Washington Capitals Shopping Veteran Center in Wake of Connor McMichael's Ascent
There is a hot new rumor circulating around the Washington Capitals this summer, as Sammi Silber of Washington Hockey Now suggests that the team is shopping veteran C Lars Eller. Washington is currently $1.6M over the NHL's salary cap, although they have Niklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson, and Carl Hagelin all on IR, which could end up saving them $17M in cap space. The hefty cap savings and the absence of the Capitals' top center headline the list of reasons why I'm not totally sold GM Brian MacLellan would ship Eller out of town.
Silber's speculation largely has to do with the rise of Connor McMichael, who scored 18 points in 68 games for Washington in 2021-22. The Caps' 29th overall pick in 2019 has proven to be a competent NHL pivot with some serious upside. His entry-level salary cap-hit makes him the obvious choice if you were going to pick him or Eller, all things considered.
As it stands, Eller is the Capitals' second center on their depth chart. Dylan Strome, who just signed a one-year deal with the Caps, can also play in the middle. But with Backstrom's future in question, I don't know if Washington can afford to take chances with their center corps. As of today their centers are:
- Evgeny Kuznetzov
- Lars Eller
- Connor McMichael
- Dylan Strome
- Nic Dowd
A solid group of pivots, sure, but it looks a lot better with Niklas Backstrom in the 1 or 2C spots. So it might be unwise to shop Eller as it stands, but MacLellan could flip him for a favorable return, insulating the team elsewhere.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Patrick Maroon | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Lukas Reichel | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Marco Rossi | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Matthew Boldy | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Travis Konecny | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Anze Kopitar | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Aleksander Barkov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Quinton Byfield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Noah Cates | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sean Couturier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jonathan Drouin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brock Faber | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Adrian Kempe | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Matvei Michkov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brandon Montour | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Martin Pospisil | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kevin Rooney | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Igor Sharangovich | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Carter Verhaeghe | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Jets | 20 | 17 | 3 | - | 34 | |
Wild | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 29 | |
Hurricanes | 19 | 14 | 5 | - | 28 | |
Devils | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 28 | |
Capitals | 19 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 27 | |
Golden Knights | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Maple Leafs | 20 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 26 | |
Rangers | 18 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 25 | |
Panthers | 20 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 25 | |
Flames | 20 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 25 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||