Capitals Came Close On A Few Deals, Received Several Calls About Prospects With Asking Prices High

WASHINGTON  — If there was one thng that Chris Patrick took away from his first trade deadline as the general manager of the Washington Capitals, it was that it was a seller's market.

Patrick shared post-deadline that the trade market wasn't cheap, and the names that were available cost a pretty penny.

"If you wanted to participate, you had to be good paying higher prices," Patrick explained, adding, "Back to Econ 101, supply and demand, it was in full force today."

Several asks from other teams included top Capitals prospects, as Patrick revealed the team got numerous calls inquiring about the team's impressive pool of up-and-comers. Ultimately, though, the organization didn't want to part ways with key pieces of its future.

"That's what everybody wanted was our prospects, right? Like every team is like, 'We want this guy and we want (this guy)' and it's just like, 'We can't do it, we can't do it, we can't do it.'" Patrick said. "It doesn't make sense for us to do that. So that definitely took us out of maybe a couple of deals that we could have done if we would have gotten more aggressive on that."

Washington did come "close on a few different things," but ultimately, chose to make one move, acquiring Anthony Beauvillier in exchange for a second-round pick, as it steered clear of getting too aggressive and giving up too much on the trade front.

"It just didn't seem like the right time and where we are, especially with how happy we are with some of our prospects to be moving them in deals, especially for rentals," Patrick said, adding, "It didn't feel like there's anything that made enough sense to really cause that kind of disruption."

Washington also avoided going over the cap in order to make space for Ryan Leonard to sign in the spring.