Mailbag: Capitals, Devils struggles; Rangers depth 

Here is the Dec. 13. edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X. Send your questions to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom, and tag it with #OvertheBoards.

1) Any potential forward trade targets for the Capitals given the cap space created by Nicklas Backstrom's absence? 2) Should we officially be worried now about whether or not Alex Ovechkin can catch Wayne Gretzky? -- @UnleashTheHeshy

I went over the list of potential trade targets for the Capitals in the mailbag that ran Nov. 29. If you missed it, here it is:

• Elias Lindholm, Calgary Flames
• Nazem Kadri, Calgary Flames
• Sean Monahan, Montreal Canadiens
• Vladimir Tarasenko, Ottawa Senators
• Anthony Duclair, San Jose Sharks
• Adam Henrique, Anaheim Ducks
• Patrik Laine, Columbus Blue Jackets

I think the Capitals should be eyeing a center who can bump either Evgeny Kuznetsov or Dylan Strome down to the third line and push Connor McMichael either to the wing or to the fourth line. They need a distributor on their first power-play unit too. It's not good, last in the NHL at 8.2 percent, a huge reason why the answer to your second question is a resounding yes. But to your first question, I'd be eyeing Lindholm and Monahan. Both are playing on expiring contracts, pending unrestricted free agents, so you're not tied in long term if you don't want to be. They can distribute the puck and, frankly, just a change in personnel, a different look and skillset could go a long way toward getting the Capitals out of their season-long power-play funk. If they can do that, you know it'll get Ovechkin out of his season-long goal-scoring funk.

Ovechkin has five goals on 90 shots, a 5.6 shooting percentage. He came into this season shooting 14.7 percent over the past five seasons and 12.9 percent for his career. His career-low shooting percentage for a season is 8.7, which not surprisingly came in the same season, 2010-11, when he scored a career-low in goals (for a full season), 32 in 79 games. Ovechkin came into this season needing 72 goals to tie Gretzky, an average of 24 per season in the final three years of his contract. My thinking was he needed at least 35 this season because father time catches up and counting on another 20-plus goals in the last year of his deal, when he's 40 years old, with maybe 1,500 games played, seemed far-fetched. At this point, he needs to score one goal every three games just to get to 24 this season. He has scored once every five games so far.

He needs a jolt. The Capitals need one. They've kept the puck out of their own net well enough to buy some time, but the quicker they can make a move, the better, because it's too hard to survive in a playoff race scoring 2.48 goals per game with a power play that can't connect for a goal even nine percent of the time.

Might we see any significant trades prior to the Christmas break? Or how about teams with three goalie situations moving one? -- @MrEd315

We might. It's early in the season for trades, though the holiday roster freeze (Dec. 20-27) could spark some of the discussions that are always ongoing around the League to escalate into more than just talk. We saw minor trades in advance of the holiday roster freeze last season, but it didn't pick up until Bo Horvat was traded from the Vancouver Canucks to the New York Islanders on Jan. 30. However, three-goalie situations make things interesting, particularly with the Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens. Both have three healthy NHL goalies, and I wonder how long they want to go on like that. Managing the situation is challenging because it leads to reduced playing time for all three goalies. I wonder if the New Jersey Devils would be interested in Jake Allen from the Canadiens to potentially take some pressure off Vitek Vanecek and allow Akira Schmid to play regularly in Utica of the American Hockey League. Would they feel the same about James Reimer from the Red Wings? If the Hurricanes are worried about Frederik Andersen (blood clots), would they take on one of them and send Pyotr Kochetkov to the AHL? I'm asking these questions and I do not know the answer, but they're worth exploring.

Petr Mrazek has been great for the Chicago Blackhawks. Do you see any team targeting by now (Edmonton Oilers, Detroit Red Wings)? -- @Rafael_Meneses

This goes to the previous question. Yes, teams could and probably should be targeting Mrazek, who has had a solid, resurgent season and is in the last year of a three-year, $11.4 million contract ($3.8 million average annual value). He has kept the Blackhawks in games that maybe they had no business being in. But instead of trading him (goalies do not net much in return in the trade market, especially borderline No. 1 goalies like Mrazek, unless it's part of a bigger deal), the Blackhawks would be better off re-signing Mrazek to a short-term contract. Think two years. It would continue to allow them to buy time to develop a future No. 1. If that's Arvid Soderblom, finishing this season and playing all of next season in a smaller role could be what allows him to eventually be good enough and experienced enough to graduate to a bigger role by the time he's 26 years old. He's 24 now. Mrazek could be the buffer, and signing a two-year contract gives him some NHL certainty as he goes into his mid-30s. He turns 32 on Feb. 14.

Are the Rangers considering any changes to their forward corps externally or internally? -- @NYRSZN

They won't have much salary cap space to work with if we're talking externally unless Filip Chytil is unable to return. The forward hasn't been ruled out for the season, but Tuesday marked the 17th straight game he has missed with an upper-body injury, and he is not yet skating with the team, not even with a non-contact jersey on. Chytil has been skating on his own. A week ago, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said, "I think he'll return." So, we'll see. If he can't play again this season, they can leave him on long-term injured reserve and that would open more salary cap space. Kaapo Kakko is on LTIR with a lower-body injury. His injury is not expected to be season ending, but he is not yet skating on his own and we don't know when he will start to do that. He has missed seven straight games. 

Jonny Brodzinski has filled in admirably, but he doesn't strike me as a long-term solution if Chytil and/or Kakko are going to be out for several more months. Brodzinski can play center or wing, and on the power play, but he hasn't had a sustained run in the NHL. Chytil's injury has forced the Rangers to use Nick Bonino in a third-line role when he was signed for a fourth-line role. He's been solid, but if they can re-slot him into his fourth-line role, that would make the Rangers look like a much deeper team. It all depends on Chytil. The best-case scenario is to get him back and healthy, but if that can't happen, then the Rangers will have to address their forward depth.

Do you feel the Devils should concede this season as a lost cause and work in players from Utica at the same time determining what to do long term with their goaltending? -- @KXPriestess

Concede? No. The Devils are sixth in the Metropolitan Division, four points behind the New York Islanders and Philadelphia Flyers for second with a game in hand on New York and two in hand on Philadelphia. They went 3-1-0 on a four-game West Coast road trip last week. They're home against the Boston Bruins at Prudential Center on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; MAX, MSGSN, TNT). They could use a defenseman with Dougie Hamilton out indefinitely after successful surgery on his left pectoral muscle, though 19-year-old Simon Nemec has been solid in five games since he was brought up from Utica, scoring a goal and dishing out two assists. Yes, they have to get their goaltending in order, meaning it has to be better, but they need to play better in front of Vanecek and Schmid.

They've played 26 games. The only thing the Devils are conceding is that the 26 games they've played haven't been their best. They are in the mix. There's a long runway. Patience.