GM MacLellan Explains Why The Capitals Chose To Majorly Shake Things Up This Offseason

ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals weren't happy with the way things were going. So general manager Brian MacLellan did something about it.

Washington finished with the fifth-least goals per game, while the defense also struggled. Charlie Lindgren also earned the starting role but didn't have a reliable 1B option with Darcy Kuemper's play taking a backseat.

After barely sneaking into the Stanley Cup Playoffs this past season, MacLellan took a long look at his roster and assessed the situation, ultimately deciding that things needed to change, while also declaring that his team wanted to remain a contender.

"We realized where we were at last year. We knew we had to get better, we had to add," MacLellan said.

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So going into free agency, the Capitals decided that they'd have to be active in free agency.

"I think we've been trying to take risks... that's been our philosophy, versus let's just tank it and go down and try to win the lottery, which is a painful approach to it," MacLellan said matter-of-factly. "We're taking a lot of risks."

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Those "risks" have included overhauling roughly a third of the roster.

First, MacLellan shipped out Beck Malenstyn and Nick Jensen while acquiring Andrew Mangiapane, Logan Thompson and Jakob Chychrun in trades. Then, in free agency, he signed Matt Roy, Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh.

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Looking at areas of improvement, MacLellan feels confident that the team is younger and faster, and that there's more support for the team's offense, a key area it wanted to improve in.

"We want to spend more time in the offensive zone, and I think these guys are going to help that," MacLellan said, adding, "For (Alex Ovechkin), too, I mean, there's a lot of pressure on Ovi to produce last year because we lacked the depth in that area. So hopefully he's supported here more with a better overall team this year."

Overall, the group is excited about the progress it made and feels it has significantly improved.

“I think we’re better. I just think it’s a better-slotted team," MacLellan said. "It should be better offensively. We’ll find that out later. I think it’s overall just a deeper, better-structured team than it was last year.”