Avalanche acquire Lars Eller from Capitals

That’s more than he has this entire season, though, as Eller’s best days are clearly behind him. With just seven goals and 16 points through 60 appearances in 2022-23, he comes to Colorado as a bottom-six option that shouldn’t be relied on for much offensive production.

Still, he is a very capable defensive center, who still logs significant time on the penalty kill and is good (if inconsistent) in the faceoff dot. That doesn’t really answer Colorado’s second-line center question mark but does give the group some more stability down the middle.

Eller is in the last season of a five-year, $17.5M contract extension he signed just before that Stanley Cup run and carries a cap hit of $3.5M. That means he’ll cost the Avalanche a pro-rated $2.415M through the end of the season.

For Washington, landing a second-round pick seems like a big win, given the lack of real impact Eller would have on any future contending club. The Capitals are focused on surrounding Alex Ovechkin with another winner next season, and trying to pull off a “rebuild-on-the-fly” by selling off veterans in a season that obviously isn’t headed toward the Stanley Cup.

They showed their intentions yesterday by flipping the pick they received for Dmitry Orlov, landing Rasmus Sandin from the Toronto Maple Leafs. This second-round selection could suffer the same fate, traded before the Capitals ever actually take the podium to make a pick.