The Washington Capitals and General Manager Brian MacLellan announced on Friday morning that they traded established defenseman Matt Niskanen for Radko Gudas of the Philadelphia Flyers. Niskanen has been a longtime defenseman on the Capitals roster and spent five seasons with the team and helped fix up a defense that was struggling.
For the most part, Niskanen carried a blue collar mentality on the ice and always gave an honest assessment in the postgame interviews. He wasn’t a scorer but was doing all the right things, winning puck battles, the board battles, and was lethal on the penalty kill.