Washington Capitals: Breaking down the Brenden Dillon trade
The Washington Capitals offseason has truly begun. General Manager Brian MacLellan has made his first move in the chess game of constructing his roster for next season. Unfortunately this is a business and part of that business decision was moving Brenden Dillon and his $3.9 million salary cap hit to the Winnipeg Jets in exchange for second rounders in 2022 and 2023.
The move now gives the Capitals $13,635,407 in cap space per Cap Friendly. The team has extended qualifying offers to their unrestricted free agents Ilya Samsonov and Lucas Johansen. Plus the great eight Alex Ovechkin is due for a massive payday. The Caps had no choice but to move one of their high paying defensemen after the Seattle Kraken took Vitek Vanecek in the Expansion Draft.
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The 30 year old recorded 19 points in 56 games with two goals and 17 assists with the Capitals last season. The six foot four and 220 pound left handed defenseman was acquired from the San Jose Sharks on Feb. 18, 2020 at the trade deadline in exchange for a second round pick in 2020 and a conditional pick in 2021.
The Caps were high on Dillon’s play when they acquired him before the pandemic that they re-signed him to a four year contract extension last offseason. He averaged 18:57 minutes of ice time per game while posting a 50.40 percent Corsi For percentage.
Dillon spent most of the season on the top pairing with John Carlson. With Dillon gone, it opens up a roster spot for highly touted prospect Martin Fehervary. While Dillon had strengths his biggest weakness was his struggles with taking penalties. He had the worst penalty differential on the team at -8.
light. More. Washington Capitals extend qualifying offers to Ilya Samsonov and Lucas Johansen
Dillon became a fan favorite among us all when he dropped the mitts with Evgeni Malkin and is even best friends with our contributor Ben. We will miss him here at Stars and Sticks. Wonder what Ovechkin is doing right now?