Prior to Evgeny Kuznetsov’s arrival and emergence in the NHL, much of the Alex Ovechkin Era of Caps hockey was characterized, in part, by a seemingly endless search for a second top-six center to complement Swedish wunderkind Nicklas Backstrom.
Michael Nylander. Sergei Fedorov. Brendan Morrison. Eric Belanger. Jason Arnott. Mike Ribiero. Mikhail Grabovski. Mathieu Perreault. Marcus Johansson. Brooks Laich. Eric Fehr.
Those are just some of the guys who had their shot at being The Answer prior to Kuznetsov’s long-awaited debut. The Caps’ quest for a second-line center (nominally, if not literally) was seemingly the fetch quest that, once accomplished, would finally let them sip from Lord Stanley’s chalice (one need only look 240 miles up I-70 to see how that worked).