Washington Capitals rookie Ryan Leonard poised for breakout season in 2025-26

«I think the benefit of him playing at the end of the season and then into the playoffs [is that] he now has a crystal clear vision of what it feels like to play in the most difficult times of the year against arguably the hardest team to play against in the Carolina Hurricanes,» head coach Spencer Carbery said last week. «That is on-the-job experience. That is not someone telling you, 'It's going to be hard,' or, 'Get ready for the NHL, it's the best league in the world.' He felt that. And that experience cannot be replaced with anything else.»

«I think [he'll] truly have a grasp on the things he needs to do and work on to get him on the trajectory of being an elite player in the NHL,» Carbery said. «Him coming in next year, it's not now, 'Oh, he just trained this summer, so Ryan Leonard should be a top player in the National Hockey League.' It's going to take him time, and it's going to be a process for him. But I expect the experience he just went through will be extremely valuable for his development.»

«I thought Ryan did a great job,» Patrick said. «Very unique situation where you don't usually have a guy that young jumping into your team at that point in the season, but usually when you do, they've been through a couple training camps. They've had maybe three or four exhibition games against at least some NHLers, and he had none of that. So, really, it's like starting from not even at square one. He did a great job just putting his head down trying to learn, trying to get comfortable with the system, comfortable with the players, comfortable with the DC area.»