Can get better stuff for Ovechkin. I mean it's a nice return on NJD part but isn't high end talent like Ovi could get you. No one in that return is top pairing or top line worthy. That's the stuff you can get for Ovi.

Don't trade Kuzey to the freakn Flyers please haha It's a nice return but it would kill me seeing him in orange.

Niskanen for a 4th rounder? He's a top pairing RHD! Those are hard to find. He can get you a 1st+2nd.

DET would have to add to that trade. Caps are giving up the better player. I like Ath, but Carlson is a #1RHD, like I said earlier that's hard to come by. A top 6 winger is much easier to find. DET would have to trade a 1st+Ath.

Chiasson on your 3rd line? Chorney on your 2nd pairing? Overall, you can do a much better retool than this.

I think the Ovecchkin trade is fair: Wil Butcher is phenomenal and Sami Vatanen is consistently good. Palmieri has been a top six forward for years and will continue to be.

The Carlson trade is realistic at the trade deadline, if Detroit is somehow back in the race, but would never happen in the summer. Teams don't trade current players for negotiating rights to guys who will be UFAs in a couple of days. I'm not saying they shouldn't,but that 3rd is the ceiling of what's happened in the past.

So if you think A.A. is good enough to let you trade Kuzentsov (which he isn't), then you'd have to find a different way of getting him. Maybe skip the middleman and just trade Carlson for Provorov, or, better, Butcher? Then keep Ovechkin, who is one of the active leaders in playoff points per game, and just needs a team around him.

If your goal is to remedy playoff failures, putting Connolly on the first line ain't helping. https://www.nhl.com/capitals/stats/2016-2017/playoffs

It's cool, though. He'll be gone before summer.

No way Niskanen is a legit top pair D. Have u looked at the caps RHD? He’s only worht a 3rd at best especially with his cap

Uhhh don't know what stats or games you're watching but yes Niskanen is a top pairing D. Him and Orlov last year were one of the best if not the best top pairs in the league. His cap is fantastic. $5.75M for a top pairing RHD is one of the best hits you'll see.

People have been claiming Niskanen and Orpik's contracts were bad since they signed them, three and a half years ago. Now the Caps are on a league leading three year streak of winning at least one playoff round each year.

I think we can stop joking about their cap hits now.

I understand the hate on the Orpik signing b/c everyone knew after the first 3 years it was going to suck. But never understand why people hated Niskanen's. He's a great 2 way defensemen that shut downs the best players in the league. I'll take that at $5.75M every day of the week.

Also, this year, surprisingly, Orpik is playing more tan 25% better than Karl Alzner, and only earning 25% more, which, while it doesn't make Orpik's contract a great deal, exactly, takes some of the sting out of it. I mean, if they didn't have those two signed, they'd still have Alzner and Green, which would give them a little more offense, a lot less toughness, and a heck of a lot less defense.