LATEST | Capitals and Canucks emerging as trade partners: They've just made two young and promising centermen available

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Felip Gosselin
March 27, 2023 (6:20 PM)

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The Washington Capitals, just like the Canucks, have announced that they'd be retooling in order to give a second breath to their current core made of notably Alexander Ovechkin, Yevgeny Kuznetsov, John Carlson.

The Canucks on their end have been targeting young players in their early 20s and opted for a completely different strategy and it seems to have worked wonders for them ever since Rick Tocchet came in. The Canucks have been trying to shed some salary for some time and in that line of thoughts it's no secret that they've been trying to move Brock Boeser and/or Conor Garland with that goal in mind.

A report from Tarik El-Bashir suggested that the Caps were on the hunt for a top-6 forward and they'd be willing to offer two former 1st Round Selections to achieve their goal:

Hendrix Lapierre, the Caps' first-round selection in the 2020 draft, is a 21-year-old with a lot of untapped potentials and has taken the first steps to his professional career in Hershey. He managed 24 points in 52 games thus far in the AHL, the 6'01'' and 185 pounds centerman is known to be a heck of a two-way player with an unbelievable hockey IQ.

Connor McMichael was their first draft pick in 2019, he's definitely further in his development since he's already in his third season amongst the professionals. He has 34 points in 48 games in Hershey and the scouting reports about him are just as exciting. A change of scenery might just be what this youngster needs to blossom into the high-end player he was meant to be.

The Canucks on their end, have a solid winger in Brock Boeser whose agent has been allowed to talk to other teams in order to facilitate a trade. Boeser has surely raised his trade value since Tocchet came in since he's only 6 points away from setting a career-high in points. If the Caps are looking for help on their top 6, Allvin and Maclellan should definitely get in touch since they can both satisfy each other's wants.