The Capitals have been carrying eight blueliners for a while now since they added Ethan Bear in late December and it appears they’re intent on clearing that logjam. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in his latest 32 Thoughts column that they’re looking to move blueliner Joel Edmundson prior to next month’s trade deadline.
The 30-year-old is in his first season with Washington after being acquired from Montreal just minutes before free agency opened up back in July. However, injuries have limited Edmundson to 32 games so far and when he has been in the lineup, his playing time has been considerably lower than usual. He’s averaging 16:08 per night, down nearly three and a half minutes from a year ago. While he has never been a big point producer, Edmundson has just three points so far while also recording 41 blocked shots.
Edmundson is in the final season of a four-year, $14MM contract he signed with the Canadiens back in 2020. However, Washington is only responsible for half of his $3.5MM AAV with Montreal retaining the other half as part of the trade which saw the Caps part with a third-round pick and a seventh-rounder for his services.
Edmundson has 75 career playoff appearances under his belt including a pair of runs to the Stanley Cup Final in 2019 with St. Louis and 2021 with Montreal. Between that and a relatively low cap charge, there should be some teams that have interest in a player who could aid their third pairing or at least add some depth for a potential playoff push. Whether GM Brian MacLellan can get a return that matches or beats the one he gave up in the summer remains to be seen but they should be able to get something for his services and clear up the backlog on their back end.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The Caps are real close to a long rebuild, I’m sure they’ll move anybody on the team if the price is right. MacLellan really ran this club into the ground.
All for Ovie!
Habs take gim back for a 5th and then trade Savard while holding half his deal which js 2yrs 3.5 per year. So to get a rugged RD for under 1.8M whos a championship for 1.5 seasons would be a major addition to a club. Habs should target a forward prospect in that deal. They say thwy want to keep him for mentorship but Edmunston fills that roll
So in the battle of sub-par defensemen (both posting some terrible fancy stats) somehow Edmundson is only worth a 5th and yet you can get a forward prospect for Savard? Edmundson is three years younger. Even at $1.75 MM, Savard isn’t a bargain for a third-pairing defenseman. I have to give Bergy credit – if you absolutely need to overpay (Anderson, Gallagher, Armia et al), MB was your man.
The best thing that could happen for the Caps would be for Ovechkin to retire. They’re going nowhere until then and as a poster mentioned above it’s going to be a long rebuild once he does. It sucks watching them tread water so he can chase stats.