Did the Washington Capitals get it wrong with Evgeny Kuznetsov?

The hottest story surrounding the Washington Capitals right now isn’t wins or losses or even missing the playoffs. It’s Evgeny Kuznetsov, who was reportedly requesting a trade as early as two years ago, as noted by Russian news outlet Match TV.

Now I’m not saying the Capitals were wrong to draft Kuznetsov. When you draft a player you never know how they turn out to be. When Alex Ovechkin was drafted none of us knew he was going to chase Wayne Gretzky’s record even though there was all the hype that surrounds a number one pick.

Yesterday after practice Kuznetsov met with the media and addressed those rumors. The 30 year old center didn’t have much to say about the reports saying, “There’s not really anything to comment on, to be honest with you.”

The gas light on the trade rumors wasn’t just noted by the Russian outlet but also in Tarik El Bashir’s recent mailbag with The Athletic (subscription required). El Bashir noted the Caps management has been “disappointed” with his performance on both ends of the ice.

Kuznetsov added:

"“You know how this is. It’s just people trying to put whatever they want to get the likes and Instagram or Twitter, whatever. I talked to those people. I said, ‘Where did this come from?’ There is something that we can talk later probably for sure, but at this point, there is nothing to even talk about.”"

I’m pretty sure Kuznetsov was talking about talking to Match TV. I did not get a call or a DM from Kuznetsov so he wasn’t talking about us. We’re just here to break down what we hear. We don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. We’re just a fun hockey blog for crying out loud!

But Kuznetsov knows he has struggled this season and there’s no denying that. He has a point per game rate of .73. Although he leads the Caps in 41 assists he’s only scored half of his goal total from last year with 12 this season (24 last year). His shooting percentage is at a career low 7.5 percent.

No matter what the Caps decide to do with Kuznetsov, the best case scenario is getting a good return. He has the chance to become a superstar. He might thrive elsewhere.