Washington Capitals: 5 trade-deadline rumors we’re glad that never happened
The Washington Capitals trade deadline is in the books and reality is here. We’ve got Marcus Johansson and Johan Larsson for the foreseeable future as the team looks to make a playoff push and try to keep a closing window open as long as possible.
Now that we know what actually happened and we can all exhale (or rage if you weren’t happy), let’s look at the things that could’ve happened, the rumors that were popping, but didn’t actually happen and we can breathe a sigh of relief.
But first let’s get this out of the way. I’m sure the Caps were outbid for Max Domi but wow he wound up on those Carolina Hurricanes bunch of jerks. Oh well.
#5 Reilly Smith
There was a suggestion (shoutout FanSided) that the Caps could go for the Vegas Golden Knights right winger. There is a point there but now that T.J. Oshie and Anthony Mantha are back in the lineup it’s a good thing the Caps didn’t gamble on this one.
Reilly Smith has the same amount of goals as Conor Sheary with 16 as well as 22 assists for 38 points. He also carries a cap hit of $5 million per cap friendly. Just didn’t have the money for it.
#4 Anton Khudobin
The Caps were looking at the Dallas Stars intently not too long ago, sending scouts to their home games. Obviously the hottest rumor leading up to the deadline was whether the Caps would trade Ilya Samsonov or Vitek Vanecek and try to get their goaltending under control.
That never happened.
Anton Khudobin is a veteran net minder who’s 35 and he helped lead the Stars to the Stanley Cup Finals in the 2020 bubble. Shockingly despite this, he hasn’t played that much if at all. In just nine games played he’s 3-4-1 with a 3.63 goals against average and a .879 save percentage.
For context let’s take a look at our goalies numbers. Vanecek is 17-9-5 (they weren’t going to trade him) with a 2.45 save percentage and a .917 save percentage. Better numbers not just than Khudobin but last season as well.
Now let’s look at Samsonov. He’s 19-9-4 with a 2.95 goals against average and a .899 save percentage. Again, better numbers Khudobin.
I’m actually kind of glad the Caps ran it back with Samsonov and Vanecek. We don’t know how this will work for the playoff push but at least we’ll know what we’re getting out of them. And losing is a team effort, it’s not all on the goalie.
#3 Jaroslav Halak
We tried it once. It didn’t work. Why would it work this time?
Jaroslav Halak is notorious in D.C. for the way he was a brick wall against the Presidents Trophy winning Caps. There have been some bad playoff experiences but that one is one of if not the worst moment.
There was a possibility the Caps could’ve been interested in him as the Vancouver Canucks were one of the teams they were scouting. He came to the Caps back in the 2014 trade deadline from the St. Louis Blues. With the Caps, Halak went 5-4-3 with a 2.31 goals against average and a .930 save percentage as the team missed the playoffs under head coach Adam Oates.
This season with the Canucks, Halak is 3-6-2 with a 3.19 goals against average and a .894 save percentage. He’s bounced around to several different teams. He was with the Montreal Canadiens for four years including when they stunned the Caps. In addition to them, the Caps and the Blues he’s also made stops with the New York Islanders and Boston Bruins.
Like I mentioned in the previous slide, Samsonov and Vanecek are right where they belong… For now. This is their chance to seize the opportunity and prove their doubters wrong.
#2 Claude Giroux
Claude Giroux will always be a legend with the Philadelphia Flyers but after playing his 1,000th game with the franchise it was time for both parties to part ways. The Flyers are rebuilding and Giroux wants a Stanley Cup somewhere. He hopes for that opportunity with a talented Florida Panthers team that did get better.
With the Flyers, Giroux scored 18 goals (which was the same as last season) as well as 24 assists for 42 points. So far with the Panthers, Giroux has recorded four assists. He’s played in two games and had two apples in each.
There was a rumor the Caps and Flyers were doing business with each other, or at least trying to. Their scouts showed up to a handful of Hershey Bears games perhaps figuring out what prospects to target for their rebuild.
I’m glad this trade never happened because I didn’t think it would work despite his relationship with Caps head coach Peter Laviolette when he coached the Flyers to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2010.
Giroux is 34 and I was going to say adding a veteran forward wouldn’t help the situation but alas here we are with Marcus Johansson. No complaints though. Maybe we’ll see Giroux in the playoffs.
#1 Marc-Andre Fleury
This was the hottest rumor ever since the goaltending has become a hot topic around here. For a while it looked like it would make sense to trade for Marc-Andre Fleury. He’s a veteran net minder who even won a Stanley Cup. This season he joined the Chicago Blackhawks before ending up getting traded to the Minnesota Wild.
Fleury won his first start with the Wild against the Columbus Blue Jackets, making 23 saves on 25 shots for a .920 save percentage. This season Fleury is 20-21-5 with a 2.93 goals against average and a .908 save percentage.
In mid January that’s when the rumors really came to light. They apparently put on the full court press as they were desperate for a veteran goalie but Fleury sounded like he did not want to come here.
Makes sense considering he spent much of his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was a part of some intense playoff battles with the Caps and gave them problems multiple times. It was when he was with the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final when he finally came up short to Alex Ovechkin and company.
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Those are the five trade deadline rumors we’re glad that never happened. And if it did it would’ve done more harm than good.