did say, however, that the Hershey Bears have signed Gibson to an AHL deal, but Alexeyev and Dube will become unrestricted free agents on July 1.
Lapierre, 23, was the No. 23 overall pick by the Caps in 2020, and made his NHL debut in 2021. He has appeared in 84 games over parts of three seasons with Washington, tallying nine goals and 22 assists. He also played in all four games of the Caps’ first-round playoff loss to the Rangers in 2024, scoring one goal and adding one helper.
He has also helped the Bears to a pair of Calder Cups, and was named MVP of the 2024 Calder Cup Playoffs.
Alexeyev, who was the No. 31 overall pick in 2018, is the most prominent of the three players not tendered, as he has played in 80 games over parts of four seasons in Washington as well as all 14 playoff games over the last two seasons, coming in at the end of last year to replace the injured Martin Fehervary.
“He’s a young guy that didn’t get to play a bunch of games this year,” GM Chris Patrick said of Alexeyev last week. “I think it’s important for him to get an opportunity at the NHL level, if that’s with us or if that’s with somebody else. So, we’re going to be as helpful as we can to him to get him the best opportunity to play in the NHL next year.”
That clearly will not happen in DC, where the Caps have Jakob Chychrun, Matt Roy, and Rasmus Sandin under long-term contract and just signed Draft Day acquisition Declan Chisholm to a two-year deal.
Dube played 124 games in Hershey (plus 25 playoff games) over the last two seasons but just three in the NHL. Gibson, a former fourth-round pick in 2018, turned pro in 2023 and has spent most of the last two seasons with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, playing a handful of games with Hershey.