Team: 2021-22 Washington Capitals

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 4, 2021

Published: Jul. 4, 2021

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

A couple of things I wanted to accomplish for this: resign the obvious choices, move out Kuzenetsov for a reasonable value, shore up the defense somewhat and help the team to get younger. Point number one was easy; I went with the generally accepted contract values being thrown around on here.

Point number two was a little more difficult. I've seen this trade be proposed before, and I didn't hate it, but I couldn't figure out how to swing all of the pieces into a usable roster without dumping massive draft capital in order to move players at the figurative right times. Then I came to the conclusion that if Eller were to be exposed for the expansion draft, Seattle would almost assuredly take him freeing us up for other moves to be made. Vancouver seems to want out of Schmidt's contract, and this move gets them a replacement defenseman that they only have to pay for one more year and a draft pick to recoup their original investment. Moving Hagelin is mostly a cap casualty, but Nashville could use a player who is perfect for rehabbing a deficient PK unit.

Circling back to the Kuzy deal. It's probably safe to say that this deal doesn't make us significantly better up the middle, but it could hopefully make us more consistent while we wait on the existing C prospects we have to develop. It also helps us become younger at the same time, and who knows? Maybe Steel blows up just like Sprong did.

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