As you are all most likely very well aware, the Washington Capitals made a few roster moves at Monday’s NHL trade deadline. First, they dealt a fifth-round draft selection to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for forward Michael Raffl. Then in more shocking news, they sent Jakub Vrana, Richard Panik, a first-round draft choice, and a second-round draft choice to the Detroit Red Wings to acquire forward Anthony Mantha.
So, that’s a whole lot of movement which means we need to take a look at what the Caps forward group could look like moving…forward.
We know that Anthony Mantha will be available for Tuesday’s home game against the Philadelphia Flyers (Michael Raffl will not be), so some new forward lines are going to be coming at us straight away. A reminder that Daniel Carr was moved to the taxi squad.
Caps General Manager Brian MacLellan spoke about Mantha’s addition to the lineup, saying that he thinks “the coaches can move him around a bit” and that “he’s going to have three good centers he can play with”. MacLellan added that he thinks Mantha will “benefit from a real good playmaking center like Kuzy or Nick” or that he could “also play on the third line”.
That means it’s time for some line projections.
Ovechkin – Kuznetsov – Wilson
Mantha – Backstrom – Oshie
Sheary – Eller – Sprong
Hagelin – Dowd – Hathaway
Here’s my thought process:
- The pairing of Kuznetsov and Ovechkin is working far, far better this season than it has really since the Cup run. In 224 minutes together at five-on-five, the Caps are seeing 52.2-percent of the shot attempts, 54.6-percent of the expected goals, 52.7-percent of the scoring chances, and 52-percent of the high danger chances. Those numbers shoot up even higher when you finish the trio off with Tom Wilson so he’s the easy choice to ride the right side on the first line.
- Mantha is a deadly shooter of the puck so you obviously want him playing with either Backstrom or Kuznetsov and I think Backstrom is the better fit. Number 19 knows a thing or two about playing with big-bodied, left-wing flamethrowers. I also could see the argument of playing Sprong up a line and dropping Oshie to the third line if they want to spread out the offensive talent.
- Sheary and Eller have formed fantastic chemistry together this season so far and Sprong is the natural trigger man to finish off that third line. Probably the one line that I think should be the most set in stone.
- Peter Laviolette loves that fourth line so I don’t think any of those dudes are going anywhere. I do think that Michael Raffl would be a great fit on that right-wing as well though.
What do you guys think? And I want you to ponder about the possibilities of this in the future.
By the way, this is an entirely possible future line for the Washington Capitals.
Anthony Mantha (6'5, 234) – Aliaksei Protas (6'6, 210) – Tom Wilson (6'4, 220)
And it wouldn't be a "slow" line either.
— Chris Cerullo (@CJC_95) April 12, 2021
Headline photo courtesy of Elizabeth Kong
