That's an ugly D... Petro is more important to the Blues than Kuznetsov would be imo

Maybe next June? The last center the Caps drafted with any offensive skill was Kuznetsov, so while Pietrangelo would be amazing for the Caps' decimated blueline, they end up with no second line center, forced to pay heavily in defensive prospects for Duchene, who scored about forty points last year. In July, they could find a 50 pt replacement for a lower cap hit than Duchene, so, yeah, totally. But the Caps have basically no backup plan if Kuznetsov or Backstrom get injured, except to become a team with one offensive line and three checking lines, which, given that their coach is Barry Trotz, really shouldn't surprise me as much as it does.

Caps say no everytime.