Washington Capitals Armchair GM: Trade Deadline Part 1
Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Capitals have extremely passionate and knowledgeable fans. We all like to be armchair general managers. So when I was asked to be a part of a faux-trade deadline as the “general manager” of the Washington Capitals, I was more than happy to oblige. 30 hockey fans took over their favorite NHL team while a third party acted as the mediator to make sure that nobody did anything incredibly stupid. It has been very stressful, but it has also been a lot of fun. It’s taking place over two days. Yesterday was the first day, today is the second day.
In order to be the best pretend general manager of the Washington Capitals that I could be, I first decided what my goals were going to be. Here were my goals:
- Acquire a legitimate top six forward.
- If needed, make salary dumps to ensure that I could get a top six forward.
- Don’t trade any of the top prospects unless I’m getting top talent in return.
- No rentals if at all possible.
First, I went to the Florida Panthers to inquire on Sean Bergenheim. He was a rental who I would be fine with attaining. They wanted a second rounder for him. I said no thanks. I counter-offered with Michael Latta, a 2015 third rounder, and a conditional fifth to seventh rounder in 2015, depending on how far the Caps went in the playoffs. They wouldn’t go any lower than a second rounder. I passed on that.
Next, I decided to start kicking the tires on Loui Eriksson of the Boston Bruins. I figured he would be a far better fit on the Washington Capitals than Troy Brouwer. I offered the Bruins Brouwer and a fifth round pick for Loui because I really wanted Eriksson. The Bruins didn’t want to take on any salary past this season because they have a ton of RFAs coming up. I offered them Joel Ward, Michael Latta (because I needed to dump some salary and Latta’s salary isn’t awful) and a 2016 condition draft pick (anywhere from a 3rd to a 5th rounder depending on playoff wins) for him. The Bruins declined and wanted a top prospect for him. I said no thanks.
Next, I went to the Oilers because they have a great top six forward in Jordan Eberle. We eventually agreed upon a deal of Karl Alzner, Marcus Johansson, Philipp Grubauer, and a conditional 2017 draft pick (first if the Washington Capitals make the playoffs in each of the next three seasons, second if they make the playoffs twice, third if they make the playoffs once, nothing if they don’t make the playoffs at all).
However, it got way more interesting when I inquired about Jeff Petry (since I needed a replacement for Alzner anyway). I asked them what it would take for them to eat half of his salary. They said a second rounder this year. I agreed, but said that to make it all work out cap wise, they’d have to take on Jason Chimera. They agreed. So the blockbuster trade was complete!
I didn’t come into this hypothetical situation expecting to make a huge blockbuster trade, but here I am with Eberle and Petry. I think I unquestionably made the Washington Capitals better. The Alzner for Petry swap wasn’t ideal, but I needed to include Alzner to get Eberle, so it was well worth it. Eberle’s cap hit is $6,000,000 a season through the 2019 season. Petry’s is $1,537,500 and is a UFA after this season. Combined, I’m adding $7,537,500 between those two players. Alzner’s cap hit is $2,800,000. Chimera’s is $2,000,000. Johansson’s is $2,000,000. Grubauer’s is irrelevant to the Caps since he’s not in the NHL, but it’s $600,000 this season if you’re interested. Let’s be real, I’m giving up a first rounder in 2017 as well. So I gained $737,500 of salary in this trade. Actually not bad.
With that trade out of the way, I figured I needed to find a way to move Troy Brouwer’s contract for a rental so that I could have some more cap space after this season. Before I could reach out to the Devils, the Devils faux-GM actually contacted me. He proposed a Brouwer for Jaromir Jagr and a 2015 fifth round pick trade. In real life, this trade probably wouldn’t happen because Brouwer has a modified NTC and would likely do anything that he could to avoid being traded to a bad team like the Devils. However, this isn’t real life, is it?
Yup, I did the trade that everyone is probably extremely offended by. And I don’t care. Jagr makes this year’s team better. With my new additions to the Washington Capitals, this could be the new lineup:
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Burakovsky
Eberle – Kuznetsov – Jagr
Laich – Fehr – Ward
Latta – Beagle – Wilson
Orpik – Carlson
Petry/Green – Niskanen
Schilling – Petry/Green
Day two of the “trade deadline” is today. I’ll try to see if I can upgrade the bottom six forwards (specifically try to find a taker for Laich’s contract or upgrade the fourth line), find a cheap backup goalie, and maybe find a reliable left handed option for the third pairing. I have roughly $1,500,000 to work with and Orlov’s supposed to be back soon, so this could be interesting.