Hours before the NHL trade deadline at 3 p.m. Friday, the Caps swung their third deal of the week, sending center Evgeny Kuznetsov to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a third-round pick at the 2025 NHL Draft. Washington will retain 50 percent of Kuznetsov’s remaining contract term, which runs through the 2024-25 season.
Friday’s deal ends Kuznetsov’s 14-year run as a member of the Caps’ organization, and a decade in which he was a critical component of the team’s roster. With his departure today, only five players from Washington’s 2018 Stanley Cup championship team remain in the organization.
Washington recently assigned Kuznetsov to its AHL Hershey affiliate, doing so soon after he exited the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. Over the last couple of seasons, it gradually became clear that both Kuznetsov and the Caps would benefit from a change of scenery for the talented but mercurial pivot, and today’s deal accomplishes that objective for both sides.
Drafted in the first round (26th overall) in the 2010 NHL Draft, Kuznetsov was seen as a top end talent in that draft; he slid to the Capitals at 26 because of league-wide concerns over whether he would be willing to leave Russia’s KHL for an NHL career. Here’s a very prescient scouting report on Kuznetsov from the 2010 edition of the venerable Red Line Report:
“Very dynamic skill level. Extremely quick, soft hands. Controls the puck like he’s got it on a string and holds onto it that extra split second, giving linemates time to cut to open ice for his decisive feeds. Superb patience around the net – outwaits goalies and always forces them to make the first move. Tremendous natural sniper who buries his chances. Can score in a variety of ways – off the rush, with a great shot off the wing, or with slick moves in tight. Also has an explosive first step and top end gear with excellent east-west moves. Capable of making flashy, highlight reel plays and can kick in the afterburners to leave d-men in his dust. But shows frustration easily, taking stupid penalties often, and is poor on the backcheck – has little interest in the defensive end. An enigma – could score a boatload of points, but might also become a headache.”
Kuznetsov turned out to be all of that. At his heights, he was compelling to watch; former Caps’ coach Barry Trotz often remarked that Kuznetsov moved like he had a jet pack on him – he seemed to be able to increase his speed without moving his feet or legs. Kuznetsov’s vision and creativity were elite, and he sometimes made plays that made one believe he had eyes in the back of his head.
Ten years ago Sunday – on March 10, 2014 – Kuznetsov made his NHL debut against Pittsburgh. In his third NHL game, against Vancouver four nights later, he dished out three assists while skating the left side of a fourth line with then-rookie Tom Wilson and workhorse center Jay Beagle. Kuznetsov set up Wilson’s third goal of the season that night, and he notched those three assists despite getting less than 10 minutes (9:58) in ice time on Washington’s fourth line.
“He is such a creative player, a lot of fun to play with,” said Wilson of Kuznetsov, after that game. “The first couple of games he wasn’t sure, and he’s really finding his groove. Hopefully we can have some good chemistry for years to come. Beags is always hardworking; you know he’s going to bring that. He’s going through the middle on that goal that I scored. He started it, drove through the middle, opened that space up for me and Kuzy made a great pass. It’s really fun to have a little bit of skill, a lot of hard work and it’s been fun.”
Over the years, Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom combined to give the Capitals a formidable 1-2 punch in the middle of the ice, an element the team spent the better part of 40 years trying to establish. Kuznetsov was loud and boisterous off the ice, and he was peaks and valleys on the ice. Backstrom was quiet and reserved off the ice, and as steady and consistent as any center in the League through his prime, giving the Caps a bit of an odd couple at the top of their center depth chart.
In Washington’s Cup-winning campaign of 2017-18, both Kuznetsov (56) and Backstrom (50) accumulated 50-plus assists, the first time the Caps had the luxury of two center ice men with 50-plus helpers since 1995-96 when Michal Pivonka (65) and Joé Juneau (50) achieved the feat. Kuznetsov and Backstrom repeated the performance in 2018-19.
When the Caps signed Kuznetsov to an eight-year contract extension worth a total of $62.4 million on July 2, 2017, there were few worries about what the player might be like in the final two seasons of the deal. On the day that Kuznetsov signed that deal, he was not quite a couple of months past his 25th birthday, and he would turn 33 shortly before the contract’s expiration.
Kuznetsov responded with his best NHL season in the first year of that deal, totaling 27 goals, 56 assists and 83 points to help lead the Capitals to their first Stanley Cup championship in the spring of 2018. He was at his best in the postseason that spring, too, piling up a dozen goals, 20 assists and 32 points in 24 games, leading all NHL players in assists and points in that playoff season.
Most notably, Kuznetsov scored one of the most important goals in franchise history on May 7, 2018 in Pittsburgh against the Penguins, in overtime of Game 6 of the second-round series. Kuznetsov broke free on a breakaway and beat Pens’ goalie Matt Murray through the five-hole, pushing the two-time defending Stanley Cup champs out of the playoffs, and ending an exasperating streak of seven straight playoff series losses to Pittsburgh.
“I think if you look back, it’s all about the plays between the bluelines,” said Kuznetsov of the goal. “We got the turnover and then it’s a good transition to breakaway. When you get the breakaway in those type of games, you don’t really think what you’re going to do, you just try to do something. But it ended up it worked pretty well.”
“I see Kuzy was over there,” says Alex Ovechkin, “and I just put puck in the space. He did what he does best. I was praying, ‘Please, score goal.’”
At his peak, Kuznetsov drove possession and was always a threat to create offense in a variety of different ways from virtually anywhere on the ice. He had the talent, the skill and the vision to be one of the League’s top players.
His production dropped precipitously last season, and it bottomed out in 2023-24, to the point where he was waived last week. When none of the League’s other 31 teams put in a claim, the Caps assigned him to Hershey. Before he could suit up in a game with the Bears, the Hurricanes opted to take a flyer on Kuznetsov. It could work out for Carolina; he has yet to mark his 32nd birthday, and when he is motivated, he is still capable of flashes of brilliance.
Without Kuznetsov, the Caps don’t win the Cup in 2018. With Kuznetsov, they probably should have been capable of reaching greater heights over the years. Today’s trade marks the end of an era here in D.C., an era that was marked with magic, but also liberally dotted with disappointment. We’ll be forever left wondering what might have been as far as Kuznetsov’s career is concerned, and how it might have impacted and lifted those around him.
