With the Caps needing to get younger and dealing with a tight salary cap situation (as usual), it was unlikely that they were going to be big players in free agency this summer – and early into Day 1 of the free agency period, their only action had been to swing a trade with Montreal for depth defenseman Joel Edmundson.
That changed when Brian MacLellan and company dipped their toe into the UFA pool and snagged Max Pacioretty, the 34-year-old winger who most recently suited up for Carolina before getting injured last season…which we’ll get to in a second.