ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals know that there are vacancies on their roster that need to be addressed, but free agency doesn't appear to be the route they'll go in.
Per general manager Chris Patrick, Washington doesn't necessarily want to go the free agent route when it comes to filling those voids.
“You never want to say nothing’s possible, but we got to the point fairly early in free agency where we’d be looking at names, and it was, ‘Is this guy better than X young player in our organization?’ That’s what we’re kind of weighing."
The Capitals did try to make a big move and were in on Nikolaj Ehlers to bolster the scoring up front, but ultimately lost out on the bid to the Carolina Hurricanes. They also reportedly looked into Jack Roslovic and could revisit the possibility.
However, Patrick seems intent on plugging in prospects and up-and-comers to make the NHL roster and take over those roles that have been left empty, while Anthony Beauvillier is also returning on a two-year deal while Hendrix Lapierre re-signed for one year.
He doesn't want to take the opportunity away from the team's younger players, and therefore, is heading in a different direction, looking to Lapierre, as well as Ivan Miroshnichenko, Ethen Frank, Henrik Rybinski, Bogdan Trineyev and Andrew Cristall, to make the cut.
“We’re at a point where if we’re bringing in a guy just to bring in a guy because he’s played in the NHL before, he’s going to end up blocking one of our younger guys that might end up having a bigger, more positive impact on the team.”