Grading what Capitals did at the NHL Trade Deadline

The Washington Capitals in my opinion did good with what they had for the trade deadline. While they didn't add a big name they still re-upped on a valuable young defenseman that will make the goalkeepers life easier whoever is in net for the next five seasons.

In three separate deals the Caps aquired five draft picks in three seprate deals which includes one second rounder, two thirds, one fourth, and one fifth. The Caps will lown 26 total picks in the next three drafts including 14 in the first three rounds. In the 2024 NHL Draft the Cpas will own eight picks. They'll hae 10 in 2025 and eight in 2026.

In all, the Capitals own their first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth round picks this year as well as the Vegas Golden Knights second round pick and the New York Islanders third rounder in 2024.

In 2025 the Caps will have their first, second, third, fourth, and sixth round picks as well as Colorado's second round pick, Boston's second rounder, Carolina's third rounder and Chicago's fifth rounder.

In adddition to Vegas' fourth round pick in 2026, the Caps will be fully stocked with their own pick in each of the seven rounds. So Ross Mahoney, the assistant general manager, along with his scouts will have a lot of work to do.

Losing Anthony Mantha to Vegas for what looked like just two draft picks on the surface did not look like a good deal at first. Neither did the Evgeny Kuznetsov and Joel Edmundson trades, respectively. But the draft capital is huge and as we've seen in recent years, we know Brian MacLellan can draft smart.

Just ask folks like Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas, Hendrix Lapierre, and now Ivan Miroshnichenko, who are now finding regular roles at the NHL. In a way the Caps just had to look internally in order to get younger and they're not on the outside looking in which gives us a reason to keep tuning in.