In a move aimed to balance risk and reward, the Washington Capitals added a six-time 30-goal scorer on the opening day of NHL free agency.
The 6-foot-2, 217-pounder tore his right Achilles' tendon twice in five months, in August 2022 and again in January 2023, and was limited to five games with the Carolina Hurricanes last season.
“We got background on the history of what went on over the past little bit with his injury,” Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan said Sunday. “We got to a comfort level on — there’s still some risk, but comfort level on we think it could probably work out.”
Pacioretty, 34, scored three goals in those five games last season, his first with Carolina after four with Vegas and 10 in Montreal. Pacioretty said Saturday that he doesn’t expect to be ready for the start of the season.
“I’m going to leave that up to the doctors and obviously the experts when it comes to that,” the 2007 first-round pick said. “All I can do right now is do whatever it takes to come back and be healthy and ready as quickly and come back as strong as possible, and that’s the work I’m willing to put in.”
MacLellan said the Capitals “aren’t going to put a timeline” on when Pacioretty will be on the ice. Pacioretty declined to discuss the details of the second injury.
“It’s tough to talk about,” he said. “I mean, we know that information. It’s tough for me to personally talk about it. … One thing I do want to focus on is moving forward and making sure it doesn’t happen again.”
When he was healthy, Pacioretty was a high-end scorer; he had 39-, 37-, 35-, 33- and 30-goal seasons with the Canadiens, plus a 32-goal year with the Golden Knights. But he hasn’t played at least 80 games since the 2016-17 season with Montreal, and over the past two years he combined for 22 goals in 44 games.
“I think we have to find a way to score more goals, and that’s what he does,” MacLellan said.
There’s risk associated with the signing, given Pacioretty’s age and injury history. And after it traded for defenseman Joel Edmundson earlier in the day, the oldest team in the NHL has added two players who are past their 30th birthdays. But if Pacioretty can stay healthy, his history as a scorer could make the risk worth it for the Capitals.
“I just thought Washington was a great opportunity for me to come back and show the group that I’m still the player that I once was,” he said. “I’m capable of coming back and scoring goals.”
Edmundson joins via trade
The Capitals’ first move after free agency opened wasn’t to sign a free agent. Instead, they traded for Edmundson, sending a third-round pick and a seventh-round pick in the 2024 draft to the Canadiens.
Montreal will retain 50 percent of Edmundson’s $3.5 million salary, so he will hit Washington’s salary cap sheet at $1.75 million.
“When we were going through the free agent market, the trade market, there’s an element that we wanted to add to our lineup,” MacLellan said. " … A physical, net-front presence, good leader, has some good size. We looked at the free agent market, what the cost was, decided to go [the trade route]. Spend a pick on it.
“The salary retention was appealing to us too, so we could afford that. We’re adding two players with a limited amount of cap space, so both of that was appealing.”
The 6-5, 221-pound defenseman has struggled with back issues in recent years but when healthy is a solid, stable presence on the left side. Edmundson was a key element of the Canadiens’ run to the Stanley Cup finals in 2021 — he had six assists in 22 playoff games — but a back injury pushed his 2021-22 debut to March, and he played just 24 games that season.
This past season, Edmundson was largely healthy, playing 61 games and serving as an alternate captain for Montreal. He scored two goals and totaled 13 points while averaging over 19 minutes of ice time.
Edmundson was selected by St. Louis in the second round of the 2011 draft. He made his NHL debut with the Blues in 2015 and played four seasons with them, winning the Stanley Cup in 2019 before being traded to the Hurricanes that September. A year later, Carolina dealt Edmundson to Montreal, where he spent the past three seasons.
With the Capitals, Edmundson brings experience to a youthful group on the left side of the defense. The right side is veteran-laden with John Carlson, Nick Jensen and Trevor van Riemsdyk. But on the left, Rasmus Sandin, Alex Alexeyev and Martin Fehervary — a restricted free agent who has yet to re-sign but was issued a qualifying offer Friday — are each 23. The acquisition of Edmundson gives Washington a veteran to bolster that group, and with one year left on his contract he won’t be a significant obstacle for the young trio as they become increasingly ready for larger roles.