Washington Capitals Acquire Michael Raffl

The Washington Capitals have acquired Michael Raffl from the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers will receive a fifth-round pick (VGK) in return and will retain 25% of his remaining cap hit.

It’s not quite the Anthony Mantha trade, but the Capitals still add some physical forward depth by bringing in Raffl, who has played all 504 of his career games with the Flyers. A one-time 20+ goal scorer, the 32-year-old forward has just eight points this season in 34 games this season.

He won’t be playing big minutes in Washington, but Raffl does replace the depth that went out the door when Richard Panik was cleared off the books. The difference is that even before the salary retention, Raffl carries just a $1.6MM cap hit through the end of this season and is then an unrestricted free agent, not affecting the Capitals salary structure down the road.

For the Flyers, adding a fifth for a player that wasn’t making much of an impact is a win, even if the playoffs aren’t necessarily off the table at this point.