{"id":465777,"date":"2025-03-31T20:22:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T00:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=465777"},"modified":"2025-03-31T20:22:43","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T00:22:43","slug":"washington-capitals-sign-2023-first-round-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/03\/31\/washington-capitals-sign-2023-first-round-pick\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Capitals Sign 2023 First-Round Pick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Leonard<\/a> has had a busy few days. Fresh off leading Boston College to the NCAA National Championship game, the 2023 first-round pick has signed a three year entry-level deal with the Washington Capitals.<\/p>\n

Capitals Sign Leonard<\/h2>\n
\n

HERE WE GO ?<\/p>\n

2023 eighth overall pick and 2025 World Juniors MVP Ryan Leonard is coming out of college to join the @Capitals<\/a>! pic.twitter.com\/3ITt4bTnpu<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NHL (@NHL) March 31, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The 20-year old is expected to make his NHL debut Tuesday when the Capitals go on the road to play the Boston Bruins<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leonard scored 30 goals and recorded 49 points in 37 games with Boston College this season. The forward led in goals. Furthermore, he became the first NCAA player with back-to-back 30-goal seasons since Cam Atkinson<\/a>. Leonard also led the NCAA in game-winning goals.<\/p>\n

Leonard is one of 10 finalists for this year\u2019s Hobey Baker Memorial Award.<\/p>\n

Role with the Capitals<\/h3>\n

Leonard’s role with the Capitals is unclear at this point. With the Capitals having already clinched a playoff spot and have a comfortable lead for the Eastern Conference’s top seed, they have some wiggle room to give playing time to Leonard. The Capitals have nine games left in the season.<\/p>\n

Leonard is joining the Capitals at an exciting time. In addition to being a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, Alex Ovechkin<\/a> is just five goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky<\/a>‘s all-time goals record. Leonard will start his NHL career with a front-row seat to history.<\/p>\n

If Leonard can make the most of these nine games, he could have a role with the team during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It is not unheard of for players to essentiallt start their career in the playoffs. Cale Makar<\/a> did so and looked like has had been doing it for many years.<\/p>\n

Of course, what happens will be determined in the next nine games. Regardless, Caps fans will excitedly tune in to Tuesday’s game, although the Ovi chase was likely doing that already.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Eric Canha- Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Leonard has had a busy few days. Fresh off leading Boston College to the NCAA National Championship game, the 2023 first-round pick has signed a three year entry-level deal with the Washington Capitals. Capitals Sign Leonard HERE WE GO ? 2023 eighth overall pick and 2025 World Juniors MVP Ryan Leonard is coming out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3464,"featured_media":465780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,4547,4548,3462,309,15],"tags":[7614],"class_list":["post-465777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-nhl-prospects","category-nhl-top-prospects","category-capitals","tag-ryan-leonard"],"modified_by":"Andrew Willis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465781,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465777\/revisions\/465781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}