Capitals give up on Devante Smith-Pelly, seem to change course on Dmitrij Jaskin



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TORONTO – The afternoon of the Washington Capitals has become rather intriguing with a flurry of transaction information that has finally ended with the release of forward Devante Smith-Pelly's waivers. With the trading deadline on Monday, the move would be the precursor of another.

The team originally planned to attack Dmitrij Jaskin at noon, which was why he was not on the ice for the team practice in Toronto at 11 am. Smith-Pelly was on the ice for the start of the practice, but then left early, apparently informed that the organization had changed his mind and decided to give up on him and not on Jaskin.

"Right now, a lot of movement is going on, especially for teams whose salaries are at the limit of pay, as we are," said Reirden. "Earlier in the day, we made the decision to exempt Jaskin, changed our minds and were warned in practice. We made this adjustment and now Devante has been put on waivers. "

Why this change of heart?

"It's a bit of what's going on behind the scenes here and it's something that we will obviously keep between us at this point, especially with the amount of things happening in the league right now," he said. Reirden.

It is possible that once it was learned that Washington was considering giving up Jaskin, General Manager Brian MacLellan received a more attractive offer from another team.

Smith-Pelly has four goals and four assists in 54 games this season. He signed a contract of one million dollars over a year, signed this last season. One season ago, Smith-Pelly had 16 points, including seven goals, in 75 regular season games. He tied the game with seven goals in the playoffs, scoring the equalizer in the fifth Stanley Cup game against the Golden Knights of Vegas.

The teams will have until tomorrow noon to claim Smith-Pelly. If the waivers are clear, capitals can assign it to their subsidiary minor leagues, the Hershey Bears.

"It's always difficult to tell a player that this is part of their business, especially for someone who is in a situation like ours, pushed to the limit and trying to improve his or her team. its cohesion, "said Reirden. "Obviously, he played a big role in the success of our team last year."

Smith-Pelly has a cap of $ 1 million, so clearing this list will leave Washington a little more room for maneuver if the team wants to acquire someone by Monday. With Smith-Pelly on the list, the Capitals had a maximum of 23 players and less than $ 237,000 in pay space, according to CapFriendly.com. Managing director Brian MacLellan said earlier this month that he was looking to swap one forward for another, and he was probably looking for someone who could play in the six Washington centers, which means in second or third line.

When asked if there could be more moves coming, Reirden replied, "There is a lot happening right now. As I said, we are always trying to improve our team and the direction we are going and we are improving. There are a lot of moving parts right now in different places. "

This story has been updated from a previous version.

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