Capitals Remain Focused On Adding Another Scoring Forward To Mix; Big Name Not Off The Table

The Capitals will explore all options in free agency.

ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals took care of some outstanding business over the NHL Draft weekend, but there’s still some work to be done.

General manager Chris Patrick again emphasized that the Capitals will go into free agency on Tuesday looking to add another forward to the mix.

“We’ll see if we can add to the forward group. If we lose a guy like (Andrew) Mangiapane, if we lose (Lars) Eller, if we lose (Anthony) Beauvillier, there are some holes there. We do have young guys coming in, but you'd like to have some support around them with some veteran guys, too.”

Washington remains in talks with their pending UFAs in Mangiapane, Eller, Beauvillier and Taylor Raddysh, though if there’s not a deal that makes sense economically, the team will move in a different direction. And that may just be the case with several players expecting raises amid the rising salary cap.

The Capitals have $9.3 million in projected cap space this summer and have multiple options when it comes to bringing in another scoring forward, including adding a couple of names or going all in for a bigger name on the market.

Patrick mentioned last month that a big hack would have to be a “really big hack,” but hasn’t ruled out the possibility of making a splash with a big name.

“We’ll look at both (those options),” Patrick said of the team’s approach. “That’s the tricky part, right? Because you chase one thing down, you may miss on other things. Like, (if you) chase a big horse down, you miss on them, and then maybe some of the smaller things we want to do are gone. Just like the draft, hopefully things line up the right way… We’ll try our best come July 1 and see what happens.”

Patrick also isn’t putting emphasis on which forward position he’ll go after in free agency, as having Connor McMichael able to play center or wing offers flexibility concerning what type of player ends up coming in.

Free agency opens on July 1 at 12 p.m.