Washington Capitals must re-sign Brenden Dillon this offseason

Brenden Dillon should be high on the Washington Capitals offseason list.

The Washington Capitals enter an offseason filled with questions and have a couple of unrestricted free agents. The one player of the trio they should re-sign is Brenden Dillon, who has seemed to like it in D.C. since his trade deadline acquisition.

Dillon has skated in two spots during the end of the season and in the playoffs, being paired up top with John Carlson and on the second pair with Dmitry Orlov.

“I talked to his representatives pretty consistently since we’ve gotten him. We’ll continue to talk and see if we can work something out at the end here,” said Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan.

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Dillon told the media last month that GMBM and his representatives have been in talks about a new contract.

“I think right from getting here we’ve had mutual talks amongst my agent and Brian (MacLellan) – those things are kind of confidential with them. Again for me as a player and being part of the Caps, it’s been awesome and hopefully I can be here,” said Dillon.

Dillon added, “I’m happy with being a Washington Capital from Day 1 when I came here with the trade. They made me feel right at home. I think the system, the way we play from the D-corps on, I feel a big part of things here.”

Dillon is coming off a five-year, $16.35 million contract he signed with the San Jose Sharks back in 2015. At 29 years old and in the prime of his career, Dillon will likely command a higher salary than his $3.27 million annual cap hit.

There will be some challenges, MacLellan admitted, to re-signing Dillon and none bigger than the salary cap itself. It will remain flat thanks to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re waiting until after playoffs to see how everything pans out here. I think it’s constantly been changing all year. I don’t think anybody could have predicted where we’re at right now. I think we’re going to wait and assess where we’re at, at the end of the year, and make decisions then,” said MacLellan.

Dillon won’t be the only unrestricted free agent entering the offseason. So will Braden Holtby, Ilya Kovalchuk and Radko Gudas. Out of the four, Dillon should be at the top of the list to re-sign as he’ll be in his prime and will help a defense looking for improvement.