When Dylan Strome signed a free agent deal to join the Capitals on July 14, 2022, he was a 25-year-old former first-rounder who was seen by some eyes as an underachiever. As the third overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, Strome was selected by the Arizona Coyotes, but he was taken behind a couple of the top two overall picks in recent memory; Edmonton grabbed Connor McDavid as the obvious No. 1 and Buffalo happily snapped up Jack Eichel with the second overall selection.

Strome was available as a free agent that summer because the Chicago Blackhawks – his second NHL organization – opted not to give him a qualifying offer in the wake of a 22-goal season, his career high at the time. Perhaps the Coyotes and the Blackhawks were expecting Strome’s career arc to resemble that of McDavid and/or Eichel, but neither team displayed much patience with a player who was seen as one of the top talents in what history has shown to be a fertile and deep draft.

Just over two years after he came to the Capitals, it is difficult to overestimate the positive impact the signing has had on Washington’s on-ice fortunes, and on Strome’s career as well. Not only has the personable pivot elevated his game and his career in his two plus seasons with the Capitals, he has helped supercharge Alex Ovechkin’s ongoing pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL goals record, and he has also played a big part in the overall resurgence of the team on the ice.

Ovechkin has 10 goals in his first 14 games, and Strome has assisted on all of them. The only other player who has had a hand in the manufacture of a longer string of consecutive Ovechkin lamplighters is the sublime Nicklas Backstrom, who assisted on 11 straight goals from the Caps’ captain in 2011.

Like Strome, Backstrom assisted on each of Ovechkin’s first 10 goals of the season – in 2011-12. Backstrom currently has the edge on Strome because he also set up Ovechkin’s final goal of the 2010-11 season, an empty-net goal in Florida on April 6, 2011.

When Strome’s Washington career began in the fall of 2022, the Caps were hoping that Backstrom would be able to rebound from offseason hip surgery, and they believed that Evgeny Kuznetsov was still in the prime of his career; he had delivered 78 points in 79 games as a 29-year-old in 2021-22. Then-coach Peter Laviolette actually had Strome playing left wing at the outset of training camp that fall; the Caps still had Kuznetsov, Lars Eller and Marcus Johansson on the roster at the time.

Fast forward a couple years, and Strome is firmly in place as Washington’s top center, which is every bit as crucial for the team, given that Backstrom was not able overcome his hip woes and Kuznetsov’s career took a sharp turn in a southerly direction and he is no longer playing in the NHL. Strome is not only a focal point of the Washington offense and power play, he has improved his game away from the puck and is another example of a player who has found the grass to be just a little bit greener here in the District.

“I think it’s just the coach having confidence in you,” says Strome. “When the coach puts you out there at key times of the game, and they want you out there to take face-offs or to help the team score, and you’re put on the first line, your job is to help the team score and to produce and create momentum for your team.”

Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery is the sixth different head coach Strome has worked under over the course of what is now a nine-year NHL career. And Carbery is the guy who has displayed that trust in Strome, who has actively sought and earned that trust.

“Just overall, his game is in a really good spot,” says Carbery. “He had a great offseason of trying to take that next – I’ll say final – step, but I think they’re always trying to get a little bit better, and improve, and develop their game.

“But the last step for me, when you look at Stromer’s game, is that elite first line centerman in the NHL, and being able to play against the [Nathan] MacKinnons, the McDavids, the Eichels, and he has shown this year that’s the step he has taken, and he has been thriving in those matchups and playing against the best centerman in the league, and trying to get out of those games where he controls play. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to score three goals and they’re going to get one; it is controlling play against those top lines, and he’s done a real nice job of doing that. And him and O have some good chemistry right now.”

They sure do. For the first time since 2015-16, Ovechkin has scored eight of his first 10 goals of the season at even strength. With Aliaksei Protas having a breakout season as the other wing on the line, the trio has scored 13 goals at 5-on-5 in the season’s first 14 games, and they’ve only been on the ice for four goals against in nearly 120 minutes together.

“It’s been fun playing with those guys,” says Strome. “I play a good amount of minutes – and I’m usually on the first power play – and I have lots of chances to score. When you get into a rhythm with your linemates – and I’ve been playing with Ovi for a while now – you feel like going into every game that you’re going to have at least a couple of chances to score; the confidence is there. And then you just try to find a way to put them in. I think it’s mostly confidence. And when you’re feeling good about it, you just try to ride the high for as long as you can.”

The “high” actually stretches back to the stretch run of last season when the Caps forged an 18-11-4 mark over their final 33 games to slip into the playoffs with a win in their final game of the regular season. Ovechkin opened last season with the longest prolonged scoring slump of his NHL career; he scored six goals – two of them of the empty-net variety – in his first 33 games, leaving some to wonder whether The Great Eight would ever be able to catch up to The Great One.

While Ovechkin was mired in that early season slump on a Washington team that struggled to score on the power play and at even strength, Strome was picking up the slack and helping to keep the Caps within striking distance for eventual their late-season push. Fourteen games into this season, Strome has four goals and 18 points. Fourteen games into last season, he had seven goals – and seven points. Strome had 19 goals before the All-Star break last season, and he had 31 points through the first 47 games.

Coincidentally, he has played 47 regular season games since then as of this writing, and he has totaled a dozen goals with 44 assists for 56 points. Strome is tied for 10th in the NHL in scoring over that 47-game span dating back to last season, and his assist total ranks sixth during that span. Among NHL centers, only McDavid and MacKinnon (59 each) have more helpers over that span.

Ovechkin has been the benefactor; he has scored 30 goals in those 47 games, tied for fourth in the League over that span. Strome has assisted on two-thirds of those last 30 Ovechkin tallies.

“It’s an impressive stat when you when you lay that out with the company that he’s in,” says Carbery. “And it’s not a surprise, but when you when you say it, he’s playing at a real high level, and he deserves a lot of credit for what he has been able to do offensively, to get Alex the puck in some really good spots. And I saw another stat about his 200 [career] assists and the portion that he’s assisted on Ovi’s goals and in general over the last couple years. Last year, if you remember the beginning of the year, it was all goals. Now this year, it’s flipped; he’s the setup man.”

Hockey sense and playmaking have always been prominent among Strome’s many hockey gifts, but he also boasts a sharp and accurate shot that he isn’t afraid to unveil when the situation calls for it.

“We talked to Stromer last year, and it’s why I think he is such a great personality to play with [Ovechkin],” says Carbery. “A lot of players, when you get on the ice with Alex Ovechkin, you immediately – when you get the puck – think, ‘Pass, pass, pass; I have to pass!’ Well, sometimes the situation doesn’t call for a pass, it calls for a shot. So if a team is overplaying , you’ve got to shoot the puck.

“And that’s what I think Stromer did a real good job of; may say, ‘Ah, I was open a few times,’ but Stromer got himself into good spots to where if you’re going to overplay , I’m going to shoot the puck in the back of the net. I think it has happened that now – this year – the coverage is coming to Stromer, and now is in a good spot, like you saw in that [Nov. 6 game vs. Nashville] on that pass out goal in the third period.”

Strome’s strong fit into the lineup and the room in Washington is not unprecedented. The Caps have done a good job of drafting over the years, but they’ve also been effective at bringing in pedigreed players – like Strome – who haven’t developed as swiftly as their original teams hoped.

When Washington final won its first Stanley Cup championship in 2018, its roster was liberally dotted with players the team selected in the first round of the NHL Draft: Ovechkin, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, John Carlson, Tom Wilson, Jakub Vrana and Andre Burakovsky.

That 2017-18 Stanley Cup championship team also featured five former first-rounders the Capitals did not draft: Brett Connolly, Lars Eller, Matt Niskanen, Brooks Orpik and T.J. Oshie. All of those players came to the Capitals after one or more other teams gave up on them, for whatever reason.

Eleven of the 2017-18 team’s top dozen scorers were former first-rounders; defenseman Dmitry Orlov – a second-rounder in 2009 – was the only one of those dozen players not chosen in the first round.

As Washington seeks to build another Stanley Cup championship roster, it is leaning on that familiar formula of roster building. Ovechkin, Carlson and Wilson remain from the 2018 Stanley Cup team. Vrana has returned to Washington this season after both Detroit and St. Louis moved on from him, and more recent first-rounders Alex Alexeyev, Connor McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre have joined them on the Washington roster.

Since winning the Cup in 2018, the Caps have continued to add former first-rounders from elsewhere to their mix. Like that 2017-18 team, this season’s roster featured five of them, at least until Tuesday: Jakob Chychrun, P-L Dubois, Dylan McIlrath, Sonny Milano and Strome. On Tuesday, the Caps reacquired Eller from Pittsburgh, so the group of five is now six.

“He has been reliable in his offensive production,” says Caps’ center Nic Dowd of Strome. “But I think he has been really good defensively as well, and that’s what has helped him shine offensively, because he is not spending a lot of time in his own end, and that’s going to save a lot of his energy. And he’s going to have more energy to play in the offensive zone, which is where he wants to be playing anyway.

“Also, I think he has done a really good job of just capitalizing on opportunities. As a player matures, he understands the importance of odd-man rushes, the importance of opportunities, the importance of [offensive] zone face-offs that can translate into points and offense for his team, and I think he’s done a good job of doing that.”

As with drafting players in the first round, acquiring former first-rounders via the trade or free agency route is no guarantee of future success. But in signing Strome two summers ago, the Caps landed not only their first-line center, but a member of their leadership group and a genuinely good human who is driven to make himself a better player, and to make his team a better team.

The results have been excellent from the start; Strome stepped into the Washington lineup in 2022-23 and had a career year. Then, he did it again last season. Now in his age 27 season in 2024-25, Strome is off to a storybook start and he is among the NHL’s leading scorers.

Strome has collected at least a point in a dozen of the Caps’ 14 games this season. In addition to assisting on all 10 of Ovechkin’s goals this season, Strome’s playmaking and his 5-on-5 production are among the best in the League. He ranks second in the circuit with 10 assists and 14 points at 5-on-5.

Strome’s Arizona career lasted only 48 games; he totaled three goals and 11 points at even-strength during that span, figures he has exceeded in just 14 games this season. In his 225 games with Chicago, Strome totaled 46 goals and 110 points at evens. In just 177 games with Washington, he has virtually matched those numbers; he has 45 goals and 106 points at even strength with the Capitals.

His growth and development from the time he stepped into the League as a 19-year-old in 2016 is obvious, and appears to still be on the climb.

“He is a guy who loves the game, and he takes it upon himself to really mature as a player and to be reliable in those spots,” says Caps’ defenseman John Carlson. “He is the kind of guy who wants to be on the ice all of the time, and those are the kinds of guys you want in your corner to battle things out.

“And certainly, when you work at it like he does, you’re going to get better at it. He takes everything seriously, and that’s why a student of the game – like he is – can add skills to his toolbox, and it was an already really good toolbox.”

Nine years removed from being the third player chosen overall in the 2015 NHL Draft, Strome is becoming the player Arizona hoped he would become when it drafted him in 2015. By the middle of his first season in Washington, Strome was happy enough with his situation here and the team was pleased enough with his performance that they agreed on a five-year contract extension to keep him in the District through the 2027-28 season.

“It’s a team that saw something in me, and it believes – like myself – that I’m only going to get better over the next five years,” said Strome soon after signing that extension. “They put their faith in me, and I’m going to continue to grow and become a better player. I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited that the team believes in me enough to sign me to that deal, and I’m really excited about it. I’m really happy to be here.”

“I’m just thankful that a team believed in me, even though it’s only been 50 games. I’m excited to do it for five more years. That opportunity never arose in those other places, where I got to sign a longer term deal.”

A year and a half down the road from signing that extension, Strome is thrilled with where he is with his life and with his career.

“I try not to think about it too much,” says Strome. “My first year in Chicago, I was feeling really good and I played really well. And then, it started to slowly go down. My last year there, I felt like I rose back up again, and then they didn’t sign me.

“And then I came here, and I’ve felt comfortable since I first got here. All the guys made it that way – Willie and Osh, Backy and Ovi and Johnny, and the guys who have been here for a long time. They bring you in and make you feel like you’ve been here for 20 years; they just make you feel at home.

“Everyone is really kind to my family – to my wife, to my dad when he comes and to my mom when she comes. Everyone is just really welcoming, and you never really feel like a new guy on a new team. You just fit right in.

“Before I came here, I had never met Conor Sheary, and we became best friends in a couple of months. I’m really close with [defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk] and Dowder, too. When you have connections with guys like that, it makes for a really seamless transition. I think that’s why so many guys who come here end up doing so well in their first year. You look at a guy like Chychrun, he comes in here and feels like he has been on the team forever.

“It’s a really good group, and a good leadership core. You just try to add to that and to be part of it.”