How Dylan Strome, Sonny Milano got reboots
Both ex-first-round picks come to Caps with experience
WASHINGTON — Before they rebooted their careers alongside one another as Washington Capitals teammates, Dylan Strome and Sonny Milano first crossed paths in the Ontario Hockey League nearly a decade ago. Strome’s Erie Otters played Milano’s Plymouth Whalers on a sleepy Wednesday in November 2014. The game started at 11 a.m., with 3,300 fans in the stands showing up to watch future NHL players. Strome and Milano, teenagers at the time, dueled in a shootout after a winner couldn’t be decided in overtime.
They both missed their attempts — Strome’s team won after Milano couldn’t convert on the final shot — but the contest provided an early glimpse of where both players were headed. They just couldn’t have imagined it would be here, nine years later, next to each other in Washington, both determined to prove themselves all over again after being discarded by their previous NHL franchises. Just four months into their one-year deals with the Capitals, Strome and Milano played some of the best hockey of their young careers — and earlier this month were rewarded, just 24 hours apart, with multiyear extensions.
“I signed with a team that believes in me,” said Strome, who received a deal for five years and $25 million.
“They gave me a chance when a lot of other teams didn’t,” added Milano, who re-signed for three years and $5.7 million.
Washington’s front office is in crunchtime to make decisions ahead of next month’s trade deadline — and with the league’s oldest roster and more than a dozen players set to hit free agency after the season, turnover is looming. But the re-signing of the 25-yearold Strome and the 26-year-old Milano gives the Capitals two stable pieces for the future; Strome offers a long-term option at center, while Milano provides depth on the wing. And it solidifies a redemption arc for both players, once sparkling first-round draft picks who took their lumps early in their careers and found ways to survive in a cutthroat league.
“It’s hard to play in the NHL. You can be the best player on your team in juniors growing up and still not make it,” said Don Elland, who coached Milano in Plymouth and is now a scout for the Carolina Hurricanes. “When you get to the NHL, you have to learn how to play. You have to mature. You have to grow up. It’s not all fun and games.”
After entering the NHL as first-round picks — Milano was the No. 16 selection by Columbus in 2014, Strome went No. 3 to Arizona in 2015 — both players transitioned from one rebuilding roster to another early in their careers, flashing their talent while adjusting to the harsh realities of the NHL. They thought they had found homes in recent years: Strome finished with a careerbest 22 goals and 26 assists for Chicago, while Milano posted 20 goals and 14 assists for Anaheim. Neither was given a qualifying offer to remain with his team.
“I didn’t really know what my future was going to be in the summer at that time,”
Milano said.
It was difficult to imagine that they would hit that roadblock in their early years, when both faced little resistance in their development. The book on Strome was that he had elite hockey sense and I.Q. Milano was a “savant with the puck,” Elland said, a player with abundant skill with his stick. So much in fact, that he became a YouTube sensation after a few videos showing Milano performing stunts with his stick were posted online. Strome remembers being mesmerized by the videos as a kid, even though he had never met Milano nor played against him. “It’s pretty crazy some of the stuff he can do,” Strome said.
“I had a lot to learn,” said Milano, who was determined to prove he could be a 200-foot player who can contribute in more ways than on offense. After he was let go by Anaheim this offseason, Calgary signed him to a professional tryout contract and released him after four preseason games. No other teams took a chance on him, but Washington did. Strome earlier had signed a one-year deal, and later came Milano, who started with the team’s AHL affiliate before joining the Capitals in November. Although
Strome and Milano didn’t know each other well, they bonded immediately because of what they had been through in the offseason. They helped each other learn the Capitals’ system and adjusted to their roles on an experienced roster.
“There’s some similarities, so maybe they’re drawing off that, how they both came into the organization looking for a fresh start,” Coach Peter Laviolette said. “I’m sure there is some sort of connection, just based on what they went through last year and where they’re at this year and how they’ve been able to come in and be a part of this.”
Washington has a history of taking fliers on players who have been given up on by their previous teams — including forwards Brett Connolly and Devante Smith-Pelly, who contributed to the Stanley Cup run in 2018 after signing one-year deals. Current Capitals Trevor van Riemsdyk and Conor Sheary were established players who had won the Stanley Cup before enjoying career revivals with the Capitals, along with center Nic Dowd, once an unproven prospect who has established himself as a key piece of the roster after signing a free agent deal. All of those players received second contracts with Washington.
Strome and Milano could have opted to wait until this offseason to bet on their ability to find more lucrative deals but instead decided to stick with the franchise where they had proved themselves and complemented
the team’s veterans. Strome has become a first-line center and has played a majority of his minutes alongside Alex Ovechkin, tallying 12 goals and 25 assists. Milano was an integral part of the team’s turnaround in December and has found chemistry on Nicklas Backstrom’s line, chipping in eight goals and 15 assists.
Strome and Milano can now look forward to putting down roots in Washington. Milano has been living in an Airbnb over the past few months and will be looking for a house after the season.
“I’m just dialed in on this year, and that’s all I’m focused on,” he said.
Milano looked on as reporters swarmed Strome’s locker to talk to him about his extension earlier this month. Some of the team’s veterans yelled “Stromer!” to egg him on. Strome spoke of his relationship with Milano and explained that he was a year younger.
“He’s a ’96, I’m a ’97,” Strome said of the year he was born. T.J. Oshie, born in 1986, overheard the comment as he walked to the training room and stopped to interrupt. “You’re a ’97?” he asked, shaking his head. “God!”
Strome chuckled, then continued.
“We came here and found a fit. We were both in similar situations before where the teams we were with before didn’t want us again,” he said. “We kind of have similar paths.”