The Washington Capitals enter the 2025-2026 season with a challenging task. Last year was a surprising campaign for the Caps with captain Alex Ovechkin becoming the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer and winning the Metropolitan Division. The team success was unexpected, but now the expectations have shifted and the belief is that the Capitals could once again claim a wide open division.
With anticipating and excitement for the season building, the Capitals are adding on with their latest social media post. The team sent out a video teaser via their X account of the team’s alternate logo, affectionately dubbed the “Screaming Eagle,” with emojis of an eagle and a clock. The post was a bit cryptic, but the message that came across was that the team was about to unveil a new third jersey for the upcoming season.
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) September 15, 2025
The Screaming Eagle logo is a beloved one by the Capitals fans, generating tons of buzz at the possibility of its return in another form. The design first debuted in 1995 along with a blue, black and bronze color scheme. It was the jersey that franchise greats like Peter Bondra and Olaf Kolzig wore and established prominence in, and the uniform the team wore when they acquired Hall of Fame scorer Jaromir Jagr in 2001.
The jersey went away as the NHL’s new salary cap era began and Ovechkin began the next generation of Capitals hockey. Between 2007 and 2021, the Screaming Eagle took a long hiatus.
Over the past five years, the organization has continued to bring back the logo and elements of its former design into new jerseys. During the NHL’s first run of the Reverse Retro jerseys, the Capitals reintroduced the logo on a red jersey. It was the start of its return, but the team turned things up a few years later.
Last season, the team celebrated their 50th anniversary season by donning a black alternate uniform with the eagle logo for six games. They were a slight update on the 2022 Reverse Retro 2.0 jerseys the team debuted.
The team didn’t specify when it will announce the alternate jersey for the coming season, but the table is set. The Capitals enter the 2025-2026 season, Ovechkin’s 21st in the NHL, with renewed hopes in the Stanley Cup. Now, they will have a new uniform scheme to wear as they try to get their future Hall of Fame captain one more championship in the NHL.
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