Capitals Not Done, Will Stay Involved & Monitor Trade Market After Attempts To Make Moves At Draft Didn't Pan Out

The Washington Capitals had pushed to make trades at the NHL Draft, but those conversations led nowhere.

ARLINGTON, V.A. -- The Washington Capitals feel confident about how they opened free agency, but general manager Brian MacLellan says there's still business to be done.

MacLellan explained that signing Max Pacioretty and Joel Edmundson filled some voids on the Capitals roster, but that they are going to stay involved throughout the offseason and are by no means done forming next season's roster.

"We'll continue to monitor the trade market," MacLellan said, adding, "I think we had an aggressive approach at the draft and nothing's panned out, and we'll continue to have the conversations going forward."

Washington had been aggressively pushing to make a couple of trades during the 2023 NHL Draft, but nothing ever formulated from those discussions.

"Our strategy going into the draft time period was to make a trade, to identify the age group we're kind of targeting and try and make a trade and bring in a top-6 forward, trade one or two guys," MacLellan admitted. "We were open to possibilities. Pursued a number of things, but that unfortunately didn't come through for us."

There were reports that the Nashville Predators had reached out about Evgeny Kuznetsov, but those talks quieted down. Meanwhile, Anthony Mantha reportedly hasn't drawn much interest on the market so far.

After failing to bring in a top-6 forward via the trade route or clear cap space at the draft, MacLellan turned to free agency and decided to take a chance on Pacioretty, a six-time 30-goal scorer who has shown no drop off in talent despite injuries that have kept him out for the majority of the last two seasons.

When it comes to what's next, MacLellan put more emphasis on the trade market than free agency, and also explained that the team is keeping Martin Fehervary's next contract in mind when it comes to the salary cap. The 23-year-old blueliner is currently in negotiations with the Capitasl about his next contract.

Still, the hope is to bring in another top-6 forward who is in between 25 and 30 years old as the team still hopes to incorporate more youth into next year's lineup.

"Ideally we'd have a target age we're looking for, and we'll make a trade for that kind of guy," MacLellan said.