The Washington Capitals elected to make a slew of minor moves during the NHL trade deadline. If you look at it strictly from the perspective of playoff success - rather than the fact that they ran away with the Presidents’ Trophy and put up incredible regular season numbers - then it’s hard to say that those transactions made much of a difference.
It seems that Caps GM George McPhee agrees with this sentiment, at least in part. He told Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post that the team won’t look to re-sign trade deadline acquisitions Scott Walker and Joe Corvo.
“They were great, but we can only carry 23 when the season starts,” McPhee said.
Corvo finished the playoffs with a goal and an assist and a plus/minus of minus-2. The veteran had two goals and four assists and a minus-4 rating in 18 regular season games.
Walker, meantime, suited up for just one game in the playoffs and did not record a point. He played in nine games during the regular season because of injury and finished with two goals and an assist.
When asked about the status of center Eric Belanger - the other pending UFA acquired at the deadline - McPhee said, “There’s some discussion there.”
(Any time I have an excuse to post that horrifying video, I will. Did you see that coming?)
So, as I’ve written before, the Capitals should have plenty of cap space this summer. Why waste it on a tough but replaceable player like Walker or a flawed defenseman such as Corvo? It’ll be interesting to see how much changes in DC in the off-season. Stay tuned.