Grading the Lars Eller trade

The Washington Capitals can still make more moves between now and tomorrow’s 3 p.m. NHL Trade Deadline. In the meantime it’s time to grade yesterday’s trade of Lars Eller to the Colorado Avalanche for a 2025 second rounder.

If you missed our other trades you can catch up on them here: Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway to the Boston Bruins, Marcus Johansson to the Minnesota Wild, and Erik Gustafsson to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Rasmus Sandin. 

Now I’ve gotten some texts from my friends who are Caps fans about this trade and there have been mixed reactions. What I was hearing a lot was while it was good and necessary to trade Eller, some didn’t like that we wouldn’t find out who the return will be until the Caps are on the clock in a couple of years. But let’s look ahead to that.

When we get to the summer of 2025 and the NHL Draft we could be in what is possibly the last offseason before Alex Ovechkin’s final season. Thankfully the Caps draft cupboard is filled with picks now in 2024 and 2025 so in that regard this is a good trade.

You have to think about the window now and the post Ovechkin era and the Caps addressed each with this trade. Eller would’ve been an unrestricted free agent this summer, in fact he still is and the Caps are retaining 31 percent of his salary for the remainder of this season. His cap hit per Cap Friendly is $3.5 million which he’s been making since his 2018 extension.

Eller had seven goals and nine assists for 16 points in 60 games with the Capitals this season. He now joins an Avalanche team looking to defend their Stanley Cup title as they sit at third place in the Central Division with a 34-20-5 record for 73 points.

Grade A-: We saw this coming as early as last summer. It’s a good thing this deal finally happened for both sides. We wish Eller the best and thank him for his heroics in the 2018 Stanley Cup run. I’ll buy him a beverage if we ever cross paths in the city. I won’t be the only one.
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