Travis Konecny would be an instant playmaker on Capitals

The Washington Capitals are shopping the market high and low for a good trade. One player they should target is Travis Konecny of the Philadelphia Flyers.

The Caps are no strangers doing business with their Metropolitan Division rivals having traded Matt Niskanen in 2019 for Radko Gudas.

This will be a bigger upgrade depending on who the Caps have to send to the Flyers. Alex Chauvancy of The Hockey Writers said this about the 26 year old Flyers forward:

"If the Flyers decide to move Travis Konecny, they’d undoubtedly be selling high. He’s coming off a career season that saw him total 30 goals and 61 points in 60 games. For that kind of production, having him under contract for two more years for a $5.5 million cap hit should make him quite valuable on the trade market. He’d be an instant upgrade to any team’s top-six and should get the Flyers quite the return in a trade."

A $5.5 million cap hit for the 2025 UFA is a bargain. Anthony Mantha makes $5.7 million and scored 11 goals. He’s only two years older than Konecny.

Meanwhile Konecny is coming off a 31 goal season. Upgrade for the Caps yes but I’m convinced the Flyers will want more in the package. Maybe not Evgeny Kuznetsov but a top prospect instead unless Nic Dowd wants to reunite with Garnet Hathaway but we’re in enough pain.

The Caps currently have money in projected cap space per Cap Friendly which seems like a first for once. They have just $888,333. They need to make a trade.

Maybe they need to make several. They have 19 of the 23 required skaters that they need. It’s going to be interesting how many of these trade proposals we can keep pumping out the longer it goes before the Caps actually make a trade.

Travis Konecny is a younger option and he’s not pricy either.