Kevin Shattenkirk trade shows only a Stanley Cup will be enough for Capitals

02/28/2017 by PeekYou Team Comments

Author: Barry Svrluga / Source: Washington Post

Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan heads over to the Verizon center for a game last spring. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)

We can, and should, analyze the particulars of Kevin Shattenkirk’s game, and wonder about how having another right-shot defenseman will impact the Washington Capitals’ depth, and speculate about whom he might displace on the power play, and break down the cost of such a trade in prospects and draft picks.

But if we didn’t know before the Caps made the deal Monday night with St. Louis that put Shattenkirk in a Washington uniform, we know now with complete clarity.

At this point, what constitutes a successful playoff run for the never-sniffed-a-Cup Caps?

Let Brian MacLellan say it. He’s happy to.

“Winning a championship,” the general manager said Tuesday morning.

Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk will join the Capitals in New York for Tuesday night’s game. (Jeff Curry/Usa Today Sports)

That was the entirety of his answer.

File that away, and be ready to pull it out in May or — dare we dream — June. The definition of success for a franchise that has appeared in one Stanley Cup finals, that has just twice won more than one playoff series in a spring, is now clearly and unabashedly skating around some rink, hoisting that silver chalice above their heads.

Had MacLellan and his front office not pulled off Monday’s deal for Shattenkirk, the GM likely would have said the same thing. He has been frank in his assessment that this group needs a sense of urgency, because Alex Ovechkin is already closer to the end of his career than the beginning, because the club won’t be able to sign both essential winger T.J. Oshie and mainstay defenseman Karl Alzner this offseason, and because at some point we’ll be talking about who the pieces are around Evgeny Kuznetsov and Andre Burakovsky.

The core is shifting. But before it does completely, the Capitals had the best team in hockey, both by record and by constitution. They added the most impactful player available in the trade market.

In terms of goals, of parameters for success, what other answer is there?

“All our focus, everything we’ve said and done, is about getting to the next level, being a better team, to do everything we possibly can to have a successful playoffs;” MacLellan said in his post-trade conference call with reporters Tuesday.