Mandatory Credit: Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Capitals have a very good team this season. However, when one considers that the Washington Capitals have let go of two valuable players in under two years and got peanuts in return, one has to wonder what could have been. Here are two players who the Washington Capitals definitely should have kept (or at the very least not traded for peanuts), and why.
Mathieu Perreault
Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
Mathieu Perreault, for whatever reason, was never given consistent chances to succeed with the Washington Capitals under Dale Hunter and Adam Oates. He wasn’t given chances with Bruce Boudreau either, but it’s quite telling that Bruce wanted Perreault in Anaheim. Hunter gave Perreault chances, but it’s worth noting that was only after Hunter was pretty much forced to do so thanks to injuries.
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Whenever he had the chance to succeed in DC, he did. Despite very limited playing time (he averaged more than 12 minutes of ice time once in four seasons), Perreault scored 47 points in 103 games during his final two seasons in DC. That’s pretty good from a fourth liner.
The Anaheim Ducks saw in Perreault what the Washington Capitals could not. That caused them to trade for him once the Capitals made it clear that he wasn’t going to make their opening night roster in 2013. Oates made it clear that he would rather have 19 year old Tom Wilson and face punching expert Aaron Volpatti on his fourth line than Perreault, a guy who was more skilled than both.
For Perreault, the Ducks gave up career AHLer John Mitchell and a 2014 4th round pick. Perreault went on to score a career high 43 points for the Ducks in just 69 games mainly as a third line center before signing with Winnipeg as a free agent. This season, the first of his three year deal worth $3,000,000 per year, Perreault has 15 goals and 13 assists in 43 games and has emerged as a top 6 forward for them. Meanwhile, Mitchell appeared in just 20 games for the Hershey Bears and had just six points.
Perreault is a versatile guy. He can play center or wing. Considering all the problems that the Washington Capitals have had at center since he left, I’m sure that the Caps would love to have Perreault back. He would likely be on either the third or second line for the Caps this year. At worst, they sure could have used him last year.
It was a ton of fun to root for Perreault because his goal celebrations were the best. Every time he scored, he had the same look on his face that I used to get when I discovered my mom packed me a Lunchable for lunch. Trading Perreault, a productive player, for such a small return was a really bad decision by the Washington Capitals. For cap reasons, they might not have been able to keep him past last year. Still, they should have been able to get something productive for him. They failed.
Filip Forsberg
Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
Quite possibly the most frustrating thing about this NHL season for me is watching Filip Forsberg have so much success in Nashville. The Washington Capitals had Forsberg fall to them in the 2012 draft. He was a borderline top five talent who fell all the way to the 11th pick. The Capitals, driven by their “win now” mode, traded Forsberg to the Nashville Predators for Martin Erat and Michael Latta.
Erat scored 27 points in 62 games with the Washington Capitals and was a healthy scratch on several occasions during the 2013-2014 season. Latta has scored eight points in 46 games with the Caps. Combined, that’s 35 points in 108 games. Meanwhile, Forsberg has scored 39 points in 42 games so far this season. That’s sort of warped due to Forsberg’s high PDO and comical offensive zone start percentage, but still, I don’t think anyone can say that this trade did not end horribly for the Washington Capitals. That’s typically what happens when you trade a top draft pick without getting a star in return.
Forsberg would have been a huge asset for the Capitals this year. Imagine him on the second line forming some kind of Swedish superpower line with Andre Burakovsky and Marcus Johansson. The second line probably wouldn’t have gotten broken up had that been the second line. Better yet, imagine him skating with Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.
If you want a bright side to this heart break, at least the Washington Capitals didn’t do something even dumber and trade Forsberg to an Eastern Conference team. At least with the Predators, he’ll only be able to haunt the Capitals directly twice per season and maybe in the Stanley Cup if the Caps face the Predators. The effects of trading him, however, will haunt the Capitals for a very long time.
Just imagine how good the Caps could be had they not traded Forsberg and either not traded Perreault or at least gotten something useful for him.