Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Trade Alex Ovechkin Or Not?

05/25/2017 at 3:27pm EDT

from Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post,

To date, there is no indication the franchise has, is or will consider trading the player that has helped turn Verizon Center from a sparsely-attended rink into a raucous (and profitable), sold-out arena, brimming to the rafters with red-clad Capitals fans for the past 364 home games. But the question raised by Melrose and Milbury, among others, begs a closer look at the mechanics of such a maneuver. While it’s easy to talk about trading Ovechkin, dealing a franchise’s most popular player with a $9.5 million salary cap hit for the next four years is a nearly impossible transaction in practice, even if the Capitals were interested in such a move.

Washington will almost certainly not deal Ovechkin this summer, but if the organization ever did reach a point where that was a consideration, the process for carrying out such a trade starts with a blessing from the owner and ends with the question of whether the Capitals would truly benefit from dealing one of the greatest goal-scorers in league history.

“I think they should consider it, and I think it’s a really tough deal to make,” said Sportsnet’s Doug MacLean, a former general manager for the Columbus Blue Jackets. “I wouldn’t want to be the guy making the deal. It’s easy for me when I’m in the media to talk about it now, but as a GM, I wouldn’t be talking about it so easily.”

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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