The Washington Capitals are shopping for a top six winger and they should look no further than Alex DeBrincat. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman recently shared on his 32 Thoughts that the Capitals are looking for a player of his caliber. Low and behold, DeBrincat’s Ottawa Senators want him gone.
"“We’ll see what else Washington tries here, but they are looking to make a hockey trade in their top-6. I mentioned DeBrincat, but I think that’s the kind of player that they’ve looked at.”"
Right now per Cap Friendly the Caps are at $888,333 in projected cap space on this lovely Saturday night. DeBrincat’s asking price on the next contract is expected to be an AAV north of $9 million. So yeah a trade has to happen.
The Caps have 19 players on the roster right now and that doesn’t include hungry Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears that are chomping at the bit to make the V squad next season.
DeBrincat fits the bill for exactly the type of top six player MacLellan wants. It can also bolster the power play. A healthy Max Pacioretty can do that later in the season. A young stud like DeBrincat can do that as early as Friday the 13th.
Either way the Caps “gotta find a way to score more goals” this upcoming season. That’s the approach from players and GMBM himself.
Of course they easy way out would be to trade both Evgeny Kuznetsov and Anthony Mantha. But Kuznetsov is easier to trade than to actually trade. He can come back in an instant.
What makes Mantha tricky is not many people are sure if he can find that consistency on the ice again. Mantha isn’t getting a lot of interest according to journalists more legitimate than me and Kuznetsov is a “long shot”. They tried with the Nashville Predators and failed. Matt Duchene would have been the return.