Trade: Capitals Acquire Rick Nash

The Washington Capitals did not wait for the trade deadline to make a splash and acquire winger Rich Nash as a rental player. This one was costly, as it cost them their 1st and 4th round picks in the 2018 draft but also put the team over the cap. To get under the cap, third line LW Benoit Pouliot was placed on waivers for the purpose of buyout and 3rd pairing Dman Zbynek Michalek was moved to the Rangers for farm player Rod Pelley.

"We are pleased to acquire a player with the ability of Rick Nash ahead of the trade deadline." Said GM Mitchell. "We feel this move allows us to roll with 2 top tier scoring lines and better balances our bottom 6. We are sad to see Pouliot and Michalek leave the team this way since they are original picks in the inagural draft, but that's the nature of the business."

Rick Nash wasted no time getting accustomed to his new team scoring one goal and getting two assists on the top line with Anze Kopitar and Andres Lee. Lee also had 3 points in the game and Kopitar added 2. The Capitals beat Nash's former team the Canucks in a 4-2 win last night. "It feels good to go from a struggling team to a dressing room like this." added Nash after the game. "I'm very familiar with coach Hitchcock's system and I think this is the best fit for me. I look forward to pushing for a playoff spot."

Winger Loui Eriksson was moved down to the teams 3rd line with veteran Thomas Plekanec and the still young Tobias Rieder. The teams 4th line will look the same centered by Brian Boyle with Matt Nieto & Torrey Mitchell on the wings.

It's currently not known what else could be in store for the Capitals, but they are still up against the cap and are unwilling to move out prospects. So other than minor tweaking, we think they are rolling with this line-up into the last half of the season and hopefully into the playoffs.

Here are the current team lines & pairings:

Andres Lee - Anze Kopitar - Rick Nash

Ondrej Palat - Sean Couturier - James Neal

Tobias Rieder - Thomas Plekanec - Loui Eriksson

Matt Nieto - Brian Boyle - Torrey Mitchell

Jay Bouwmeester - Rasmus Ristolainen

Alexei Emelin - Aaron Ekblad

Nick Jensen - Dan Girardi

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Curtis McElhinney

Scratches: Mike Liambas, Paul Postma

Articles to look out for from the Capitals. Later this month: A look ahead: re-rates. Coming in March: Spring prospect ranking.