Rumor: The Washington Capitals To Trade Evgeny Kuznetsov

The Washington Capitals are currently in second place in the East Division. They have faced adversity after four of their highly touted Russian players were placed on the Covid-19 protocol list for a significant period of time. They have also experienced a goaltending carousel, but they have managed to remain competitive in the standings. It now appears they are looking to ship Evgeny Kuznetsov out of town.

Kuznetsov is currently in his 4th year of an 8 year deal, with an annual cap hit of $7.8 million. He has been outstanding for the Capitals over the last 3 seasons and played a significant role in their 2018 Stanley Cup victory. However, he has just 6 points in 14 games played this season, which is less than acceptable when you're being paid so handsomely. As the old saying goes, "it's not what you've done for me, it's what you've done for me lately."

JJ Regan has addressed this in his recent NBC Sports mailbag. The Capitals have an extremely deep roster, which may leave Kuznetsov unprotected during the Seattle Kraken expansion draft.

If you trade away Kuznetsov during the season for anything other than a top line center, you are punting on this season, full stop.

Whether the team considers a move like this after the season will largely be dependent on the direction the franchise wants to go. If MacLellan still believes Washington has another kick at the can, then no, I don't think Kuznetsov gets traded. If there's a fire sale or a rebuild, then yes.

As for Kuznetsov, if the team was ready to move on from him, the expansion draft would not be the best way to go. He is a 28-year old top line center signed through 2024-2025, so he would provide some cost control. There's value in that, enough value that exploring a trade for him would be much the wiser decision rather than exposing him to Seattle and potentially losing him for nothing.