Quoting: Marshallchapman9
Hot take but respect.
Thanks. I don't mean to argue or insult. Marner is every bit as good defensively as Wilson and much better offensively than Wilson ever was or will be, but if the Caps wanted a skill guy or a puck possession guy at 1RW, they'd have stuck with Semin, Burakovsky, Stephenson, or Vrana, there. They want a tough guy who can retrieve the puck from the corner, tap in rebounds, and fight anyone who steps to Ovechkin. So far that's been Mike Knuble, Troy Brouwer, TJ Oshie, and now increasingly Tom Wilson. It doesn't sound like Marner.
That trade next summer also leaves them with no cap space to give any raises beyond QO to Samsonov, Vanecek, Sprong, or Cholowki, even after Schultz and Kempny leave in UFA. If they lose Sprong and Samsonov because of Marner's cap hit, they don't have a lot of younger, better options ready to replace them, so even if Tor threw in a 1st and a 2nd, that would barely pay for the damage Marner's cap hit would cause to the Caps' delicate salary cap puzzle, even if they did want Marner over Wilson, for some reason that's not apparent to me.