Brian MacLellan's Magic Hat
It took 13 months, but the Caps GM produced a warren of rabbits this offseason.
Up until a few days ago, when it comes to the job that Washington Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan has constructing a competitive lineup for that organization, I often thought of George H.W. Bush, America’s 41st President, and the memorable line from his inaugural address: “We have more will than wallet.”
For most of his tenure, as MacLellan has managed a roster under the NHL’s hard salary cap, that’s clearly been the case, especially as Washington’s highest paid core contributors aged and their performance inevitably declined. That challenge was compounded recently, as the NHL salary cap stayed relatively static for several years in the wake of the economic shock of the COVID-19 Pandemic. With his salary budget tied up in just a few contracts, there was little wiggle room to improve the team, though MacLellan often managed to pull an odd rabbit out of his magic hat.
Constraints drive creativity, or at least they say that at The Harvard Business Review.
MacLellan is nothing if not patient, something that’s helped along by having an owner in Ted Leonsis who seems willing to let his hockey operations people do their jobs as long as they stay inside a reasonable budget and keep to the plan. When I first met Leonsis in 2006 and George McPhee was General Manager, he laid it all out for me in detail. The Capitals would build their team around #1 draft pick Alex Ovechkin, and instead of pursuing high-priced free agents, he would seek to develop talent internally and then retain it rather than see it depart elsewhere in free agency.
He’d been burned by the Jaromir Jagr deal and wasn’t going to be burned again.
It took almost another 12 years, another general manager and five head coaches for Leonsis to win his first Stanley Cup, but win that Cup he did. The aftermath of that landmark win has seen the team tread water. In the first five seasons afterwards, the Capitals qualified for the playoffs four times, but never advanced out of the first round. After failing to make the playoffs in 2022-23 and letting go of head coach Peter Laviolette, MacLellan hired first-time head coach Spencer Carbery and had a new goal: stay competitive while helping Ovechkin catch Wayne Gretzky as the greatest goal scorer in NHL history.
In retrospect, the hiring of Carbery and the articulation of that new strategy was the start of 13 months of organizational change that reached a crescendo Monday on the opening day of NHL free agency.
The road that ended on July 1, 2024 was rough at times. The first half of last season saw the departure of franchise stalwart, Nick Backstrom, who after 17 NHL seasons couldn’t skate another competitive shift. Evegeny Kuznetsov, the center who could have just as easily have won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP in 2018, failed to find his game once again, eventually being suspended and shuttled into the league’s Player Assistance Program before being traded to the Carolina Hurricanes. T.J. Oshie, the player that many fans believe was the final piece that helped Washington win the 2018 Cup, popped in and out of the lineup with injuries with disturbing frequency. Darcy Keumper, the goalie with a Stanley Cup pedigree of his own, lost his game completely in his second season in Washington, leaving the team wondering at the All-Star Break if this plan could ever come together, perhaps forcing the team to do a complete tear down before rebuilding.
But come together it did. After taking a vacation to Dubai over the All-Star break, Ovechkin recaptured his game of old. Towards the end of March, the team, incredibly, found itself in the midst of the playoff hunt, thanks in large part to the play of journeyman backup goalie Charlie Lindgren. Despite this, MacLellan looked at his team with a cold eye and decided to sell at the NHL trade deadline, shedding salaries and collecting draft picks that could be parlayed into more valuable assets.
Then, the unexpected happened: his team kept winning. They secured the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference by winning the last game of their regular season. And while the stay in the playoffs was short-lived, the ride was incredible for fans who had stopped coming to the rink, ending a streak of 588 sellouts in a row early in the season.
And then, one last puzzle piece fell into place: before the Stanley Cup Playoffs had finished, the team purchased CapFriendly, the Web’s leading site for information about the NHL salary cap and player contracts and brought several of its personnel on board as full-time employees. At the same time, CapFriendly made arrangements to end business relationships with other NHL teams while making plans to shut down.
The hockey media squawked in protest. But privately, NHL offices fretted, fearing that the Capitals had secured themselves a fearsome advantage, one that in retrospect makes the events of July 1, 2024 look like a well planned ambush.
But before then, there were other preliminaries to arrange. One year before, MacLellan had sent some very public signals to Backstrom that his time in the league was likely finished after undergoing major hip surgery. Despite this, Backstrom wanted to give it one more try before stepping away, a decision that while perfectly understandable from his perspective, handcuffed the team going into the Summer of 2023. Without being able to move Backstrom to long-term injured reserve (LTIR), the team’s ability to augment the roster was severely limited. But a year later, with Backstrom on LTIR and Oshie likely to follow, new options presented themselves.
Better still, the NHL salary cap was set to rise in time for the 2024-25 season.
Keumper was sent to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Pierre-Luc Dubois, another young and enigmatic center who will get every chance to mesh with Ovechkin in training camp on the top line with Tom Wilson. Next came winger Andrew Mangiapane arriving in a trade with the Calgary Flames and providing some needed forward depth. It flipped some draft picks for Vegas goalie Logan Thompson, providing an inexpensive backup for Lindgren who has some history with the organization. The NHL Draft saw restricted free agent winger Beck Malenstyn traded to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for a draft pick that turned into defensive prospect Cole Hutson, and cleared the way for more action on July 1st.
The team traded Nick Jensen and a second round pick to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for left-handed defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who is still only 26. He’ll slot in nicely on Washington’s top pair with veteran John Carlson.
It then signed free agent right-handed defenseman Matt Roy from the Los Angeles Kings to a six-year, $34.5 million contract. Roy will likely match up with left-handed defenseman Martin Fehérváry in the second pairing. This will also allow Rasmus Sandin, who has struggled at times in Washington, to drop down to the third line where he’ll likely play with Trevor van Riemsdyk.
To complete the fourth line which was emptied by Malenstyn trade and the decision not to re-sign Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, the team signed free agent wingers Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh to a two-year, $3.7 million deal and a one-year deal at $1 million, respectively. They’ll flank center Dowd, who is entering the final year of his contract. Both players are respectable upgrades.
To finish things off, the Caps retained restricted free agent center Connor McMichael to a two-year, $4.2 million deal.
Since the Capitals bowed out of the playoffs in the first round, the team has added seven legitimate NHL-caliber players to the roster. It would be foolish to project the Capitals as a Stanley Cup contender next season, but it’s clear they’ve upgraded significantly and now look to be a lock to make the playoffs.
Moreover, their actions send more than a few clear messages to folks who matter:
After a year of delay, the team is following through on its commitment to Ovechkin to keep the team competitive in the final years of his contract.
Capitals fans, who stopped coming at the start of last season and saw that sellout streak snapped, now have reasons to return and have a chance to witness history as Ovechkin chases Gretzky.
Unlike organizations that treat their players like disposable assets, Washington treats its stars with dignity, even when they have nothing left to give. Backstrom was given one more chance to play, though his contract handcuffed the team’s ability to add talent; the team went out of its way to find a landing spot for Kuznetsov despite his personal foibles; Oshie, while he shuffled back and forth between the lineup and the injured list, was allowed to stick around long enough to reach the 1,000 game milestone; and Anthony Mantha, who had been nothing but a disappointment since coming over in a trade from the Detroit Red Wings, was allowed to work with a sports psychologist in the final year of his contract and managed to rediscover his game before being dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights at the 2024 NHL trade deadline. Future free agents will notice.
MacLellan has told Caps prospect Ryan Leonard, currently in DC to attend the team’s annual development camp, that the organization believes he’s ready to play in the NHL right now. Despite this, Leonard seemed happy playing at Boston College (BC), and given the state of Washington’s roster a few weeks ago, probably wasn’t in a rush to join the big club. That calculus has to look different today, and I suggest you keep an eye on Leonard when the NCAA season wraps up in March 2025. perhaps with another trip to the Frozen Four.
Thanks to MacLellan the magician, fans in DC will enjoy the Summer while longing for the brisk chill of Fall. Here’s hoping the Washington front office enjoys it too.