Team: 2024-25 Washington Capitals

Initial Creation Date: Jan. 25, 2024

Published: Jan. 25, 2024

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

TRADES:

Toronto trade: The Leafs gotta make a push this year before Nylanders contract kicks in. Brodie has been awful this year, so you dump him and add Edmundson for depth, and TVR as a long term, reliable, stay at home option that would pair nicely with Reilly. Pacioretty bolsters a left wing side that hasn't done much lately besides Robertson, who seems to be in and out of the lineup for some reason.

Knies - Matthews - Marner
Pacioretty - Tavares - Nylander
Holmberg - Domi - Jarnkrok

Reilly - TVR
McCabe - Liljegren
Benoit - Edmundson

Oilers trade: A much needed bottom 6 upgrade with Dowd at half retained for the remainder of this season, and next. I honestly don't know much about Petrov, so maybe him and a second is too much, but Dowd has a high value, especially around the deadline.
Oilers bottom 6:
Holloway - McLeod - Gagner
Janmark - Dowd - Ryan

Hurricanes trade: Mantha has been a whipping boy here, but this season he has played really well and could be a good, big bodied scoring addition to a team at the deadline. I feel like a future late 2nd round pick is pretty reasonable, but I might be stretching it here. I picked the Hurricanes not because I think they necessarily need him, but they can afford him and it would be good injury insurance for the playoffs.
(with Svech out)
Bunting - Aho - Teravainen
Noesen - Drury - Necas
Mantha - Kotkaniemi - Jarvis
Martinook - Staal - Fast

Avalanche trade: Milano is a north-south speed player, and that would fit right in to what the Avs have going for them. I think I might have overdone the return in the trade, as I really have no clue how good Beaucage projects to be, but at 1.9 million for 2+ years, Milano has a great value contract and could be perfect for a team like Colorado.
Drouin - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Wood - Colton - O'Connor
Milano - Johansen - Lekhonen
Cogliano - Olofsson - Kiviranta

Wild trade: this one is dumb, i know. There really is no reason to trade Eriksson-Ek. My thought was the Wild get Kuzy at half retained to play with Kaprizov, and maybe that provides a jolt to his system and revitalizes his career. If not, they can flip him at the deadline, or let him walk and open up cap space. Lapierre has already proved this season he can play in the NHL. He's got a lot of room to improve, but you can see the raw potential in his game. And then the Wild also get a 2 2nds and an unprotected 1st from next year. It's a lot, but that's what it would take for such a good player on such a cost effective contract. And even then I doubt the Wild would do it anyways.
Kaprizov - Rossi - Zuccarello
Foligno - Kuznetsov - Boldy
Johansson - Lapierre - Hartman
Dewar - Gaudreau - Duhaime

FREE AGENTS:

Dillon: I honestly really liked Brendan Dillon here, and he is still an effective player. He could mentor the young guys on the left and play up and down the lineup. I'm also just not that high on Alexeyev.
Duchene: i still maintain the Caps should've signed Duchene instead of Pacioretty this summer. Throw him some money on a 1 year deal with some trade protection, that way you can flip him at the deadline if need be.

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