By the trade deadline, the Caps will have saved enough salary cap space to finish the season with any player available in the league. New coach Dale Hunter's best alums include Rick Nash, Corey Perry and a few young stars tearing up the NHL.
Reading tea leaves before the drink is brewed, if the standings don't change significantly in the next month the aforementioned stars will be out of playoff contention on teams forced to consider how to rebuild for the future, while the Caps, with the timely return of Backstrom and Green, will be looking to add a key player to take them into the playoffs and carry them deep there.
Of course, Corey Perry is the reigning MVP and isn't getting traded this year, and Rick Nash has publicly stated that he won't exercise the no-trade clause in his contract to stop Columbus if it feels it can make its franchise better by letting him go. So a personal connection is unlikely to make much of a difference in making either trade happen.
However, George McPhee has consistently trusted his coaches' input in personnel matters, and if the Caps were able to somehow land Rick Nash without giving up a significant part of their current nucleus, they would instantly be the deepest team in the East. That said, at twenty-eight years old, Nash's best goal-scoring days are probably behind him, and his contract stays expensive for five more years.
Still, there's a lot to be said for picking a year and just going for it, especially a year when the Caps were already the offseason favorites to win the Eastern Conference and didn't seem to have any room for additional talent. Tomas Vokoun is unlikely to stick around at less than three times his current salary. Dennis Wideman is an All-Star now, and gets a raise somewhere.
In the current standings, the Capitals are out of the playoffs, but on paper, they're still the best they've ever been.
