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Trade: Caps shed salary by sending Niskanen to Flyers for Gudas

Washington Capitals v Colorado Avalanche

DENVER, CO - NOVEMBER 16: Matt Niskanen #2 of the Washington Capitals plays the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center on November 16, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

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A pair of division rivals have agreed to swap defensemen.

On Friday morning, the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers agreed to a trade, as the Caps sent Matt Niskanen to the Flyers for Radko Gudas.

The Caps made this move with the salary cap in mind. Niskanen has two years remaining on his contract at a cap hit of $5.75 million per year. Gudas has just one year remaining on his deal at $3.35 million, but The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun is reporting that the Flyers will eat 30 percent of his remaining salary.

All in all, this trade will save Washington $3.405 million in cap space, which isn’t insignificant.

“We would like to thank Matt for all of his contributions to our organization for the past five seasons,” Caps general manager Brian MacLellan said in a release. “Matt is a consummate professional and was a big part of our success. We wish him and his family all the best moving forward.

“We feel this move provides us with financial flexibility as we look for additional ways to strengthen our team. In addition, we are pleased to welcome Radko to our organization. Radko is a good defensive defenseman that plays a competitive, physical game.”

As you can tell from the quote above, McLellan mentioned the cap relief before the addition of Gudas. That’s not to say that Gudas won’t contribute this season, but they clearly wanted to free up as much money as possible while getting rid of Niskanen, who struggled in 2018-19.

The 32-year-old immediately becomes the Flyers’ highest paid defenseman. Now that Gudas is gone, Niskanen is the only right-shooting defenseman on the team. It’s also important to note he had to agree to go to Philadelphia because he had a limited no-trade clause (he submitted a list of 10 teams he didn’t want to go to).

Niskanen’s tenure in Washington wasn’t a failure by any means though. As much as he struggled last year, he still helped the Caps win a Stanley Cup in 2018 and he logged some big minutes for them during his five seasons there.

So now that this move has been made, McLellan will have roughly $12.5 million in projected cap space this summer. The Caps only have eight forwards under contract right now, so you’d have to think that he’s going to need to find himself some depth up front. Whether he brings back Andre Burakovsky (restricted free agent), Carl Hagelin (unrestricted free agent), or Brett Connolly (unrestricted free agent) remains to be seen. But he’s going to have to build himself a fourth line at the very least.

If they decide to go with cost-efficient depth players, they may even be able to add a significant piece to their roster via trade or via free agency.

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Joey Alfieri is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @joeyalfieri.