Capitals plan to explore trade and free agency market for scoring help: ‘I think we need to add something’
The Washington Capitals scored just 216 goals during the 2023-24 regular season, the franchise’s worst output in a full 82-game season since 2003-04 (186). The mark saw them sit 28th in the league overall and they were the lowest-scoring playoff team by 29 goals.
Alex Ovechkin, the team’s captain, was the only player to score 30 goals and will be turning 39 years old before the start of next season. At the end of the campaign, Ovechkin and Dylan Strome were the only 20-goal scorers left on the roster after Anthony Mantha was dealt to Vegas at the trade deadline.
Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan has long expressed his interest in acquiring more talent for the team’s forward group but will perhaps have the most salary cap flexibility he’s ever had this summer, thanks to both a cap increase of $4.2 million and Nicklas Backstrom’s $9.2 million salary staying on LTIR from the outset of the season.
“I think we’re going to look outside, too,” MacLellan said Tuesday. “I mean, I think trades and free agency. I think we need to add something in that area. We need to get a little more skill, a little more goals. We find a way to do that. I think both ways: externally and internally we need to improve some of our young guys.”
The Capitals did get younger this past season, handing large roles to players like Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas, and Hendrix Lapierre. Now, MacLellan aims to maintain that trend so that the pressure of carrying the team no longer weighs down Ovechkin as the legendary winger puts the finishing touches on his storied career.
MacLellan will also need to consider a potential replacement for another veteran winger, TJ Oshie. Oshie told reporters on Breakdown Day that he may need to step away from hockey if he can’t solve his reoccurring back injury issues over the summer. MacLellan said he plans on giving Oshie all the time he needs, but the quicker he does know Oshie’s decision, the quicker he could put almost $6 million in cap space to use.
The Capitals want to keep up their steady improvement under head coach Spencer Carbery next season. After selling at the trade deadline two years in a row, the Capitals could be in a spot where they either add or just stand pat at the 2025 deadline.
“I don’t know that we looked out of place in the playoffs,” MacLellan said. “I get the whole goal differential thing. If we can add a player or two, I don’t know if we’re top eight. You can be in that next group, though. I think we’re in that group already. There’s a level of play that the top eight to 10 teams are at. I think we can get close to that. That would be our goal.”
As for what exact type of player management intends to target, MacLellan didn’t share explicit plans there. In the past, he’s described going out to get a “young, top-six forward” but expressed a desire to consult with the team’s coaching staff before making any calls this summer.
Carbery shared his own desire for the club to add elite offensive players to their lineup during his own Breakdown Day interview.
“I don’t know,” MacLellan said. “I want to leave room for our guys to grow. I want to get with the coaching staff and target a couple areas that I think or hopefully they think we need.”
The first important date of the offseason where the Capitals and MacLellan could stand to wheel and deal comes at the 2024 NHL Draft in Vegas on June 28-29, just a few days before free agency opens up on July 1.
