Twenty months after he departed the District ahead of the NHL’s trade deadline in March of 2023, the guy who scored the biggest goal in Washington’s franchise history is returning to DC in a deal with one of the Caps’ biggest rivals. Late Tuesday afternoon, the Caps announced they’ve reacquired veteran center Lars Eller from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for a pair of draft choices.
“We are excited to welcome Lars back to our organization,” says Caps’ senior vice president and general manager Chris Patrick. “This move enhances our depth at the critical center position. Lars is a versatile player that we are confident will strengthen our team's depth and competitiveness.”
The Caps send their third-round choice in the 2027 NHL Draft and Chicago’s fifth-round selection in the 2025 Draft (previously acquired) to Pittsburgh for the Eller, the NHL’s all-time games played leader among Danish-born players (1,053 games). Now in his 16th NHL season, the 35-year-old Eller is in the final season of a two-year deal he signed with Pittsburgh in the summer of 2023, a deal that carries a salary cap hit of $2.45 million for this season.
Originally a first-round choice (13th overall) of the St. Louis Blues in the 2007 NHL Draft, Eller has suited up for five different NHL teams over the course of his career, but his 488-game tenure with Washington is the largest chunk he has spent with any one organization.
Washington obtained Eller from Montreal in a June 24, 2016 trade that cost the Capitals a pair of second-round picks, one in 2017 and the other in 2018. Eller spent the better part of seven years in Washington before he was dealt to Colorado on March 1, 2023; the Caps reaped a second-rounder in return in that swap.
Although he has never had a 20-goal season in the NHL, Eller has notched double-digit goal totals in 10 straight seasons entering 2024-25. He enjoyed the best years of his career here in DC, where he will forever be remembered for scoring the game-winning goal in the third period of Washington’s Stanley Cup-clinching contest in Game 5 of the Cup Final against Vegas on June 7, 2018.
Eller returns to Washington with 180 career goals and 226 assists for 406 points. He has not missed a game since before the Caps traded him to the Avalanche, playing 123 straight games with Colorado and Pittsburgh. This season with the Penguins, Eller had four goals and seven points in 17 games at the time of the deal.
The addition of Eller would appear to be designed to give the Caps a reliable veteran presence in the middle of its third line, where Hendrix Lapierre and Mike Sgarbossa have split time to this point of the season. Eller also gives Washington another dependable face-off artist and a guy who is not only an accomplished penalty killer, but one who is familiar with the basic framework of a Scotty Allen-coached penalty kill.
Eller joins potential linemate Jakub Vrana as the second member of Washington’s 2018 Stanley Cup championship team to return to the District after making a couple of stops elsewhere in between. Invited to training camp on a PTO basis, Vrana made the Washington roster out of camp.
