Chris Patrick confirms Capitals offseason plans center on trade market: ‘We had to have as many different pieces that we can use to get somebody’
The Washington Capitals have sought to add a difference maker to their forward group for the better part of two years. To this point, they’ve been unable to do so, missing out on names like Nikolaj Ehlers and Artemi Panarin in either free agency or on the trade market.
After likely missing the playoffs for the first time during the Spencer Carbery era, the Capitals will continue that search this offseason. Capitals general manager Chris Patrick confirmed the news while speaking to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, saying that the club’s offseason plans center on the trade market.
“I’m hoping there will be trades there this summer, but I also think teams that are maybe willing to move a top guy understand that it’s a sellers’ market, so the prices will be high,” Patrick told LeBrun. “So we had to put ourselves hopefully in a position to have as many different pieces that we can use to get somebody.
“And if we don’t trade the picks and use them instead, hopefully we have more prospects for our team or who can be used in future deals.”
The trade market is expected to be highly competitive, as this year’s free agency class is among the weakest in recent memory. After the biggest prize, 29-year-old winger Alex Tuch, comes off the board, the rest of the top talent skews much older and don’t fit a team like the Capitals’ current window, including names like Evgeni Malkin, Patrick Kane, Claude Giroux, Mats Zuccarello, and Vladimir Tarasenko.
Another name technically on that list is 40-year-old Alex Ovechkin, who does not have a contract beyond this season and recently confirmed he won’t decide on the future of his NHL career until later this summer. Patrick stated he had no sense of which way Ovechkin is leaning and will just continue to offer whatever “help and support” he needs.
While Ovechkin’s retirement would free up a significant chunk of salary cap space for Patrick to work with, his absence would also leave another large hole on his roster in the same area that the front office already wants to fill: a scoring, top-six winger. Ovechkin leads the 2025-26 Capitals in both goals (31) and overall point scoring (61), so his departure could require Patrick to double up on the forward targets that the club already has this summer.
“I look at the offseason as a choose-your-own-adventure book,” Patrick said. “A scenario will come up in May, and then you’re going to have to make your decisions based on that. And then another scenario comes up in June. So we’ll just look at it that way. If [Ovechkin] says to us, ‘I’m going to retire,’ then we’ll start making decisions based on that decision. And if he says he wants to come back, we’ll make moves based on that. We’ll take the path that presents itself to us.”
Several highly talented players are expected to be available to varying degrees in the offseason. Chief among them will likely be Dallas Stars winger Jason Robertson. Still, other names like Elias Pettersson, Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, Auston Matthews, Willian Nylander, and Matthew Knies could also find new homes.
According to PuckPedia, the Capitals are presently set to have $33.97 million in cap space this summer.
