CHICAGO (AP) -- The Washington Capitals have re-signed right winger T.J. Oshie to a $46 million, eight-year contract.
Oshie will count $5.75 million against the salary cap through the 2024-25 season.
General manager Brian MacLellan announced the deal Friday just before the start of the NHL draft. Oshie was set to be an unrestricted free agent.
The 30-year-old forward tied Alex Ovechkin for the team lead with 33 goals last season. That was a career high, as he has 56 points despite playing only 68 games.
In 591 NHL games with St. Louis and Washington, Oshie has 169 goals and 248 assists for 417 points.
Re-signing Oshie was a top offseason priority for the Capitals after he enjoyed success as the top-line right winger with Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.
"T.J. is an invaluable member of our team and we felt it was imperative for us to re-sign him in a competitive free agent market," MacLellan said. "T.J. is a highly competitive player with a tremendous skill set; he epitomizes the kind of player our team must have in order for us to continue to put ourselves in a position to compete in this league."
MacLellan said the Capitals would have a legitimate shot to re-sign Oshie if the salary cap went up to $77 million. They got it done with it going up only to $75 million and got Oshie locked in at a salary that should allow them to re-sign restricted free-agent forwards Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky and defenseman Dmitry Orlov without much of a problem.