Deadline Q&A With MacLellan

Monday's trade deadline has come and gone, and the Caps made a pair of moves to bolster their forward depth and flexibility. Washington reacquired veteran forward Marcus Johansson from Seattle in exchange for winger Daniel Sprong, a fourth-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft and a sixth-rounder in 2023. Later in the day, the Caps dealt their third-round pick in 2023 to Arizona in exchange for another veteran forward, Johan Larsson.

Johansson has already arrived in Washington and will suit up in his familiar No. 90 sweater tonight, while Larsson is expected to arrive late this afternoon. He is in the late stages of recovering from sports hernia surgery in late January, and he is estimated to be a week or so away from making his Capitals debut.
Right after all the dust settled from Monday's deadline, we had an opportunity for an exclusive conversation with Caps general manager Brian MacLellan. A transcript follows.
Q: Mac, how did your philosophy towards what improvements you might want or need to make at the deadline evolve - if it did -- over the course of the season from November until today, given the ups and downs over that period of time?
A:I've thought that [goaltender] Vitek [Vanecek] has done a good job here, through that period of time that you're talking about, and he got to a level of consistency that we felt comfortable with. I think we've liked our defense as a group pretty much the whole time. We ran into some injury issues, but overall we think it's a good group and they fit well together.
I think that our main area of focus with guys in and out of the lineup was just finding forward combinations that work. We got our second line back together, and it's looked good, but now we're in a state of flux again here. So I think that's been our main area of focus, finding a middle six group that fits together, that has a role that the coaches are comfortable with and can use them in the games that way.
Coming into the deadline, our focus was to give some flexibility to the coaches. They have patterns of how they're using guys on certain lines, and I think both the guys we brought in give them more flexibility position-wise and skill-wise. One [Johansson] is a complementary offensive player and one [Larsson] is a good defensive player. So the hope is that we can find some combinations that work for us as a team, and everybody's comfortable with their role and we go from there.
Q:Was there ever a thought toward trying to acquire a guy like [Marc-Andre] Fleury or a goaltender of that ilk?
A:Going through the process, we looked at how we could upgrade our goaltending, and there were limited options in our mind, and plus the fact that we like what Vitek has done here over the last stretch. I think he has earned the right to lead the team here into the playoffs, and I think we needed to give it to him because of the way he has played.
Q:Now that the dust has settled here and you've brought these two guys in, what are your thoughts? There aren't a whole lot of points separating those eight top teams in the East.
A:I think all eight teams in the East have a chance. You get into that first round and there are some upsets always, and you make your way from there. Teams are pretty close. There might be a couple of teams that are at a slight advantage personnel-wise, but you've still got to come through and it's a hard thing to do, playing at a high level at the end of the year, getting some bounces and getting some good goaltending. You could have a surprise team that takes the East, too.
Q:As a guy with a financial background, are you able to explain the forces that made this such a seller's market this year?
A: No, I can't. [laughter] I thought it was going to be a buyers' market.
Q:I did too, with the high number of "carcass" teams out there.
A: You know, there were some aggressive trades that went out early. They had guys that they targeted, and they went after them. Not that that doesn't normally happen, but that sets a tone with the first-round picks. So then you get into it, and everybody says, "Well, this is the value this year." So the market sets itself based on trades. You make calls and you say, "Well, they got this for this guy, so we think this for our guy." I think those early trades kind of shifted the market, the trades where people were willing to step up and get them done early.
Q:And philosophically, you guys don't want to be moving out first- and second-round picks and good prospects at this stage.
A:Yeah, we made our mind up that we like the prospects we have right now. They're coming, they're all developing, and they're all getting better. We think we have some good ones, and we weren't willing to move them. And we're still looking to draft a couple of good ones [this summer] with our first- and our second-round pick. I think we'll have a pretty decent second-round pick, so hopefully we can get a couple more good prospects at the draft, too.
Q:You've had to play a lot of those prospects at times this season. How has the play of those players altered your view of the overall picture of the organizational depth since late October, when the recalls started?
A:I think we had a pretty good feel for it when we made the picks and got the guys in. I think we did a pretty good job back then of projecting what they would turn out to be. I think the important part for us is that they all got games [in the NHL] this year. They've all gotten to the next level; they've had American League experience plus NHL experience. While we've had injuries and man-games lost, we've taken advantage of that with development of some of our young guys. We feel good about that, too.
Q: Does your feeling toward the deadline change at all when you're running a [salary] cap team?
A: It does when you have limited dollars to work with and you're unwilling to move high-end prospects. I think we are fishing in a different pond than some of the big boys. I think we knew that early and we focused on that early, so I feel fortunate that we got a couple of pretty good players that can round out our roster.
Q: Looking at Johansson specifically, it seems as though he could be a good fit with Lars [Eller], whose numbers are a bit depressed this year. He has had a revolving door of linemates, and he has had nights where he has had two rookies on his line and then he has two different rookies on his line the next game. Seems like a line with those two and maybe [Conor] Sheary could be a good forechecking and good third line for the playoffs.
A: I think that's the goal with adding these two guys. I think our problem this year has been with our second line guys being out, we bump our third line guys up, and then we have a fourth line with a role that stays the same. And then we're filling in on the third line with Lars, so he gets what's left over after all of that, and so it lacks an identity. It doesn't have what it could have if your lineup is full. So adding Larsson and adding Johansson will give us the ability to have four good lines.
Q:With Larsson, what are you hearing on his health as far as when he might be back?
A:Yeah, he had the sports hernia surgery, and he has recovered. He has been skating and I think today was to be his first day of scheduled team practice, so we would expect around a week of practice, and then kind of go off how he feels and how he comes in here. All indications through our training staff are that he had a successful recovery from his injury, and he should be good within approximately a week.
Q:And do you like the way these two guys are playing this year, you and your scouts?
A:Yeah. The trade deadline risk is always that you're bringing a guy in and it takes him a long time to fit in, personally and team-wise. But I think it's built in with Marcus. He knows the people, and he has played with [Evgeny Kuznetsov] a lot, he's played with Nick [Backstrom] a lot, and he's played on our power play a lot. So I think it's going to be an instant comfort level, no matter where we put him. He's got chemistry with a lot of guys, and off the ice too; he fits in. He knows the personalities, and there are friendships there. So we're hoping that's an advantage versus a new guy coming in and trying to find his way. It's not always easy.
He is a complementary offensive player. I think playing with higher end guys, he does better. He's still got the skating [ability], can still carry the puck through the middle of the ice. There are a lot of positives in his game, and I think we can get more offensively out of him than he is putting up right now.
Q:And with Larsson, it's obviously a small sample size given that he has essentially missed half the season to date with a couple of different ailments early and then this one, but his points-per-game rate is way higher this year than it's even been before.
A:Yeah, I think his role has changed this year with the way Arizona's lineup is, so he played higher in the lineup than he normally does. I think he is an excellent shutdown guy, a real good defender, a pretty good penalty killer. Those attributes are there, and I do think he has a little sneaky offense in his game, and a little sneaky compete level that people don't always see.
Q: Yeah, I've seen it. He's thick up top, too, for sure. Do you envision him maybe filling [Carl Hagelin's] spot on the left side?
A:Again, he's a versatile guy. You can move him around. He can play center, he can play wing, he can penalty kill. I think he could fit in on the third line or fourth line, and there's some versatility there that I think will be good for our lineup.