Is your intent to make the team better in the short term or long term? I think the value is not fair for Washington FWIW.

It's not? I thought the Caps were getting better with Dvorak over Eller in the short run.

Is the difference between Eller and Dvorak at 3c -- which this year is .15ppg (1 extra goal or assist every 7 games) and ~1 min of icetime -- the difference between the Caps making the playoffs or not?

Absolutely not, so why would they trade a 20yo putting up .8 ppg in his first pro season in the AHL to do so?

It's also about the defensive play

per natural stat trick this season Christian Dvorak has been on the ice for 19.78 xGA and Lars Eller has been on the ice for 10.35 xGA. Dvoraks xGF% is 39.06 and Ellers is 48.16. If you don't believe in fancy stats Dvorak has been on the ice for 16 GA with a GF% of 44.83, and Eller is at 11 and 47.62.

Don't get me wrong Eller has not been good this year, but Dvorak is absolutely not a meaningful upgrade and not worth one of the Caps' three premium future assets.

That's interesting.

Dvorak is not playing for one of the best team either, which could partially explain his numbers. Offensively thus far he's been below average.

Caps would never use Lapierre like that.

As others have said, Eller is a pretty effective 3C, though I think there's a bunch of bogus data in those advanced stats because none of them take into account the quality of the other 5 guys from your team on the ice with you and the quality of your opponents so... Y'know, garbage in garbage out.

Would love to offer a win now option to the Caps, though I am not sure we have anyone who can truly help them outside of our top line.

It also complicates their cap in the long run once Backstrom comes back.
Nobody should be after a 4.5m 3rd liner. I don't think Dvorak has the potential to be any better in Washington's system and if they wanted to give out higher cap to depth they'd probably just stay with Strome.

taking into account the quality of the other 5 guys ...

neither are very good 3cs. you don't give up top prospects to go from bad to slightly less bad at a position the caps are probably going to upgrade internally when backstrom gets back.

I’m never against people proposing new trade ideas. I just don’t think this makes any sense for the caps right now. The difference between Dvorak and Eller just isn’t enough for us to give up one of our two best prospects. Even with Mysak coming back along with Dvorak, it’s just not something that’s worth it for the caps.