Caps sign Chychrun to eight-year, $72M extension

Jakob Chychrun in his first season with the Washington Capitals delivered them offense from their blue line that helped them become the top team in the NHL.

Now, he's sticking around for the long term.

Chychrun on Tuesday re-signed on an eight-year extension worth $72 million. The smooth-skating, high-scoring defenseman will count $9 million against the salary cap from when the new deal kicks in next season through 2033.

“Jakob is a proven, dynamic defenseman in the prime of his career who has established himself as one of the premier blue liners in the NHL,” general manager Chris Patrick said in announcing the contract. “His work ethic, skillset 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.”

Chychrun’s 18 goals this season are more than Washington’s other defensemen combined and rank third in the league. He also has 25 assists to give him a career-high 43 points in 65 games, which is more than enough production to offset some of the risks he takes in his own zone that lead to opponents' goals.

Coach Spencer Carbery has been experimenting with putting Chychrun on the top power play unit in John Carlson's usual spot at the point.

“(Jakob) is a different power-play quarterback than John,” Carbery said Saturday. “John’s more cerebral, doesn’t move as much, finds shot tips, shot lanes: a distributor. That’s his bread and butter. Chicky's more of a mobile guy that’s going to move laterally across the blue line and create advantageous situations with his feet and then can obviously shoot it with not as much a one-timer, but he’s more of a sifter guy — that wrist shot that he has.”

Chychrun, who turns 27 on Monday, took a skate cut to the right wrist during the Capitals' game Saturday against defending Stanley Cup champion Florida. He returned to the 6-3 victory but was limited in practice Monday before the team traveled to Winnipeg, and Carbery expressed some concern.

“We’ll see how he feels,” Carbery said. "Got very fortunate that there was no significant damage, but it’s still a significant cut.”

Re-signing Chychrun was the last in-season item on Patrick’s to-do list after also getting goaltenders Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren under contract for the foreseeable future.

Patrick's predecessor, and still boss as president of hockey operations, Brian MacLellan acquired Chychrun in a trade with Ottawa last offseason for fellow D-man Nick Jensen and a 2026 third-round pick. It was one of multiple moves MacLellan made that all worked out nearly perfectly, including getting Thompson from Vegas and center Pierre-Luc Dubois from Los Angeles.

The Capitals were linked to Chychrun at the trade deadline in 2023, as well, when Arizona dealt the Boca Raton, Florida, native to the Senators instead. After getting him in the fold, there was an organizational push in recent days and weeks to keep Chychrun around as a building block not only for the final season of Alex Ovechkin's career but the next phase of the organization with top prospect Ryan Leonard and others on the way.

Chychrun is now signed the longest of any player on the roster, and his $9 million salary makes him Washington's second-highest-paid player next season after Ovechkin and No. 1 in the years beyond that.