Capitals vow to stay competitive despite being NHL Trade Deadline sellers
GM confident Ovechkin, aging core can rebound for another Cup run
"I think it's still a competitive team," Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said after the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline passed at 3 p.m. ET Friday. "I don't look at it as we're taking a huge step back. I think it might even be taking a step forward."
MacLellan and his staff have a difficult needle to thread attempting to retool on the fly around what he acknowledged is "an older core" that includes forwards Ovechkin, 37, T.J. Oshie, 36, Nicklas Backstrom 35, Evgeny Kuznetsov, 30, Tom Wilson, 28, and defenseman John Carlson, 33.
But some difficult decisions needed to made with Washington (31-27-6) trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins by three points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference and potentially headed toward its first spring without playoffs since 2014.
The Capitals were buyers at the 2014 Trade Deadline before falling out of contention down the stretch, so this is the first time since 2007 -- Ovechkin's second season -- when they weren't looking to add pieces at the deadline to try to make a run at the Stanley Cup.
This season has been challenging from the start because of slew of injuries, including Backstrom (left hip resurfacing surgery) and Wilson (torn anterior cruciate ligament in left knee) missing the first 40 games, and a host of other key players missing time, including Carlson being out since being struck in the side of the head with a shot Dec. 23.
Although the Capitals are within striking distance of a playoff spot, a six-game losing streak from Feb. 12-23, (with Ovechkin missing four of the games because of his father's death) pushed them into selling mode.
"I don't know that we were showing the consistency that we needed to show to become a team that was going to go for it," MacLellan said. "So, I think we had to straddle a line of what's best for the future, what's best for our team in the future and try and still add players and stay competitive."
RELATED: [2022-23 NHL Trade Tracker]
The trades Washington completed in the days leading up to the deadline were aimed at getting younger and acquiring draft picks to potentially be turned into more younger players in the offseason. It began Feb. 23, when the Capitals
traded
defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway to the Boston Bruins in a three-team deal including the Minnesota Wild that brought back Boston's first pick in the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft, a third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and forward Craig Smith.
They then sent Boston's 2023 first-round pick and defenseman Erik Gustafsson
to the Toronto Maple Leafs
for defenseman Rasmus Sandin on Tuesday. Washington also traded forward Marcus Johansson
to the Minnesota Wild
for a third-round pick in the 2024 draft Tuesday, and forward Lars Eller
to the Colorado Avalanche
for a second-round pick in the 2025 draft Wednesday.
All the players the Capitals traded were eligible to become unrestricted free agents after this season. Smith, who is 33, also is a potential unrestricted free agent and likely won't be re-signed.
Sandin, a left-shot defenseman who turns 23 on March 7 and is signed for one more season after this one, was the key player addition. He'll slot into a revamped top four on defense next season that will include Martin Fehervary, Carlson and Nick Jensen, the 32-year-old who signed a three-year, $12.15 million contract (average annual value of $4.05 million) on Tuesday.
"There's only room to grow for him," MacLellan said of Sandin. "He's 22, 23 years old and he's only going to get better going forward. So, we see, hopefully, a guy that we can build around moving forward."
The Capitals won't trade their first-round pick in the 2023 draft, which could potentially end up in the top 10, but the picks they acquired over the past week-plus could be used to add players of similar age and experience to Sandin, who is in his fourth NHL season.
"You still need some players and draft picks to trade to get these guys," MacLellan said. "So, I think we increased our ability to do that and going into the draft we have a chance to make it happen."
It meant parting with two more key members of the 2018 Stanley Cup championship team in Orlov and Eller, who scored the Cup-winning goal. But this lost season required the Capitals be make some painful moves and be proactive to give them the best chance to avoid the same fate next season.
MacLellan said he met with Ovechkin, their captain, to explain the direction he planned to take. When Ovechkin, who is second in NHL history with 815 goals, signed a five-year, $47.5 million contract to stay with Washington in 2021, part of the reason was so he could chase Wayne Gretzky's NHL record of 894 goals.
But Ovechkin's priority was to play for a team that had a chance to win the Cup again. Having a winning team around Ovechkin remains the goal.
"We want to be competitive next year," MacLellan said. "I still think we want to be competitive this year. I still think we got a pretty good team. We're going through some injuries. Our back end is decimated a little bit. We tried to add a good, young defenseman in Sandin. So, we'll see where we are when we come out of it here."
