Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said he waited longer this year to hold his annual end-of-the-season press conference — partly because he was still frustrated over May 10’s Game 7 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
MacLellan used the extra time to meet with players and coaches to discuss where another Capitals season went awry.
When he finally faced the media on Tuesday, MacLellan said he couldn’t single out one particular fix to get the Capitals closer to a championship.
But blowing up the roster, he said, makes no sense.
“I think it’s a lot easier to make this team worse than it is better,” MacLellan said. “If you make a major change, what’s it going to involve? Trading a franchise player, blowing the whole thing up? I don’t know that that makes sense. … As soon as that Game 7 finishes, everybody’s angry and that shouldn’t happen and we should have played better in the game — I get all that. But how do you address that? It’s a good team. And there’s issues too.
“Obviously, there’s some issues and they need to be addressed internally.”
He dismissed the idea of an Alex Ovechkin-less Capitals — though he stopped short of ruling out the possibility entirely.
“He’s a big part of our franchise, a big part of our history,” MacLellan said. “He’s been a big part of where we’re at as an organization and just to casually say, ’Let’s trade him?’ For what? For who? I don’t think it makes sense from an organizational point of view.
“Maybe at some point if there’s a legitimate hockey deal that came available, but I don’t know if that’s where we’re at right now. I just think he’s got a history here. He’s a big part of this franchise, and he’ll continue to be going forward.”
Instead, MacLellan said re-signing restricted free agents (RFAs) will be the Capitals’ priority this offseason.
Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, Nate Schmidt and Andre Burakovsky are all in line for significant raises. Backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer and forward Brett Connolly are also RFAs MacLellan wants back.
The core four — Kuznetsov, Orlov, Schmidt and Burakovsky — all took major leaps in the regular season and the playoffs. The Capitals will go younger and those players will see expanded roles because of their progression.
There are tradeoffs, though, with this approach. Because the extensions will eat most of the Capitals’ salary cap space, Washington is unlikely to sign any of their five unrestricted free agents, including forward T.J. Oshie. The promotions also create a problem of depth and the Capitals will need players from their minor league team, the Hershey Bears, to fill it.
MacLellan acknowledged the Capitals might not be as good in the regular season. The Capitals are back-to-back winners of the Presidents’ Trophy, awarded to the team with the best regular season record.
“I don’t know we’ll be at this level,” MacLellan said. “I mean, we’ll be competitive. I’m not sure what happens when … It sure looks like Burakovsky is ready to get to the next level. You put him in a top six role, I would assume he’s going to be successful. How do our bottom fourth line guys pan out, the Hershey guys? I’m not sure. I think we’re going to be a good team still.”
The Capitals enter next season with coach Barry Trotz in the final year of his contract. Trotz will return, but discussions of an extension haven’t materialized yet. Trotz has won 63.4 percent of his games in his three seasons in Washington, although he hasn’t made it past the second round.
MacLellan and Trotz have occasionally had philosophical differences and MacLellan didn’t exactly give a glowing endorsement of Trotz’s performance in the playoffs. He said he agreed with the decision to move to Tom Wilson on the third line, but going with seven defensemen in the Penguins series had “mixed results.”
But what’s clear is MacLellan’s self-imposed three-year window for the Capitals to contend with its previous core is over. He said this year’s loss to the Penguins especially hurt because they felt they were the better team.
“I think we’re in a period here of uncertainty where we have to drill down some specific stuff,” MacLellan said. “I think we needed improvements throughout our organization, myself included.”
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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