play0:47Jakob Chychrun scores power-play goal vs. JetsJakob Chychrun scores power-play goal vs. Jets
Jakob Chychrun nets OT winner for Caps (0:59)Jakob Chychrun’s goal lifts the Capitals over the Devils 4-3. (0:59)
Greg WyshynskiDec 30, 2025, 07:00 AM ETCloseGreg Wyshynski is ESPN’s senior NHL writer.Follow on X
Jakob Chychrun’s shot is the kind of thing that makes his Washington Capitals teammates lean forward on their bench to watch him unleash the puck.
“This guy’s ability to finish from the back end is incredibly unique, even at this level. His ability to beat goalies clean with his snapshot or wrist shot is as elite as there is,” he said. “You just don’t see it from guys on the back end. There are some forwards in the league that can snap it like you can, but not a lot of defensemen that can. He’s just such a threat.”
He has made a convincing case. Chychrun has 35 goals and 41 assists in his past 112 games, skating to a plus-39. He can quarterback a power play, skate upwards of 25 minutes per game and thrive against other team’s top scoring lines both offensively and defensively.
All of that earned Chychrun an eight-year, $72 million contract extension from Washington in March. He has responded with one of his best starts to a season. Outside of goalie Logan Thompson, Chychrun has arguably been the Capitals’ MVP.
“He scores big goals. He scores game-winning goals. He scores overtime goals. He’s just been a big player for us, a big presence,” said Capitals president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan.
Carbery has three potential Canadian Olympians — Chychrun, Thompson and forward Tom Wilson — on his team this season. “I give those guys so much credit for the mental fortitude. They’re human beings. They know what’s at stake. They know the decisions that are looming,” he said.
“Just to acknowledge it: ‘Hey, what you’ve done has gotten you on the radar and that’s why people are asking and reaching out,'” he said. “Just continue to do the things you do and not overthink it. Don’t try to be someone you’re not.”
That has never been a concern for Chychrun, one of the more distinctive individuals on the Capitals and probably the only one who has gobbled raw animal heart to stay in shape.
“He’s got some philosophical things that are probably a little on the edge of most people,” MacLellan said. “He’s a little quirky.”
“He kind of steered me in that direction,” Chychrun said. “He never really pushed the transition too hard, but he definitely saw the value in playing D, playing extra minutes and just being out there a lot more.”
“Yeah, that’s a good question. Not really. But if there’s ever a moment where a coach feels like I need to be used up front, I mean, I would absolutely love it. I think it’d be a blast,” he said with a laugh.
Jakob Chychrun scores power-play goal vs. JetsJakob Chychrun scores power-play goal vs. Jets
Like Burns, Chychrun likes his own stuff. While he doesn’t lug around a giant backpack like Burns — one that contains everything from essential oils to a coffee maker — Chychrun has been known to bring his own food on the road as part of his well-curated diet.
Chychrun has been fascinated with diet and nutrition since his early teens. His father’s trainer was a family friend and set Chychrun up with a dietary plan to gain size as an athlete.
“At the time, I was so young to be doing that, but I loved it,” he said. “I was packing my own school lunches. I think all my buddies thought I was nuts back then. So, not much has changed.”
“His physique is not like too many guys that I played with before in the NHL. He takes very, very good care of his body and is very detailed with what he puts into it,” Strome said. “He’s always checking the labels and the ingredients on things and then making sure that it’s good for him.”
It’s a protein-heavy diet that extends from the farm to the sea, and also includes raw animal hearts and livers. (For the record, he’s more of a heart guy when it comes to taste and texture.)
“Ever since grocery stores, I think we’re just all very insensitive and just out of touch with our food and where it’s coming from,” he said. “I mean, if you ever have to be on a farm and slaughter your own animal, you’re never going to be wasteful of that food.”
“If you want to do a diet, I think as long as you’re cutting out all the processed foods, anything could work,” he said. “I mean, I’m not a huge fan of the vegan or vegetarian diets, but at the end of the day, I think why people have success on them is because they’re cutting out a lot of processed junk.”
He and his wife, Olivia, have discussed eventually getting their own farm, to be “self-sufficient and just kind of live off the land” when his playing days are over.
“If [the food] has a label, we almost try to avoid it,” he said. “It’s mind-blowing when you’re reading them. You can’t even pronounce half the things on there. You have no idea what it is. They’re just adding a whole bunch of unnecessary stuff that’s clearly making everybody sick. So it’s definitely something to be conscious of.”
STROME HAS KNOWN Chychrun since they were teammates on Canada’s junior national team, which, admittedly, is a strange path for a young player from South Florida to have taken. But it explains why Chychrun is vying for a spot on Team Canada and not Team USA.
He didn’t hear from USA Hockey all summer. The silence extended into the beginning of training camp.
“Then USA Hockey just sent us a very brief email just kind of saying they wanted me to play with my own age group, that they didn’t want me to play in the USHL,” he said.
The first team to call him was the Toronto Junior Canadians, where he ended up playing so well that the Canada Ontario U17 team called him up as an underage player in a national championship tournament. Among his teammates were a young Mitch Marner, Travis Konecny, Lawson Crouse and Strome.
After battling in the OHL, Strome and Chychrun became teammates with the Arizona Coyotes. Strome was drafted third in 2015 and Chychrun was selected 16th in 2016. They’d live together in Arizona for a year, as Chychrun had rented out Max Domi’s old house and Strome needed a place to stay.
“He was great. We had a lot of fun. We played cards. We played a ton of golf together,” Strome said. “I don’t think he was as healthy back then, from what I remember. There were a few Krispy Kreme orders placed at night.”
Strome said when he was reunited with Chychrun in Washington, he found him to be “a little more mature” than in their days in the desert together. Strome credits some of that to Chychrun finding his faith.
“I think he has a lot of respect for everyone. His faith has shown a lot over the last couple years,” Strome said. “He’s very into going to church and very into God and everything like that. He’s a great human being, a great person, and I’m glad to call him a friend.”
“My wife’s family is quite religious and so that kind of helped me kick-start my journey,” he said. “We started dating, getting really serious just before COVID hit. And then once COVID came, I think that really opened the eyes of a ton of people and it kind of brought us right to the Lord together. We were able to really realize how important He was in our lives and how much we needed to lean on Him through just craziness.”
MACLELLAN TRIED TO acquire Chychrun a few times when he was playing for the Coyotes. Chychrun was a perennial name on NHL trade boards thanks to his offensive acumen and his potential, but mostly because he was signed to a six-year contract with a cap-friendly $4.6 million average annual value.
Arizona eventually traded him to the Ottawa Senators for three draft picks. MacLellan once again made a run at Chychrun after the Senators parted ways with GM Pierre Dorion and hired Steve Staios as his replacement. MacLellan recalls that the Sens had two left-shot defensemen they “really liked” but had a need for a right-handed shot. So off went Chychrun to the Capitals for a package that included defenseman Nick Jensen.
Earlier in his career, Chychrun was known to force things offensively at time, taking risks to create scoring chances. MacLellan has been impressed with his gradual realization that “you can’t make something out of nothing in a tight game” for your team.
“He’s not doing the mistake part as much as he could have been criticized for before. Be patient, wait for your holes, wait for a mistake, wait for an opportunity to join the rush. I think he’s evolved that way,” MacLellan said. “So consequently, I think that makes him more consistent as a player.”
Carbery knew him as a highly touted prospect with the Coyotes whose career was kept on the launch pad because of injuries — he didn’t play more than 70 games in a season until 2023-24 with Ottawa — and Arizona’s futility as a franchise. After the 2023-24 season, Carbery and MacLellan discussed the need to add more scoring to their defense corps. MacLellan shared that Chychrun was a trade target.
“I was like, ‘OK, this is great.’ We’re going to get a real skill in the prime of his career, a young defenseman that can add a skating ability and an offensive punch to our back end,” Carbery recalled. “Needless to say, I had no idea what he was going to bring to our team over the next year plus. Just how great of a person, teammate, how coachable he is, how motivated he is to want to continue to develop as an NHL defenseman.”
“We’re selling to them that, ‘Man, he’s played really well the last two years. He deserves consideration. It depends on how you guys set your lineup up and what you’re looking for, but he should be in the running with these guys. He’s played that good,'” he said. “You don’t aggressively push, but you make them aware [of] how good he’s been over the last two years since he got to us.”
Chychrun said his Team Canada status hasn’t been weighing on him. He wasn’t invited to Olympic orientation camp this summer, and the only times he has paid much attention to the selection process is when others have broached the subject with him.