Washington Capitals’ GM MacLellan Must Add Top Six Forward

Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

At the beginning of the season, Washington Capitals GM Brian MacLellan and coach Barry Trotz were quite public in just stating that the goal for the Caps this season was simply to make the playoffs. Well, things can change pretty quickly, and they have. Simply settling for the playoffs is no longer an acceptable goal for the Washington Capitals and MacLellan must do everything in his power to improve the team and add a top-six forward with the trade deadline looking just a couple weeks away.

Making the playoffs is a virtual certainty for the Washington Capitals at this stage and in an Eastern Conference that lacks a dominant team, there’s no reason the Washington Capitals don’t have a chance to make a serious run this year. They’ve gone head to head against the best in the West (Blackhawks, Blues, Kings, Ducks and Predators) and done reasonably well with a 5-4-0 record against them, so if the Washington Capitals emerged from the Eastern Conference, there’s no reason to assume they wouldn’t be able to compete with whoever makes it out of the west alive.

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Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom are both top-three in points in the NHL and playing perhaps as well as ever. Mike Green is in the last year of his contract and most likely not coming back. This is quite possibly the last year of those three playing together at or near peak performance, and if you think replacing Green’s production on the power play and his puck-moving capabilities at even strength will be easy, you’re wrong. Not to mention Braden Holtby is one of the best goalies in the NHL on a very modest contract for the last time.

How many more years like this can we reasonably expect from Ovechkin and Backstrom? Five years? What if it’s less? Nobody can predict the future, and we can’t assume that Backstrom and Ovechkin are going to be this healthy and productive forever. Green may be in another city and Holtby will be on a much heftier contract. What’s more, the rest of the team is relatively healthy right now which is not always going to be the case.

Mandatory Credit: USA Today Sports

Taking all of these factors into consideration, MacLellan has to get a top-six forward to help this team get over the hump and give the team the jolt it may need as April approaches. Readers may recall that Barry Trotz publicly stated in recent weeks that the team needs help at the forward position, and rumors have been circulating left and right about MacLellan’s activity on the trade market.

This isn’t the George McPhee tight-lipped regime we’re used to – MacLellan’s office has more leaks than the Titanic and it’s not necessarily the worst thing. However, it does set expectations that the team is going to make a splash, not only amongst fans but likely in the locker room as well. Don’t think the players haven’t heard Trotz’s statements and the trade rumors afloat.

The tandem in charge of the Washington Capitals’ season has let the cat out of the bag and now it would almost be seen as a let down if the team didn’t act, especially as teams around them in the playoffs likely improve in their own rights.

There are several names that might make sense and might also be available. Shane Doan in Arizona, Phil Kessel in Toronto, Sean Bergenheim in Florida and Jaromir Jagr in New Jersey, for starters may all move between now and March 3rd and would all help the Caps right away.

Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Readers may also be gun-shy after the Filip Forsberg-for-Martin Erat debacle. To some extent, there’s always a risk involved that a trade of future assets for short-term help will blow up in your face, but that trade reeked of McPhee making a desperation heave to save his job. Yes, MacLellan was the head of McPhee’s scouting dept. at the time, but let’s not assume he’d make the same mistake McPhee did. It should already be obvious that the two do not operate the same way.

Expectations were modest for the Washington Capitals at the beginning of the season, but things are different now. I’m not entirely sure MacLellan or Trotz expected the Caps to turn the ship around this quickly and be in a position to compete this year, but they have and they are. If there’s a reasonable deal to be had for a top-six forward, the Caps should jump all over it.