Ryan Leonard joins Capitals after the release of the Boston College NCAA tournament: source

Boston College Ryan Leonard’s star, one of the main prospects of the NHL, will sign with the Washington Capitals following the elimination of the Eagles from the NCAA tournament in a 3-1 defeat against the University of Denver in the regional final of Manchester on Sunday evening, according to a person close to the player.

The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the signature, said Leonard will make his debut in the NHL Tuesday evening in Boston when the capital visits the Bruins at the TD Garden.

Leonard, a 6 feet and 200 pound wing, was choice n. 8 In the NHL draft of 2023. He concluded third in the NCAA in goal and fourth in points such as the serial number at the BC last season, recording 31 goals (the most always of a serial number of Boston College) and 60 points in 41 games and earning a second team nod.

He chose to return to college this season instead of going to do one because he felt he had unfinished business and wanted another crack to chase a national championship after the Eagles lost 2-0 in the Frozen Four final last year.

In his return to BC this season, Leonard has been appointed alternative captain and has broken the sign of 30 goals for the second time, recording 49 points in 37 games. He was appointed Top 10 Finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, assigned every season to the best player of the male hockey college of the I Division. Through the regional and in the four frozen, his 30 goals brought the NCAA and his 49 points were classified in 10th place.

He also won consecutive gold medals with the US Team at the World Juniors of 2024 and 2025, winning the MVP tournament and led the teams as a repatriation to Ottawa only three months ago.

But a year after finishing a victory away from a national championship, he finished three shy wins, falling to the charging champion Denver Pioneers for a second consecutive year.

Leonard will join a team of capital that is the first in the metropolitan division, and the expectation is that he will immediately contribute to the NHL club and burns the first year of his entry-level contract.

In AtleticoThe 2025 Top 100 drafted the ranking of the NHL perspectives, released in February, Leonard ranked eighth and fourth among the attackers.

Scouting relationship

Leonard is a perspective that everyone likes. It is impossible not to do it. He is a versatile player, powerful, with a high number of laps that makes things happen when he is on ice and that attracts teammates fighting with his poor, competitive, never stopped style. However, it’s not just the energy boy or a Battler. He has his hands from one side to the other, a serious NHL blow that shakes his stick and fast crossover motifs that allow him to use those hands to get to places where he can try to shoot. Flashing one against one by pulling the records through the feet and around the defenders. His attention is of concentration on the interior and attacks there without fear with a robust step. He will be a beating during the games and continues to attack his nose in each battle/will continue to attack in contact. Add strength, power, a strong construction, a ability to guide and lose contact when it is hit and a defensive consciousness and there is also a simple set of skill of a job.

He is not the most brain player, sometimes it can be a little too focused on the net and his discipline/hot head can put it in trouble, but he has made great strides to become a little more inventive and a little less predictable by A A B (I was increasingly affected by his small hesitations and by his expanded vision in possession). Its reverse has also become a legitimate weapon, adding another layer to its arsenal. There is so much that it seems translatable for his game: the way he spends hard, even for the outburst and sometimes falling positions. The way he fights and the fear with which he guides the network. His general dexterity.

Leonard should be the type of player he scores, he will add the physicality to a line and slips up and down from a top-non in an NHL training while approaching his coaches. Leonard is a pilot who seemed a choice n. 8 between BC and two strong projections to World Juniors from the draft. His selection of games is not always exceptional and can take too many useless sanctions when his intensity boils, but it can also be a movement force to move.

(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)