Wash Trade

I would rather have Orpik for one year than Martin for two. Caps could instead buy Orpik out for a lower cap hit than Martin´s and keep Bowey.

Bowey for Carrick makes it imperative that the Caps sign Green or Carlson, for each of whom they have greater than 1/15 odds, but who knows. Trading away McElhinney just after his 35th birthday makes sense... for Toronto... I don't see the Caps getting too excited about this trade, but I love that you picked up on my short term for long term cap dump of 1 year of Orpik for 2 years of Martin, where each team gets someone who hits somebody each period of every game. Five stars for keeping a conversation going.

Orpik for Martin here looks like it helps the leafs clear cap space next year for Matthews, Marner, Leivo, Kapanen, and Sparks' new contracts.

Of course, if Sparks plays really well next year in the AHL, he'll still cost under a million the year after, when all those other huge contracts go into effect, so there might be more to be said for keeping McElhinney, in order to extend Sparks cheaply in summer '19. If 35 is too old, trade for Grubauer and offer him a cheap one or two year contract...

The Caps motivation for the beginning of this trade is to create cap space and keep Carlson. If they lose Carlson, and miss out on Green, they end up needing Bowey's potential offense next year. But then they also end up needing someone who eats a ton of minutes. Any chance they land Zaitsev, maybe in a three way trade, by giving up rights to Grubauer or Carlson?

Washington won’t need another goalie, it’ll be Holtby vs Samsonov

Carrick came from caps not sure they want him back and Orpik is 38 Leafs already have an old D man.

In two years, absolutely.



At the time they were headed way over the salary cap and Carrick was a sweetener to trade away a big contract Brooks Laich wasn't living up to, and get back a silar player on a lower contract in Daniel Winnick. So I see no reason to think it was personal. Just a numbers crunch. Some fans miss him and he got two more points than Bowey this year, but Bowey is a little younger, was picked higher, had a lot of offense in juniors, and might get a lot of points pretty soon.


So would I, and yes, but then Washington gets neither Orpik, nor Martin. If you've got to lose Orpik's clutch scoring (no, I am not making this up), lose his crease clearing elbow-grease, lose his Cup ring and leadership, but still pay 2.5M a year, you might as well still keep the 200 hits a year and agitation. Martin brings those last couple things in the same measure as Orpik, and for the same cap hit next year as buying out Orpik, although a slightly higher cap hit the next year.