Breaking down the 2024-25 Washington Capitals Opening Night roster

On Tuesday morning the Washington Capitals announced the team's opening night roster for the 7 p.m. game this Saturday night from Capital One Arena

Chris Patrick's new era kicks off with 13 forwards, 8 defensmen and two goalies led by captain Alex Ovechkin who enters his 20th NHL seasons and alternate captains John Carlson and Tom Wilson. For Wilson it'll be his first time fully embracing the alternate captain role with Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie on LTIR.

Dylan Strome enters his third year with the Caps while Connor McMichael, Hendrix Lapierre, Nic Dowd, Martin Fehervary and Charlie Lindgren are among many others returning. And welcome back Jakub Vrana. There's also seven newcomers all of which are under the age of 30 to lower their league median age. Those players are Pierre Luc-Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane, Brandon Duhaime, Taylor Raddysh, defensemen Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy and goaltender Logan Thompson.

Per the press release as many as seven players can make their Capitals deubt on Saturday. The Caps have had six plus players each make their team debut in the same game just three times in franchise history.

Those came on Oct. 9, 1974 in their first regular season game in franchise history, Oct. 6, 1982 in Rod Langway's first game as a Capital and on Oct. 5, 2005 which was Alex Ovechkin's rookie debut. The season opener will mark the Caps 50th season.

Dating back to 1982-83, the Caps have qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs 33 times of their last 41 seasons which is tied for the second most in the NHL during that span. And their 1,656 wins since 1982-83 are the second most in the league.

The Caps will be looking to make the playoffs for the 10th time in their last 11 seasons and the 34th time in franchise history. Their 15 playoff appearances since 2007-08 are tied with the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins for the most in the NHL in that span.