Lars Eller is headed again to the Washington Capitals. The group introduced it has acquired Eller from the Pittsburgh Penguins for a third-round decide in 2027 and Chicago’s fifth-round decide in 2025.
Eller spent a lot of his profession with the Capitals from 2016-17 till being traded to the Colorado Avalanche on the 2022-23 commerce deadline. He’s not well-known for his offensive exploits however did rating one of the vital vital targets in Capitals historical past, the Stanley Cup-clinching aim in Recreation 5 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Ultimate.
His time in Washington was actually the prime of his profession. Eller scored 87 targets and 208 factors for the Capitals in 488 video games, with one other 9 targets and 31 factors in 59 postseason contests. He was additionally an efficient asset down the center of the ice securing over 3,000 faceoff wins within the District of Columbia with a 50.1% success price.
The Capitals jumped early on an apparent space of want. The group had lately been deploying Michael Sgarbossa as the middle of the group’s third line making Eller an enormous enchancment. The Danish veteran had scored 4 targets and 7 factors in 17 video games for the Penguins this season with a 56.0% faceoff success price. Eller may additionally assist the Capitals on the penalty kill though there’s little room for enchancment with the group already fourth within the league with a 86.96% penalty kill.
Whereas one group positive aspects one thing, one other group loses one thing. The Penguins presently personal a 6-9-2 report on the yr and are solely at some point faraway from being blown out by the Dallas Stars. Transferring Eller could be the first signal of issues to come back for Pittsburgh.
He wasn’t the one veteran on an expiring deal for the Penguins. Ought to the group proceed barreling towards the underside of the NHL standings; Marcus Pettersson, Drew O’Connor, Anthony Beauvillier and Matt Grzelcyk may change into accessible through commerce. Given how disappointing the Pens have been to begin the 2024-25 marketing campaign, they could not restrict themselves to solely transferring out expiring offers.
