The Washington Capitals have traded Hendrix Lapierre to the Pittsburgh Penguins. for a 3rd rounder in 2027 and a 5th rounder in 2028. Lapierre will be a restricted free agent on July 1, and is arbitration eligible. This is the third trade Chris Patrick has made in the last two days. The Caps traded for Jordan Kyrou on Tuesday and Alex Tuch yesterday.
This marks the end Lapierre’s six years with the franchise after he was drafted in the 1st Round of the 2020 draft, no. 22 overall. After making the opening night Caps roster for the 2020-22 season as an 18 year-old, Lapierre never found his footing in Washington. His best season in DC was in 2023-24, when he played 51 games and scored 22 points. In 2024-25, Lapierre started the season in the mix to win the third line center position, but after a lackluster start to the season, was sent down to Hershey to regain his confidence. He returned in 2025-26 and was again in the mix for the third line center spot. When the Caps lost Pierre-Luc Dubois for most of last season due to injury, Lapierre was beaten out for the third line center job by Justin Sourdif.
Despite underlaying analytics showing Lapierre was playing well, those number didn’t show up on the score sheet. He played mostly on the fourth line and a few times on the wing, but averaged only 8:50 minutes per game. While the coaches said all the right things and praised his patience and hard work, it didn’t equate into more playing time. He became expendable with the emergence of Sourdif and Ilya Protas.
The trades confirm that the Capitals are revamping their forward ranks after missing the playoffs last season by one point. The Capitals are left with only four draft picks in the draft this weekend: the no. 18th overall pick in Round 1, a fourth rounder, a fifth, rounder, and a seventh.
The Washington Capitals have traded Hendrix Lapierre to the Pittsburgh Penguins. for a 3rd rounder in 2027 and a 5th rounder in 2028. Lapierre will be a restricted free agent on July 1, and is arbitration eligible. This is the third trade Chris Patrick has made in the last two days. The Caps traded for Jordan Kyrou on Tuesday and Alex Tuch yesterday.
This marks the end Lapierre’s six years with the franchise after he was drafted in the 1st Round of the 2020 draft, no. 22 overall. After making the opening night Caps roster for the 2020-22 season as an 18 year-old, Lapierre never found his footing in Washington. His best season in DC was in 2023-24, when he played 51 games and scored 22 points. In 2024-25, Lapierre started the season in the mix to win the third line center position, but after a lackluster start to the season, was sent down to Hershey to regain his confidence. He returned in 2025-26 and was again in the mix for the third line center spot. When the Caps lost Pierre-Luc Dubois for most of last season due to injury, Lapierre was beaten out for the third line center job by Justin Sourdif.
Despite underlaying analytics showing Lapierre was playing well, those number didn’t show up on the score sheet. He played mostly on the fourth line and a few times on the wing, but averaged only 8:50 minutes per game. While the coaches said all the right things and praised his patience and hard work, it didn’t equate into more playing time. He became expendable with the emergence of Sourdif and Ilya Protas.
The trades confirm that the Capitals are revamping their forward ranks after missing the playoffs last season by one point. The Capitals are left with only four draft picks in the draft this weekend: the no. 18th overall pick in Round 1, a fourth rounder, a fifth, rounder, and a seventh.
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