Capitals general manager Chris Patrick will have a number of valuable trade pieces to play with this summer. He has gone on record multiple times that he wants to add a player to upgrade their top six forwards and has spent the last year acquiring enough firepower to pull it off. He has the 16th and the 18th overall pick in this month’s NHL draft, a full complement of draft picks in the ’27, ’28, and 29’ drafts and an extra second (2029) and third (2027). They have the prospects to include to make a deal happen. But what if the Capitals don’t go the trade route and instead sign a restricted free agent to an offer sheet?
Offer sheets have been a sore spot for NHL teams and the compensation can be steep. There have been 12 offers sheets given to restricted free agents since 2005, and only four of them were signed and not matched. Teams get pretty upset when they are backed in a corner with little cap space and another team takes advantage. I think Brian Burke is still pissed about Edmonton’s offer sheet to the Ducks’ Justin Penner in 2007. There could be some big name restricted free agents available this summer if they don’t resign with their respective teams. Connor Bedard in Chicago, Fantilli in Columbus, Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson in Anaheim, and Pavel Dorofeyev. Those teams will do whatever it takes to resign them. Dallas has a little over $10 million in salary cap space and has Jason Robertson, Mavrik Bourque and their captain Jamie Benn to resign. That’s why the Caps should target Jason Robertson.
Dallas has to trade someone else to clear cap space. Wyatt Johnston, Bourque, and Mikko Ratanen aren’t getting traded. That leaves Roberston who wuld get $12 million-plus per season on the open market. The Stars will have to replace Robertson’s production for next season and may prefer to get a package of NHL players, draft picks and prospects before the draft. But, if Robertson makes it to July 1, the Caps should be willing to give up the first rounders to get him.
The Capitals would be a much better team with Robertson in the lineup, which means they would most likely be picking in the bottom of the first round. It isn’t that difficult to trade up from the second round to the bottom of the first; the Caps have collected extra picks to make deals, and Chris Patrick has shown the willingness in the past to trade a player on an expiring contract for a first-round pick. He might upset Dallas with an offer sheet, but the NHL can be cutthroat and Patrick has shown he is aggressive and may have no porblem being ruthless if he has to be. If he indeed signs Roberston to an offer sheet, the Caps would keep all of their prospects, the two 16th and 18th pick in this month’s draft , and while still add the top six forward they want, strengthening the roster for next season as well as the future.
