The Capital’s have been relatively quiet compared to previous offseasons and the fanbase was getting scared. Did a losing season lower his moral? Did the lotto break him? Did the stepping down of GM TN make him lose the will to trade? They had made some relatively minor deals, mostly just acquiring cap hits and essentially taking Jamie Benn hostage but nothing major. Cap’s management showed their fans they have nothing to fear as they made arguably the biggest trade of their rebuilding process yet. Working on a deal with Pittsburgh for the past few days the Capitals shipped out arguably the best d-prospect in the world in Bowen Byram and the 4th overall pick in the draft along with a 3rd for the 2nd overall pick and Oliver Wahlstrom. This on the surface looks like a massive over-payment to move just 2 spots up, but to Capitals management the 2 top prospects in this draft are pieces you can build a franchise around. Players in the 4th overall range look to be elite players, but the top 2 prospects in the Caps eyes are in a class of their own.

We haven’t seen the true outcome of this deal for Washington yet as the Caps have already had parties interested in Wahlstrom. The Capitals hope to get some extra picks and/or a d-prospect to help soften the blow of losing Byram on the backend. This trade is a massive risk for the Capitals just because of the high value assets they gave up. But the reward can turn out to be a potential face of a franchise that could lead the Capitals for the next decade possibly. It will be interesting in 5 years to see the outcome of this deal and see how the Capitals look.