The Washington Capitals kept fairly quiet at the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline, making just a single deal to acquire Anthony Beauvillier from the Pittsburgh Penguins for a second-round pick. While other contending teams traded for the likes of Mikko Rantanen or Brad Marchand, the Caps instead opted for a less flashy — and less expensive — adjustment to their lineup.
Capitals general manager Chris Patrick said Friday afternoon that, though he was happy with what the team did at the deadline, that doesn’t mean he didn’t explore other options. He revealed that the Caps were close to several additional deals that could have shifted their plans significantly, though none ultimately came to fruition.
“I think we were close on a few different things,” he said. “I don’t know how close the other teams were in actually doing it, but we were definitely — yeah, we were close on some other things that kind of looked different from what we did.”
This year’s deadline proved pricey for teams looking to add to their rosters, with players like Oliver Bjorkstrand, Yanni Gourde, Brock Nelson, Brian Dumoulin, and Luke Schenn all fetching particularly large returns.
“It was a sellers’ market,” Patrick said. “It’s always a sellers’ market at the deadline, but I think this year there was probably three or four less sellers that decided, ‘Hey, we’re going to’ — and actually instead of just holding, even turned into buyers. I think they were making calls as well. Prices got up. You had to decide, if you wanted to participate, you had to be good paying higher prices. We decided we wanted to participate and we were okay getting into that price market environment. Back to Econ 101, supply and demand. It was in full force today.”
The Capitals’ own deep prospect pool also proved to be a double-edged sword. Having prospects in the pipeline like Ryan Leonard and Cole Hutson in the NCAA, Andrew Cristall in the WHL, and Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko with the AHL’s Hershey Bears allowed the Caps more willingness to trade away draft picks, but the talented young players also caught the attention of selling teams who wanted them included in any potential deal.
“So that definitely took us out of maybe a couple of deals that we could have done, if we would have gotten more aggressive on that, but just didn’t seem like the right time in where we are, especially with how happy we are with some of our prospects, to be moving them in deals, especially for rentals.”
Though selling teams had tried to negotiate high prices ahead of the deadline, it wasn’t until Friday morning that Patrick realized just how much other teams were really willing to pay.
“I woke up this morning and looked through some of the stuff that happened late last night and I was like, ‘Wow, things are as [pricey] — like, you’re not sure if some of these teams are telling you, ‘This is what I’m getting’ to try to get you to pay more. But then I saw that, I said, ‘Okay, I think they’re actually getting this and the prices have gone up significantly.’
“So yeah, for me, you see that general elevation. Even the prospects that moved — in the past couple of years, I think you see the prospects that move and they kind of slot into a certain level of prospects that’s not — maybe teams are more willing to part with. I think the ones you saw move this year is like, ‘Wow, they’re pushing all in if they’re moving this guy.’”
Patrick stated last week that “anything [was] on the table” for the Capitals in the lead-up to the deadline, and kept that mindset as he considered further deals. But even though he and the Caps largely stood pat, he told reporters he was pleased with what they did get done.
“We did (accomplish what we wanted to),” he said. “I think when I was in front of you guys last week, I said all options were on the table, and I think we did explore kind of all the options. This was one path we thought we might go.”
