The transitions, for a franchise that has made 15 postseason appearances prior to now 17 years, have been seamless and in-house. George McPhee is the one prime hockey government Leonsis has fired, and when he did, he turned to Brian MacLellan, McPhee’s longtime assistant. MacLellan stays the group president, a job wherein, as Leonsis mentioned, “He’ll have remaining say on the whole lot.”
However making the day-to-day telephone calls to different normal managers and holding the conferences with coaches and trainers, the person together with his finger on the group’s pulse, can be Patrick, the 48-year-old member of one among hockey’s royal households who, 16 years in the past, left a safe and profitable job in finance to start out on the backside stage within the Capitals’ entrance workplace. His father is longtime Capitals president Dick Patrick, whose father, uncle and grandfather gained the Stanley Cup as gamers. Chris performed at Princeton. He may have been profitable doing one thing else. He couldn’t shake the sport. Now he’s operating a group.
“I view it as a pure development for the group,” Leonsis mentioned by telephone Monday. “It sort of future-proofs us. Mac and Chris are actually, actually birds of a feather. I used to be joking with somebody the opposite day that Chris is extra like Mac than he’s his dad. They consider hockey — and the economics of hockey — in a really good and really analytical approach.”
Whereas this transition was going to come back in some unspecified time in the future — the Caps promoted MacLellan to president of hockey operations and normal supervisor final summer time, when additionally they prolonged his contract — it additionally appears sudden. MacLellan, 65, simply completed main the execution of an offseason plan that, at preliminary look, appears to have vastly improved a roster that needed to scrape into the playoffs in its final common season sport.
“This was going to occur in some unspecified time in the future, proper?” MacLellan mentioned. “I’m good with it. And I’ll be there to assist him.”
Earlier than we get to the youthful Patrick — and the way he’ll strategy the transition from the Alex Ovechkin period to no matter lies past — a second on MacLellan. I’ll admit, when Leonsis lastly parted methods with McPhee following the 2014 season — a tough resolution, for certain — and basically turned to McPhee’s right-hand man, I had doubts. You acknowledged the necessity for brand new management and picked the man who had been within the room all alongside?
What Leonsis found — what he acted on — was that MacLellan was a disarmingly sincere and acutely analytical thinker who had clear plans for methods to enhance the roster, with Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom remaining because the centerpieces. Does buying and selling Troy Brouwer for T.J. Oshie look like a great transfer all these years later? What about signing Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen as free agent defensemen? Or buying and selling for Lars Eller?
What adopted have been back-to-back Presidents’ Trophies in 2015-16 and 2016-17, kick-in-the-gut losses to Pittsburgh within the playoffs every season, earlier than the Stanley Cup in 2018. It’s straightforward to level to the truth that the Caps haven’t gained a playoff sequence since their championship, and that has to vary. However they’ve performed related hockey for the whole lot of MacLellan’s stewardship, a 10-season interval wherein solely Boston and Tampa Bay have racked up extra factors within the standings. MacLellan wouldn’t know this, however amongst GMs with no less than 500 video games overseeing a franchise, solely two have earned the next proportion of obtainable factors.
“Once you actually give it some thought, we gained numerous video games,” MacLellan mentioned. “Once you’re pushing by way of it, you’re not eager about it. However whenever you look again, we’ve been competing for a very long time. That consistency, that’s a giant factor for me.”
There’s, then, a consistency in strategy. MacLellan had a 10-year profession as an NHL participant, however he didn’t go straight into scouting and front-office work afterward. Quite, he went again to highschool and acquired an MBA. Patrick initially resisted the pull of the household enterprise and went to work on Wall Road, then for Constellation Vitality. He acquired his MBA from Virginia in 2008 — however took all that background and utilized it to hockey.
“I don’t assume sufficient organizations worth that sort of expertise,” MacLellan mentioned.
When Patrick joined the Capitals for the 2008-09 season — a rent made by McPhee — he did so on the backside rung of the entrance workplace.
“He was making some huge cash in his outdated job,” Leonsis mentioned. “I laughed. Like, ‘What are you doing?’ He simply mentioned, ‘Properly, it’s in my blood.’”
“Once I was in finance, I’d go to video games as a fan, and I felt like I used to be lacking out,” Patrick mentioned. “I imply, I’m a fan, and that’s enjoyable. However I really feel like I may supply a lot extra. I simply didn’t wish to at all times have that query about myself.”
Through the years, he earned increasingly duty. When MacLellan was promoted final yr, Patrick assumed the title of affiliate normal supervisor. The road of succession appeared apparent.
“I actually think about Mac a mentor for my complete profession,” Patrick mentioned. “He’s very organized, very considerate. He has a plan, and he works by way of a really analytical course of to execute it. And everyone in our group has a voice. It’s not a democracy, and it shouldn’t be. Mac makes the ultimate resolution. However nobody’s making an attempt to be the I’m-right-and-you’re-wrong man. It’s okay to have a unique opinion, and he has created that surroundings.”
So, then, what’s subsequent? The choices for the 2024-25 season have been made, and so they’re thrilling. However Ovechkin wants simply 42 targets to go Wayne Gretzky for probably the most of all time. He can be 39 in September. His contract is up after 2025-26.
What does Chris Patrick foresee when the No. 8 is within the rafters slightly than on the ice?
“When your stars are getting outdated, lots of people are like, ‘Rebuild, rebuild, rebuild and simply begin over,’” Patrick mentioned. “That’s a technique, however I don’t know if that’s a technique for everyone.”
The technique for the Caps, going ahead, will more and more have Chris Patrick’s fingerprints on it. The problem can be twofold: Usher the franchise into an period when it not has its undisputed franchise participant but additionally keep the consistency {that a} era of followers right here has come to anticipate.
