A motive for the Washington Capitals’ acquisition of Mike Weber ahead of the league’s trade deadline was to give the defense corps more variety. The Capitals had five puck-moving blue-liners in John Carlson, Matt Niskanen, Dmitry Orlov, Nate Schmidt and Taylor Chorney, then a physical, stay-at-home one in Brooks Orpik and a sort of hybrid in Karl Alzner.
Weber gave the team an additional physical presence on the back end for some balance. Washington was happy with the defensemen it featured in the postseason last year, but some additional options could’ve been useful. Tim Gleason, a similar style of defenseman to Weber and also acquired before the trade deadline, was an addition the Capitals considered successful, but against speedier teams, like the Rangers in the second round, perhaps a puck-mover would’ve been preferable.