The Washington Capitals are in unfamiliar territory as they became deadline sellers when they traded Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway to the Boston Bruins. It doesn’t sound like this is the beginning of a massive selloff though. According to Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic, general manager Brian MacLellan is not interested in moving pending unrestricted free agents Nick Jensen, Conor Sheary, Trevor van Riemsdyk or Erik Gustafsson for small returns. Quite the opposite, as he is interested in bringing back all four if they are open to an extension. He also has interest in keeping winger Connor Brown who played only four games this season before tearing his ACL.
El-Bashir also notes that the Capitals may flip some of the assets they received in the Orlov/Hathaway deal and try to add before the deadline. Jakob Chychrun is of interest to them. Chychrun has been sitting out for over a week now waiting for a trade from the Arizona Coyotes and has two more years remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $4.6MM.
- The Minnesota Wild have had an up-and-down season but appear to be firmly entering the buyer category ahead of the deadline. A recent hot streak has propelled them to within two points of Central Division leading Dallas Stars. This should put talk of Matt Dumba’s availability to rest. Joe Smith of The Athletic reports that Wild general manager Bill Guerin said Dumba would be tough to replace and he is not looking to move the right defenceman with his team playing so well.
- One right-shot defenceman that is available is Cal Foote. Emily Kaplan of ESPN reports the Tampa Bay Lightning are open to moving the 24 year-old defender. The Lightning have already traded their first and second-round picks in 2023 and first-round pick in 2024 so they are low on assets at this deadline. Their general manager Julien BriseBois has stickhandled around sticky cap situations before and will have to do the same this season to add before Friday’s deadline.