Ryan Leonard, Capitals Agree to $84 Million Contract, Full Details Ahead of 2026 NHL Season

The Washington Capitals are locking in Ryan Leonard for the long term after his 20-goal rookie season.

Leonard and the Capitals have agreed to an eight-year, $10.5 million AAV extension ahead of the 2026-27 season, the franchise announced Tuesday.

Leonard, 21, was previously set to hit restricted free agency after playing out the last season of his rookie deal in 2026-27.

The extension will keep Leonard, who posted 45 points (20 goals, 25 assists) in 75 games last season, under contract through his age-29 season in 2034-35.

Leonard spent most of last season skating in the Capitals' bottom six alongside Connor McMichael and Justin Sourdif.

That arrangement will change this fall given that McMichael has since been traded to and re-signed by the St. Louis Blues.

Leonard will also return to his role on a Capitals power play looking to bounce back after ranking 25th in the NHL with a 17.8 percent success rate last season.

The Capitals initially selected Leonard with the eighth pick of the 2023 draft. He starred in two seasons with Boston College before making his NHL debut late in a 2024-25 campaign that ended with the Caps making it to the second round.

Leonard made the jump to a full-time roster spot last season, during which his importance to the Capitals became obvious when he was placed on injured serve with an upper-body injury in December.

Capitals president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan later pointed to that stretch, over which the Capitals went 2-3-2, as an inflection point in a season that ended without a playoff run.

Leonard will now help the Capitals push for a postseason return in what might be Alex Ovechkin's final NHL season, as well as a play a key role in the franchise's future past Ovechkin's eventual retirement.

Now the longest-tenured player in Washington, D.C., Leonard joins a long-term Capitals core already featuring Tom Wilson, Jordan Kyrou, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Alex Tuch, Jakob Chychrun, Martin Fehervary and Logan Thompson, all of whom are signed through the 2030-31 campaign.