The Washington Capitals could make a trade before training camp or they could stand pat. Each decision has their pros and cons. But if they do go the trade route, they should look no further than Travis Konecny.
Konecny is versatile on the wing and can play on either the right or left side. He has a $5.5 million cap hit for the next two seasons before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. For a while the Philadelphia Flyers were rumored to be trading him.
Who knows what’s going on right now.
Last season Konecny appears in 60 games and he was on fire. 31 goals and 30 assists for 61 points will do that. He’s also 26 years old. But would the Flyers be willing to give him up to a divisional rival?
I can see this going one or two ways if this actually happens. The worst case scenario is losing Evgeny Kuznetsov in the trade package. Imagine him lighting it up for a Caps division rival. The best case scenario would be Anthony Mantha and a prospect or two.
But again this can either help both teams out or just the Flyers. I don’t see this helping out solely the Capitals.
Konency entered the league as a promising young star. He was a beast with the Flyers in 2019-20 before the season got paused due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Since then he struggled up until last season.
But his resurgence last year still posed questions on his future with the team. Still, he learned a lot from coach John Tororella and if the Flyers do try the shopping route his trade value already went up.
Maybe this can help the Caps in the short term and the Flyers long term. A trade like this might help the Caps inch closer to their postseason goals than they were last year. In the long term, the Flyers can fully embrace “trust the process” while they continue to take their basketball owner and our local hero Josh Harris for granted.