Washington Capitals general manager Chris Patrick made it clear last month that, despite finishing first in the NHL’s Eastern Conference this past season, the team remains focused on furthering their recent youth movement this summer.
One of the players looking to take the most advantage of that opportunity will be 2022 first-round pick Ivan Miroshnichenko. The 21-year-old Russian winger has played 39 NHL games over the past two seasons but has yet to stick with the Capitals for a whole year, having played 100 games for the AHL’s Hershey Bears.
“I think Miro has a really good chance to make our NHL team next year,” Patrick said Saturday after the 2025 NHL Draft. “I think he needs to come in and have a really good camp. I think he needs to show the NHL coaches he’s ready to take the next step. When he gets chances to score goals, get good shots on net, don’t bobble pucks, and really be on your game.
“As a young guy coming in, you basically don’t have a lot of room for error, right? So you’ve got to be sharp, and it’s not fair, but every guy on this team has gone through that. So, he needs to have that mindset where you need to be 100 percent dialed every shift of every practice, every shift of every exhibition game, and make it so Spencer is like, ‘I can’t take Miro off this line. I can’t take him out of the lineup. He needs to be here because our team’s worse without him in the lineup.'”
Miroshnichenko ended the 2024-25 campaign as Hershey’s leading goal scorer, scoring 23 goals in 53 games. He finished third in overall scoring in both the regular season with 42 points (23g, 19a) and in the playoffs with five points (3g, 2a) in eight games.
The talented winger spent nearly two months up with the Capitals shortly after captain Alex Ovechkin broke his leg against the Utah Hockey Club in November. During his stint with the Caps, Miroshnichenko posted four points (1g, 3a) in 18 games and skated 9:20 of ice time per game. He was eventually returned to Hershey in January, being replaced in DC by Ethen Frank.
“We have big expectations for him in the organization, so we want to make sure that he’s developing and getting the necessary minutes, playing time, situational playing time, puck touches, scoring chances, shots on goal, all that type of stuff in game action,” head coach Spencer Carbery said after the demotion. “And that was starting to diminish a little bit, so we felt like it was the appropriate time to make that flip with Frank getting an opportunity.”
The Capitals are currently slated to lose regular forwards Lars Eller, Anthony Beauvillier, Andrew Mangiapane, and Taylor Raddysh to free agency on Tuesday. In addition to those potential departures, the club still has unanswered injury questions regarding Sonny Milano. Given those factors, this upcoming fall’s camp will be Miroshnichenko’s best opportunity to prove he belongs in the NHL.
Miroshnichenko will be eligible for a contract extension on July 1, as the 2025-26 season is the final year on the entry-level deal he signed with the Capitals in 2023. He will become a restricted free agent next summer if the two parties don’t come to an agreement before then.
