Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy have combined to form a dominant defense pairing this season: ‘They’ve been very, very effective right from jump street’
The Washington Capitals are a team primarily built from the back, with a defense corps among the best in the NHL. A major part of that group this season has been the dominant second pairing of Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy. With the two on ice during five-on-five play, the Capitals have scored 18 goals and allowed only 4.
Chychrun and Roy both joined the Capitals last season, and while they now seem like a match made in heaven, the two were unable to build fast chemistry during the 2024-25 campaign. Caps head coach Spencer Carbery went back to the drawing board with the pair this preseason, hoping to develop more cohesion between the two, and that process has paid near-immediate dividends.
“I talked to both guys before the season, asked them, ‘How do you feel with one another?’” Carbery said Wednesday. “This is when we weren’t going with that pair to start. ‘Why do you think it didn’t work? What could we do in the future if we potentially went to that pair?’ So I got some interesting insight from them personally. Because sometimes you watch the film or you read the numbers, but your best source is to go to the guys and ask them how they feel on the ice. ‘Is there anything that sticks out of why we’re successful or why we aren’t?
“And so I got some interesting insight from them. I can’t remember when exactly we went to the pair. We were playing Chychy at the beginning, you remember, with Riemer a lot, and felt like if we could get him into a spot where he’s got a real comfortable partner with Matt Roy, felt like it kind of solidified our top four.”
In 153:58 of five-on-five ice time together last season, the pairing saw 47.8 percent of shot attempts, 48.6 percent of expected goals, 53.6 percent of scoring chances, and 48.4 percent of high-danger chances. The Capitals were also out-scored 10-8 during those minutes.
This year, they have completely flipped those results around in 217:04 of joint five-on-five ice time, owning 60.7 percent of shot attempts, 65.3 percent of expected goals, 60.5 percent of scoring chances, and 64.6 percent of high-danger chances.
“Kudos to those guys because they’ve been very, very effective right from jump street on them getting together,” Carbery said. “I think they’ve built some good chemistry. I think some of the things that we pointed out and talked about, I think they’ve taken to heart and really paid attention to. They’ve sort of made some adjustments and done a real good job.
“A lot of credit goes to both of those guys, because Matt Roy flies under the radar where Chychy gets a lot of the accolades, the goals, the assists, the power play time, where Matt Roy has done an excellent job this year, not only in his role of being a really good effective puck mover and defender, but also enabling Jakob Chychrun to be as productive offensively as he has.
As Carbery indicates, Roy’s more stay-at-home style has allowed Chychrun’s elite offensive ability to flourish, as he ranks third among all NHL defensemen in overall scoring with 22 points and tied for first in goals with 9. Chychrun is on pace for 75 points (31g, 44a) over a full 82-game slate, which would smash the career-high 47 points (20g, 27a) he recorded last season.
Roy’s role with the Capitals has grown in his second season with the team, with his ice time rising to over 20 minutes per game (20:26). Most of that increase comes via an expanded role on the penalty kill, where he’s playing 2:17 of shorthanded ice time per game, fourth-most on the Caps.
The two defenders will pair up again on Friday night when the Capitals host the Toronto Maple Leafs.
