The Washington Capitals made three deals before the trade deadline, netting five draft picks and $3.9 million in extra cap space headed into the 2024-25 season. Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan also managed to find Evgeny Kuznetsov a new home after years of both sides wanting to move on.
The Capitals dealt Kuznetsov to the Carolina Hurricanes for a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft on Friday morning. Washington also retained 50 percent of Kuznetsov’s salary in the trade.
According to MacLellan, the deal began to take shape earlier in the week after Kuznetsov went on waivers.
“I think, you know, we had numerous conversations with Carolina about possibilities and how it might look and it evolved over four or five days into what happened today,” MacLellan said. “I think waiving him, the idea behind waiving him was to generate something, some kind of change… everybody gets a better understanding of where we’re at.”
The Capitals put Kuznetsov on waivers the day he returned from the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance program on March 2. All other 31 teams passed on Kuznetsov at the time and the team optioned the Russian centerman to the AHL on March 3.
MacLellan described Carolina as the main team the Capitals talked to, reuniting Kuznetsov with former Capitals teammate Dmitry Orlov. While both sides wanted to move on, MacLellan admitted that actually following through on the deal was difficult on a personal level.
“I think it’s hard,” MacLellan said. “I mean, especially when you win together, you don’t want to — there’s a connection, emotionally, from the fans, from management, from coaches and you just don’t want to let that go. And then sometimes it’s just circumstances create a situation where you have to move on. There’s a business, there’s a cap, there’s money, there’s aging, there’s all these things that come into it. And I think any organization would have trouble letting go of players that are popular and have been successful, you’ve been successful with.
“He means a lot. You know, the goal, I mean everybody’s going to remember the goal (against Pittsburgh in 2018), the championship, play in the playoffs. I mean, he’s a fun guy, he’s entertaining, skill level and skating are off the charts. He’s provided entertainment for our fans. He’s done a great job for the organization. You know, we’re going to miss him, I mean, we tried everything we could at the end to get it back on track and unfortunately, this is where we ended up.”
