Jakob Chychrun's contract extension is a risky one for the Capitals.
Jakob Chychrun has proven to be one of the best pickups of the 2024 offseason, which earned him an eight-year contract extension from the Washington Capitals. The Capitals opened up the pocketbook for the former Ottawa Senator and Arizona Coyote, as they'll pay him $72 million throughout the deal. The expectation wasn't for it to be a contending season for Washington, but they are currently the top team in the league. Chychrun has been a massive piece of that success.
“Jakob is a proven, dynamic defenseman in the prime of his career who has established himself as one of the premier blueliners in the NHL,” general manager Chris Patrick said. “His work ethic, skill set, and ability to excel in all situations at both ends of the ice make him a valuable asset to our team. He is a perfect fit with our culture and vision for the future, and we couldn't be more thrilled that he will continue to be part of our organization for the next eight years.”
Jakob Chychrun cashes in on career year
Chychrun has already reached a new career high in points in his first season in Washington. It is the ninth campaign of his career, with his previous high coming in 2020-21 and 2022-23 when he had 41 points with the Coyotes and Senators, respectively. The 2020-21 season is interesting, as Chychrun only played 56 games because of the pandemic-shortened season. He would have likely posted a career-high if it had been an 82-game season.
Chychrun scored 18 goals this season, which tied the career-high set in 2020-21. He is the quarterback of the Capitals' first powerplay unit, a role long held by John Carlson. Carlson is now on the second unit, and the contract extension also signifies Washington's desire to move on to Chychrun as the team's blue line leader. The Capitals have been paying Carlson $8 million annually on a deal that expires after next season.
Can Chychrun stay healthy for eight seasons?
Chychrun's long standing worry has been his inability to stay healthy. This is why it took the Coyotes so long to find a trade partner and why the return was less-than-ideal when the Senators acquired him. The Senators then traded him to the Capitals for an even less appealing deal.
Chychrun's injury issues started in the 2017-18 season, when he missed 30 games with a knee injury. He then missed the first 16 games of the following season with the knee injury and another four later in the year. More lower-body injuries affected him in 2021-22, resulting in 35 games lost.
Lower-body injuries haven't been the only reason he missed time. He missed 16 games in 2022-23 before returning long enough for the Senators to make the trade for him. Three weeks after acquiring him, the Senators lost Chychrun for the last 10 games of the year with a hamstring injury.
Chychrun stayed healthy for the entire 2023-24 season, playing in all 82 games for the first time. It showed the Capitals enough to risk acquiring him, and he has repaid their trust this season. He missed just five games in November with an upper-body injury, but that has been his only time out of the lineup.
Washington is taking a chance that those injuries aren't going to be something that affects him over the next eight years. If Chychrun begins to suffer the injury bug at any point in the next few seasons, the deal could look disastrous quickly.
What direction are the Capitals heading?
The idea for this season was to ride out Alex Ovechkin's goal-record chase and then likely rebuild once he finished his career. The gap between the Capitals and the contending teams was massive last season, with most believing they didn't have the assets to bridge it.
The acquisitions of Chychrun and Pierre-Luc Dubois helped, along with Logan Thompson's emergence after the throwaway trade at the draft. However, it'll be interesting to see if this group is the future of the Capitals. Many teams before have had great regular seasons and shown their true colors in the postseason. If the Capitals still show a massive gap in ability once they get in the playoffs, the rebuild/retool in the post-Ovechkin era could still be possible.
Is Chychrun worthy of $9 million annually in a retool? He is still in the prime of his career, and the growing salary cap will make his salary take up a smaller portion of the cap in comparison in a few years. This contract will not bury the Capitals, but it might not be ideal depending on the Capitals and Chychrun's trajectory.
Grades and final thoughts
If Chychrun continues putting up career years and the Capitals remain contenders for most of the deal, it's a home run. However, that statement has many “what ifs” and not many sure things. If the Capitals enter a retool or rebuild in two or three years and have no use for Chychrun, $9 million will be difficult to move. If Chychrun's injury issues return or his production dips, it's also an anchor of a contract.
This deal seems to put the Capitals at a high risk, as Jakob Chychrun laughs all the way to the bank.
Jakob Chychrun grade: A+
Washington Capitals grade: C+
