When Brian MacLellan completed his business at the trade deadline, he’d moved a few players but kept enough for a more-or-less realistic playoff push, a situation in which his Caps still find themselves (albeit somewhat tenuously). Having traded away Evgeny Kuznetsov and Anthony Mantha, he probably envisioned a top-six along the lines of Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Tom Wilson and Max Pacioretty-Connor McMichael-T.J. Oshie for the stretch run. The orientation of those pieces is less important than the names, and, to be sure, youngsters like Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroschnichenko would move in and out of some of those roles as needed.
What’s Missing in the Caps’ Top Six
