Steel and Grant

Anaheim declines. We're looking for immediate or future help at RW and RD, and this trade does nothing for us even though the Capitals players are NHL quality.

Thanks. It's tough to tell whether Panik is still a 40 point wing when he plays so few minutes. Would Jensen make a difference?

No, I think that if we take a player back for Rakell, we'd only be interested in an expansion-draft-exempt prospect at RW or RD, and you guys really don't have one.

Yep. That's especially true at RD. The Caps literally don't have a prospect under contract. Siegenthaler played on his off side, a little as a rookie, but I personally like him on the left and he's not expansion exempt. While the Caps' RW prospects are doing better this year than last year, there's still nobody on a level with a Troy Terry or someone that could make a difference in Anaheim's upcoming draft strategy. So if WSH is lucky enough to land any of the three awesome players above, it sounds like the value would have to be in picks. I do think WSH could use some help with faceoffs and Steel and Grant are better at those than, say, Backstrom and Kuznetsov, apparently. But I'm guessing Steel isn't available unless it's for a star player Anaheim really needs, and it sounds like Vrana is a goal scorer they could take or leave. Thanks for your honest feedback, so Caps fans can stop posting variations on this theme. What's the bidding look like on Grant, and is there any realistic way he fits under the Cap in Washington?

So far Sam Steel is a disappointment, kinda like a West Coast Casey Mittelstadt. He was chosen in the first round because he was a scorer in juniors (132 points in his last year, I think) but hasn't shown much in the way of scoring talent at the NHL level. (In contrast, Max Jones, taken only 6 places earlier primarily as a "power" forward, has shown flashes of brilliance this year, stickhandling several pucks into the net.) I think we'll give him one more year to develop, but his time (and his trade value) is limited. Grant is one of those essential bottom-sixers whose value is more intangible than obvious. He's a character or "glue" guy, sort of a Swiss-Army-knife guy who can play all three positions and is a first-option penalty killer. (The Kings have a similar but younger type in Trevor Moore.) Grant would probably only fetch a fourth or fifth but he's worth more, if you know what I mean.