The Washington Capitals have some big decisions on the horizon as the NHL’s March 8 trade deadline quickly approaches.
With the date less a month away, Capitals’ general manager Brian MacLellan says the direction of the team at the deadline will be determined by today’s Boston Bruins’ game and how the team does on their two-game homestand against the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday and the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday. The Capitals defeated the Bruins 3-0 in one of their most complete outings of the season to end a six-game losing streak.
MacLellan made the comments to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan who reported the following during the third period of Caps-Bruins:
This morning I talked to Caps GM Brian MacLellan about the state of his team. He said, ‘I’m in a tough position. We’re trying to balance doing right by some of our legacy players–not just Ovi, it’s Oshie and Carlson too–while trying to get younger and stay competitive.’
On the losing streak, he said, ‘right now we’re in it.’ And he said, ‘These next three games: today, tomorrow against Vancouver, and then against Colorado, will determine what direction we go to in the trade deadline.’
And he said, ‘You know, it’s going to be difficult decisions that we need to make. However, whatever we do in the second half, if we do trade away players, you can expect a lot of players from Hershey to come up.’
They want to get some looks to see what they have in the system. And guys, on the trade deadline, Joel Edmundson is a player that I’m hearing is getting a lot of interest around the league.
The Capitals currently sit seventh in the Metropolitan Division with 53 points and are six points out of the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Despite adding several younger players to the team at the beginning of the season, the Capitals still have a roster with an average age near 30, one of the oldest in the league. Alex Ovechkin is 38, TJ Oshie is 37, and John Carlson is 34. Nicklas Backstrom took a leave from the team in November while Evgeny Kuznetsov entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program earlier this week.
Veteran players like Edmundson, Max Pacioretty, and Nic Dowd, could find themselves on new teams as the Capitals try to retool and rebuild for the future with draft picks and young players.
The Capitals have a bunch of intriguing prospects in Hershey like Ivan Miroshnichenko, Hendrix Lapierre, Ethen Frank, Pierrick Dube, Vincent Iorio, and Clay Stevenson who could all potentially see time in Washington depending on what direction the team goes.
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