On Friday’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal broke down the Washington Capitals’ surprising resurgence from a year ago and what lessons the Vancouver Canucks can take from it as they enter a pivotal offseason.
“To set the scene of where the Capitals were at,” Harm began, “they made the playoffs last year, limp in with 91 points which is only one more than what the Canucks managed this season. They had an ugly -37 goal differential. They got dispatched in round one, four game sweep at the hands of the New York Rangers, and keep in mind that the year prior, they didn’t even make the playoffs.”
He continued, “You looked at those factors, at their aging core, and everyone considered the Caps to be this team that was basically doomed and headed towards irrelevancy. Similar to Vancouver in the sense that the Caps had no juice offensively last year. They were ranked 28th in the NHL in goals scored per game, no Capitals player hit the 70-point mark that year, and their third highest scoring forward had just 35 points, so some similar conversations as far as a mediocre team, doesn’t get enough scoring and propped up by a hot goalie.”
Fast forward a year, and the story changed dramatically.
“Fast forward to 12 months later, they win the Eastern Conference, they win a playoff round and are tied in the second round with the Hurricanes,” Harm said. “We can debate whether they’re a true Cup contender or a paper tiger—some say they’ve had everything go right this year, don’t buy them being a top team in the league, and think they’re going to regress moving forward. But, regardless what happens next, for them to have gone from mushy, mediocre middle to winning the Eastern Conference and a playoff round is the kind of instant turnaround the Canucks need to execute to entice Quinn Hughes to stay.”
Harm pointed to a few key factors behind Washington’s leap.
“A couple takeaways I’ve seen are shooting luck, internal bouncebacks and career-best seasons. That’s part of what needs to happen if the Canucks are going to go beyond just making the playoffs and get back to the point where teams look at you as a threat.”
But the biggest lesson might be in how Washington addressed its roster shortcomings through bold but calculated bets.
“They hit home runs with risky, out-of-favour players. The Caps entered last offseason with a glaring need to add a top-six centre, similar to the Canucks right now. They pulled a rabbit out of the hat with the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade.”
Harm acknowledged how unpopular the idea of acquiring Dubois was just a year ago.
“We talked about Dubois 12 months ago and the idea of trading for him seemed silly and reckless considering the year he was coming off and his contract. The lesson here isn’t to put a blindfold on and take reckless swings, because if you bet wrong there are major consequences, but when there’s a huge difference between how the rest of the league perceives a player and how you believe you can extract the most out of him, that’s how you yield the most lopsided return on your investments in a trade.”
He continued: “If there’s a player on the market who’s already established as a top-six player, on a good contract at a good age, it’s going to cost you a ton. This organization, especially after not selling at the deadline, they can’t afford to be making two or three trades giving up picks and prospects. They can only afford one big splash. That worked out for Washington with Dubois and to some extent, Chychrun. They got two borderline star level contributions from players they got for relatively cheap just because those guys were out of favour.”
One name Harm floated as an example of a similar out-of-favour talent?
“Trevor Zegras. I’m not saying the Canucks should go out of their way or that he’d fit in here, but you can’t rule a guy like that out because of his reputation or whatnot. Do your homework and due diligence. I don’t love the idea of a Pettersson–Zegras centre duo, but you at least kick tires and find out what the asking price is. At this point, it’s on management to look for those opportunities.”
You can watch the full segment below:
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