The Washington Capitals are off until Saturday Feb. 22. The trade deadline itself will be on March 7. Currently some NHLers are squaring off for their respective countries at the 4 Nations Face Off but with none of the Caps representing we decided to come out with another trade speculation story.
Who could leave the Caps at the NHL Trade Deadline?
There are two names that I think come to mind. We're not going to list a whole lot of players but only two in this exercise but the speculation I have is that the team could trade Trevor van Riemsdyk and/or Andrew Mangiapane. I wouldn't trade Charlie Lindgren and I wouldn't tap too much into the defense or the wingers but if I had to pluck a forward or defenseman it'd be one of those two or both if I was Chris Patrick.
Let's start with TvR. He's got a cap hit of $3 million and he's versatile with two years left on his deal. At 33 he could be good for a contending team. So far this season in 55 games he has 15 points all of which are assists and a plus/minus of plus 19.
Per Natural Stat Trick, TvR's corsi for percentage is at 47.37 percent, his expected goals for percentage is at 47.46 percent, and his high danger chances for percentage comes out to 49.32 percent.
Mangiapane has 11 goals and eight assists for 19 points in 54 games as well as a plus/minus of +6 along with two game winning goals. His cap hit is $5.8 million and he's a pending unrestricted free agent.
His advanced stats are pretty solid too. His corsi for percentage is at 51.04 percent, his expected goals for percentage is at 51.55 percent, and his high danger chances for percentage is at 51.72 percent.
TvR's top skating speed in miles per hour comes out to 22.47 per NHL Edge. He has 12 speed bursts over 20 miles per hour. In addition, he has clocked in 128.40 skating distance miles and his top shot speed is at 86.86 miles per hour. He just hasn't gotten a goal yet this season.
As for Mangiapane, who the Caps could deal at a good price for a good top six winger or a bottom six center, his top skating speed is at 22.54 miles per hour along with 75 speed bursts over 20 miles per hour. His skating distance is at 115.68. His top shot speed is at 89.33 miles per hour and has a 16.9 percent shooting percentage.
There's several names out there on the open market and other names we didn't mention that the Caps could deal in a trade package. There's plenty of time left but the team should certainly go all in with whatever they choose to do.