This offseason has long been rumored to be one of transition for the Washington Capitals and it appears like general manager Brian MacLellan is getting a head start on the trade market.
According to The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, the Caps have tested waters around the league regarding both Evgeny Kuznetsov and Anthony Mantha. Both forwards take up a significant amount of the team’s salary cap and moving them could open up more potential avenues for MacLellan to explore.
“The Capitals have openly engaged teams about the availability of both Kuznetsov and Mantha, looking to shake things up and create some salary cap flexibility in the process,” Seravalli writes.
Kuznetsov has two years left on his contract that sees him paid $7.8 million per season. Mantha has one final season remaining on his current contract that will pay him $5.7 million.
Seravalli adds that Kuznetsov may be seen as a player “slowing down” based on his 2022-23 points output (55 in 81 games), and due to that his contract may be hard to move.
It’s a similar story with Mantha as Seravalli imagines that any eventual trade would likely have to include a sweetener from the Caps if they want the other side to take on Mantha’s full salary. The hockey insider explored the chances the Caps would just end up buying out Mantha in an earlier article.
Caps general manager Brian MacLellan discussed buyouts at his year-end press conference in April. He seemed to be somewhat against the idea due to the salary cap not seeing any sort of marked increase in recent years.
“We haven’t discussed any but I’m not opposed to it,” MacLellan said. “I think with the cap being flat, most of the time, it doesn’t make sense. If it made sense, we’d pursue it.”
Mantha put up just 27 points (11g, 16a) in 67 games last season and was healthy scratched multiple times by head coach Peter Laviolette. During the season he had a 19-game goalless streak and has yet to even touch the 15-goal mark in a season with the Caps.
While it has been commonly known that the Caps were shopping Mantha, this report is the first time it has been blatantly stated they are doing the same with Kuznetsov. MacLellan was blunt about Kuznetsov’s disappointing season in that Breakdown Day presser which came not long after a Russian report was published claiming that Kuznetsov had requested a trade. Kuznetsov later responded to the report by saying, “There’s nothing really to put the comments (on).”
“I’m probably disappointed in [his season],” MacLellan said of Kuznetsov during his Breakdown Day interview. “I think it wasn’t as good as last year. I liked his season last year, played well. For whatever reason, he never quite found his game. There are stretches where I thought he played well, but overall, I think he underperformed the season he had last year.”
Kuznetsov played in two more games during the 2022-23 campaign than he did the year prior but recorded 23 fewer points. The Caps as a team also struggled with Kuznetsov on the ice. In over 1,043 minutes at five-on-five with the Russian center over the boards, the Caps saw just 47.5 percent of the shot attempts, 42.2 percent of the expected goals, 46.4 percent of the scoring chances, and 41.2 percent of the high-danger chances.
Kuznetsov was also a team-worst minus-26 on the season and a complete non-factor at the end of the team’s schedule, posting just two assists in the final eight games.
— good tweet pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) April 12, 2023
Kuznetsov also had his worst, full 82-game goal-scoring season in his career since his first full season in the NHL (2014-15). His twelve goals ranked just eighth on the team.
Even with his subpar performance, the Caps moving Kuznetsov would majorly impact their center depth moving forward. Dylan Strome had a career year in his first year with the team but Nicklas Backstrom remains a question mark heading into the fall.
Moving out Kuznetsov would likely necessitate a supplementary acquisition of a top-six center, which is the type of player MacLellan is rumored to be searching for this summer anyway.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
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