Making A Mess of Things?

   Is the newly appointed Washington Capitals General Manager making a mess of things? or slowly creating a masterpiece?  Only time will tell.  In the two months that Chorostkowski has been GM, he has definitely tried to put his stamp on the team early.  Leading up to the trade deadline, Chorostkowski moved some key parts of the Capitals organization in Sean Couturier and Ondrej Palat.  All in all the new GM has made 5 trades involving the aforementioned Couturier and Palat, along with some other pieces as well.  Below is a summary of the players who are on the move:

   As well, several draft picks were involved in these deals, highlighted by picking up an additional 2021 1st round pick and (2) 2021 2nd round picks.  Chorostkowski said he was disappointed and frustrated with how his team has performed since he took over.  " I really thought we could make a push for a playoff spot, we got pretty close for awhile, but seem to be slipping back down the mountain.  We brought in some pieces to help with our God awful powerplay in Barrie and Kovalchuk so hopefully that will improve down the stretch."  

   "It was really tough moving Coots and Palat, as they really were a huge part of the organization for so long, but we are really excited about some of the young guys that we picked up in Perfetti and Vilardi."

   The distant future does seem a little brighter at the end of the day, but the not so distant future lin finishing out the season ooks bleak.  There are still enough games left to make a push, but it seems that every time Chorostkowski made a trade, the team proceeded to go on a losing streak, eventually resulting in the Capitals sitting in the basement of the Metropolitan division.

   Time will tell how this all works out for the Capitals for the rest of the season, but hopefully the new faces will start to mesh with the boys and better results will come sonner rather than later.

Edward Lam

 - Washington Post