No cap crunch for Caps, who land Mantha
Flat cap or not, the Washington Capitals refused to stand by and watch their division foes improve their rosters without making a move at the NHL trade deadline Monday.
Not long after the Boston Bruins acquired 2018 NHL MVP Taylor Hall from Buffalo, the Capitals responded by mortgaging a valuable portion of their future to acquire forward Anthony Mantha from the Detroit Red Wings.
With the championship window beginning to close on the Alex Ovechkin-led roster, Washington went all-in on Mantha by trading wingers Jakub Vrana and
Richard Panik, a 2021 firstand a 2022 second-round pick to Detroit. They have literally no room to maneuver now with $0 in salary cap room but felt it was worth the risk.
The 26-year-old Mantha is a two-time 20-goal scorer, who uses his big 6-foot-5, 234-pound frame to create space and is signed for three more seasons at an average salary cap hit of $5.7 million.
“We’ve been aggressive,” Capitals GM Brian MacLellan said. “It wasn’t a conscious decision, ‘Let’s shake the team up.’ I think we’ve had a good year so far. ... Things lined up, and this is what we ended up doing.”
The Capitals were among the few teams taking an aggressive approach at a time a flat salary cap of $81.5 million left many others handcuffed.
Only 17 trades were completed Monday, involving just 26 players. That’s down from the NHL trade deadline day record of 32 deals involving 55 players a year ago, two weeks before the coronavirus pandemic paused the season and dealt a devastating blow to the league’s financial picture.
The previous time fewer players were dealt on deadline day was 23 in the NHL’s pre-salary cap area on March 14, 2000.
“It’s not like the old days where if you just want a player, you go make a deal,” Carolina Hurricanes GM
Don Waddell said. “Lots more maneuvering, a lot more involved in it.”
Predators GM David Poile projected the cap to continue restricting teams for the foreseeable future.
“I think you just sort of saw the tip of the iceberg with what took place here with the trading deadline,” Poile said. “There wasn’t too many deals made in this last two or three days that had players that had more than this year’s contract left, and that speaks to the salary cap not going up.”
There were 16 draft picks that moved Monday, with just one first-round selection, three second-rounders and one third-round pick.
The Capitals, three years removed from winning their first and only Stanley Cup, began the day tied with the New York Islanders atop the East Division, and two points ahead of Pittsburgh. In a separate trade, Washington also acquired forward Michael Raffl from Philadelphia.
The Islanders strengthened their roster last week by acquiring Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac from New Jersey. Pittsburgh followed suit Monday by adding veteran depth in acquiring Jeff Carter in a deal with Los Angeles.