General manager Brian MacLellan breaks down the Max Pacioretty signing for the Capitals.
General manager Brian MacLellan breaks down the Max Pacioretty signing for the Capitals.
ARLINGTON, V.A. -- As free agency opened on Saturday, general manager Brian MacLellan looked to check off one of the biggest outstanding items on his offseason to-do list: bring in a top-6 scorer. So after the clock struck noon, MacLellan put pen to paper and zeroed in on an interesting name: Max Pacioretty.
Soon after the frenzy started, Washington signed Pacioretty, and MacLellan thinks the deal with pay off big time for the Capitals as they look to bounce back after missing the postseason for the first time in nine years.
"Really like the player. Obviously, he's one of the top goal scorers over the past number of years... we're excited to get him healthy and in our lineup," MacLellan said.
Pacioretty is a six-time 30-goal scorer and his 236 goals from 2013-14 to 2020-21 are the seventh-most in the NHL over that span. The former Montreal Canadiens captain and Vegas Golden Knights forward spent years making highlight reels and proving to be among the NHL's stars, but things went south starting two years ago.
The 34-year-old suffered a wrist injury and lower-body injury that held him out for the majority of the 2021-22 campaign, but he still averaged nearly a point per game. Then, in July 2022, he was then traded to the Carolina Hurricanes. Just days after the deal, he tore his right Achilles tendon in training, and after returning and scoring three goals in five games, he fell while working on the goal line and tore the same tendon again just under six months later.
"When you do get re-injured, it's time to take a step back and try to analyze what went wrong, and we feel we have a good grasp on all that... if you're gonna take a bright spot, it's I know what to expect when you kinda hit those milestones and how you should feel and how hard to force it and whatnot," Pacioretty said. "A big milestone or a big part of the process was to figure kind of what went wrong and kind of build off that."
The back-to-back injuries were devastating and a major blow, fracturing the latter part of Pacioretty's career. He has been eager to get a chance to show a team that he's still the same star he once was, and that his injuries haven't changed that. Enter the Capitals, who did their homework before signing the veteran.
"Yeah I talked to doctors. Our guys, Jason Serbus and Dr. K, talked to the doctor who did his surgery," MacLellan revealed. "We got background on the history of what went on over the last little bit with his injury... There's still some risks, but a comfort level on thinking it'll probably work out."
After that, both sides came together to agree on a one-year pact that pays $2 million in base salary and up to an extra $2 million depending on games played. If Pacioretty laces 'em up for 10 games, he is guaranteed $1 million, then another $500,000 for 15 and a final $500,000 for 20.
"We have limited cap space, and we were trying to add certain elements to the team. That opportunity within the CBA to have a lower cap hit carry over if the bonuses are achieved, that was appealing to us," MacLellan said. "We got him at a $2 million cap hit instead of a higher cap hit which we might not have been able to afford."
Washington also gave Pacioretty a no-movement clause, something important to the father of five.
"I think there's a lot of unknowns [with some teams] and there's not much you can do there," he explained, adding, "Family's the most important thing to me."
"I mean he's got five kids; it's a one-year deal. He's gonna start [later] in the season. So I think it's important for him to have some stability," MacLellan noted.
Pacioretty won't be ready by the season opener, but he did sound confident that he will be 100 percent and able to return shortly after that. The Capitals aren't putting a timeline on anything, but expect him to play a top-6 role and be a top contributor at even strength and on the power play when he does draw in.
"I think goal-scoring would be the primary [factor]," MacLellan said of No. 67. "I think we gotta find a way to score more goals and that's what he does... beyond the injury, I think he's still probably better than he was in the later years."
And that's exactly what Pacioretty's out to prove.
"I'm still the player I once was," he declared.
"I'm really happy, and I feel very blessed that I was able to come to this conclusion... To be able to come to a team that I feel can have a very good year and that I can contribute and personally show that I'm capable of playing this game at the level I once was, for me, I feel blessed that I have this opportunity."