Jeff Marek believes there will be further trades this offseason and floats Capitals as team to watch: ‘Washington is a really well-designed and smart team’

The NHL trade market has yet to really heat up this offseason, following the opening of free agency on July 1. The biggest deal saw the Carolina Hurricanes acquire defenseman K’Andre Miller from the New York Rangers for two high draft picks and a prospect; however, the rumor mill has been relatively quiet in the nine days since.

However, some hockey insiders believe the quiet trade front could eventually pick up. One of those insiders is Jeff Marek of the Daily Faceoff, who recently expressed his belief on the Sekeres & Price Show that more trades are forthcoming, explicitly mentioning the Washington Capitals as a team to watch.

“I think there will be trades, and I’ll tell you the team that I wonder about was the other team that went right down to the wire with Nikolaj Ehlers, and that was the Washington Capitals,” Marek said. “Listen, Washington is a really well-designed team and a really smart team. I think that if there’s a team out there that’s going to be frisky in the trade market, that may not be a headline maker right now, or we’re not expecting to do too much by trading, [it’s them]. Let’s not forget this is Ovi’s swan song season, most likely, in the NHL. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go the trade route here.”

The Capitals were seemingly the second-place team in the Ehlers sweepstakes, missing out on the Danish winger in free agency when he signed with the Carolina Hurricanes. They quickly re-signed UFA winger Anthony Beauvillier soon after, restoring a key portion of their depth up front.

As things currently stand, the Capitals are bringing back just 10 of their 12 regular forwards from the playoffs this past season. They acquired Justin Sourdif at the draft, and young players and prospects like Ivan Miroshnichenko, Hendrix Lapierre, and Andrew Cristall are expected to compete for the final roster spots, but the club is likely still interested in bolstering their top two lines with a more proven commodity.

General manager Chris Patrick stated early in the offseason that the Capitals are interested in adding a “high-skill player” and could take a “big hack” if the right name becomes available. Patrick also made sure to reiterate that the Caps are still seeking to get younger, so any trade targets will likely be limited to names that fit the team’s current age-related plans.

“Yeah, we’ll explore the trade market, see what’s out there,” Patrick said last week. “We’ve sent a lot of picks out the last few weeks. So we’re going to have to make sure we’re prudent with how we do it. But I think there potentially could be some interesting names out there. I’ve seen some of the media reports thinking it’s going to be a very busy offseason trade-wise. I’m not exactly sure the basis for that. I mean, I think a lot of teams are in a decent spot, cap-wise, but we’ll see what happens.”

The Capitals have not been afraid to get aggressive with summer trades during their on-the-fly retool, acquiring Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane, Logan Thompson, and Jakub Chychrun in four separate deals last year.

According to PuckPedia, the Capitals have $4.125 million in cap space, with the salaries of Sourdif ($825k), Lapierre ($850k), and Sonny Milano ($1.9M) included in their 23-man roster calculations.