Hours after signing two goaltenders to open free agency, the Washington Capitals didn’t slow down.
With several injuries at the forward position heading into the season, the Capitals bolstered the group on Wednesday by trading for winger Connor Brown and re-signing Marcus Johansson.
The Capitals traded a 2024 second-round pick to the Ottawa Senators to acquire Brown, a seven-year veteran who has one year remaining on his contract at $3.6 million.
Brown, 28, scored 10 goals and tallied 29 assists in 64 games for the Senators last season. In 444 career games between Toronto and Ottawa, Brown has recorded 90 goals and 126 assists.
Meanwhile, Johansson returns to Washington after the Capitals traded for him at last season’s deadline. His contract is for one year at $1.1 million.
A forward for Washington from 2010 to 2017 after being selected in the first round of the 2009 draft, Johansson spent the next four seasons with five different teams — New Jersey, Boston, Buffalo, Minnesota and Seattle. He came back to the District in exchange for Daniel Sprong, a 2022 fourth-round pick and a 2023 sixth-round selection.
Johansson scored three goals and assisted three others in 18 games with the Capitals last season. He also scored a key goal in Game 3 of the Capitals’ first-round series versus the Panthers in May — the final game Washington would win in the series.
The moves surround Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov with some much-needed depth at the forward position as Nicklas Backstrom (hip surgery), Tom Wilson (knee surgery) and Carl Hagelin (eye) recover from injuries this summer. Backstrom and Wilson are both expected to miss at least the start of the season — and maybe more in Backstrom’s case — while Hagelin’s return is up in the air. The two players combined have a $17.11 million cap hit next season, with Backstrom’s $9.2 million leading the way.
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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