The Washington Capitals have lost five games in a row and are on the verge of being 10 points out of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The NHL’s trade deadline is fast approaching and the Capitals have several players on their roster that could be attractive options for Cup contenders if the team decides to shift to a selling approach.
Throughout almost the entirety of the 2023-24 campaign, the Capitals have been able to bank Nicklas Backstrom’s $9.2 million cap hit as he has been on long-term injured reserve since early November. Now, according to Elliotte Friedman, the Caps stand to bank even more space as Evgeny Kuznetsov’s $7.8 million salary is also off the books due to his recent entry into the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.
Friedman spoke about that process brought about by the fact that this is Kuznetsov’s second time in the program, on an episode of The Jeff Marek Show on Wednesday. The increased cap space could allow the Capitals to be big players at the deadline.
“I think [the Capitals] are going to take a long look about who they are and where they’re going here,” Friedman said. “As I understand it, Kuznetsov, because this is his second time [in the player assistance program], he’s off the cap. I don’t think the Capitals are adding but I think they’re going to have a lot of flexibility to do some things with Backstrom and Kuznetsov out. We know they’ve had Anthony Mantha out there for a while but I think they will consider some other things.”
While the newfound large amount of cap room may not be used to add more pieces to a playoff roster, the Capitals could use it to retain salary of players being sent out to other teams. Not only could that entice teams to give up assets for players they previously were less inclined to due to the size of salary compared to performance (Mantha) but it could also make teams add more to their offers to grab good value players on even better deals (Nic Dowd).
The Capitals could also be used as a salary haven in either a straight-up dump deal or as the third team in a trade, taking on a big expiring contract that needs to be moved to complete the move. In doing so, they’d stand to gain something like a draft pick for free.
Teams like the Montreal Canadiens have provided a master class in doing that in the past few years. Back in August of 2022, the Habs picked up forward Sean Monahan and a conditional first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft from the Calgary Flames in exchange for “future considerations.”
The Canadiens then signed Monahan to a one-year extension and traded him last week to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for another first-round pick and a third-round pick. As things currently stand, with Friedman’s info, the Capitals have a little over $11.8 million in space to try and make their own move(s) like that.
General manager Brian MacLellan also has his stated desire to add a young, top-six forward. Additional cap flexibility could help finally move that process along.
