Grading the Orlov/Hathaway trade: The Bruins load up, the Capitals give up

Matt Larkin
Matt Larkin(MLarkinHockey)
Grading the Orlov/Hathaway trade: The Bruins load up, the Capitals give up
Credit: © James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

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Momentum is a powerful thing. Earlier this week, reports all around the hockey media world suggested the Boston Bruins had a deal in place to land defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov from the Columbus Blue Jackets and that the Bruins needed to move cap space first to make it happen. Then came the report from Daily Faceoff’s own Frank Seravalli on Wednesday that the Washington Capitals could pivot to a seller posture and put defenseman Dmitry Orlov on the block.

One day later and…boom. The Bruins saw a superior option to Gavrikov available and pounced. They landed Orlov and grinding forward Garnet Hathaway from the Capitals Thursday night for right winger Craig Smith, a 2023 first-round pick, a 2025 second-round pick and a 2024 third-round pick. In addition to retaining half Orlov’s cap hit at $2.55 million, the Capitals swallowed Smith’s $3.1 million AAV. The Minnesota Wild jumped in as a third-party broker, sending forward Andrei Svetlakov’s rights to Boston and taking on 25 percent of Orlov’s cap hit for $1.275 million in exchange for a 2023 fifth-round pick. That means the Bruins are only paying $1.275 million for Orlov.

So how did each team fare on this significant trade? For the sake of the exercise, we’ll focus on the Bruins and Capitals rather than handing out a grade to the Wild, who were simply flexing their cap space to score a pick.

BOSTON BRUINS

Receive:

D Dmitry Orlov, 31 – $1.275 million cap hit (Capitals retain $2.55 million and Wild retain $1.275 million of $5.1 million cap hit), 2023 UFA

LW/RW Garnet Hathaway, 31 – 1.5 million cap hit. 2023 UFA


(Bruins also receive rights to KHL forward Andrei Svetlakov from Wild)

Two things we already knew before the Bruins made their big splash Thursday: (a) The Bruins, poised to run away with the Presidents’ Trophy, are determined to win a Stanley Cup in what could be captain Patrice Bergeron’s final season; and (b) three of their Eastern Conference rivals already made major upgrades in recent weeks, with Bo Horvat, Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly going to the New York Islanders, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs, respectively.

The Bruins didn’t have the same needs as those teams, as they were already rolling two excellent forward lines and owned the league’s No. 2 offense and No. 7 power play. But they did need a definitive top-four defenseman to play the left side and some forward depth. And they sure address those two holes with Thursday’s deal.

Jakob Chychrun is the top left shot defenseman on the market, but the Bruins, whose prospect pipeline is thin, wouldn’t have had the horses to land him. Orlov, however, instantly leapfrogged Gavrikov to become the second-best left-shot ‘D’ the moment Washington made him available. Orlov, 31, is a Stanley Cup winner who logged close to 23 minutes a night for the Caps this season. He is a true two-way defenseman, effective at moving the puck but also capable of holding is own in heavy minutes against difficult competition.

At 5-on-5 this season, the Caps held more than 50 percent of the shot share, expected goal share and scoring chance share with Orlov on the ice. Not bad for a guy whose most commonly faced opponents include the likes of Tim Stutzle, Brady Tkachuk, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and Sebastian Aho. Imagine pairing Orlov with Charlie McAvoy? That instantly becomes one of the best duos in the league and would allow the Bruins to keep Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Carlo together. Whatever coach Jim Montgomery chooses to do, he’ll have exciting options.

Meanwhile, Hathaway is no throw-in. He’s an extremely physical bottom-six forward who will fit seamlessly into the Big, Bad Bruins brand. Or, more accurately, at a beefy 6-foot-3 and 208 pounds, he will bring back some of that mentality for a team that has gradually developed a more finesse-driven identity. Hathaway is a genuinely effective checking winger who tends to improve his line’s 5-on-5 defensive play. He also bludgeons everything in his path. Among 426 forwards with at least 200 minutes played at 5-on-5 this season, he ranks 12th in hits per 60.

The Bruins have added two perfectly suited complementary pieces to assist in their Cup run while shipping out the underachieving Smith’s cap hit. They did so without giving up any prospects, let alone a top one such as Fabian Lysell. And as a powerhouse challenging for the regular season points record in 2022-23, their 2023 first-round pick will be low enough to be a glorified second rounder. 

General manager Don Sweeney aced this deal. Period.

Grade: A+

WASHINGTON CAPITALS

Receive:

2023 first-round pick
2024 third-round pick
2025 second-round pick
RW Craig Smith, 33 – 3.1 million cap hit, 2023 UFA

That happened fast. It has been a rocky few weeks for the Caps, who had lost five consecutive games before GM Brian MacLellan pulled the trigger on Thursday’s trade. Four of those defeats came while captain Alex Ovechkin was home in Russia after the death of his father.

The truth, though: the Caps were trudging uphill lugging a one-ton boulder all season long. They entered 2022-23 as the NHL’s oldest team and started the year without stalwart forwards Nicklas Backstrom (hip resurfacing surgery) and Tom Wilson (torn ACL). Neither has looked like his old self since returning, while the Caps have endured countless other injuries to key contributors, including No. 1 defenseman John Carlson and right winger Connor Brown. They have not won a playoff series since winning the Stanley Cup in 2017-18. With his team no longer holding a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, MacLellan evidently recognized that the contention window is closing. With so many useful players on expiring deals – including Hathaway, Lars Eller and Marcus Johansson up front and every single NHL defenseman on the team aside from Carlson set to be a UFA or RFA this summer – now seemed like a logical time to cash out some assets.

So MacLellan did the right thing in theory. The Capitals, victims of their own success in the Ovechkin era, have not picked in the top 10 of an NHL Draft since 2007 and thus have a weak prospect pool. If it isn’t time to fully rebuild, it’s at the very least time to take an ‘L’ on 2022-23 and retool. And the trade with the Bruins activates this phase of the Capitals’ franchise development.

But did they get enough? Orlov undoubtedly became a marquee target on defense as soon as Washington made him available, which, from my understanding, only happened recently. Could they not have shopped around more to see if a better offer presented itself? Instead, they end up surrendering Orlov and Hathaway with zero prospect additions and just the one first-round pick to show for it – a pick that won’t be high. Theoretically, they could flip Smith, but they’d probably have to retain some of his 3.1 million cap hit to do that, and he’d yield a late-round pick at best.

On one hand, the Capitals deserve credit for recognizing their situation and having the guts to begin a transitional period. On the other, the return just doesn’t cut it. Not when you’re giving up two players that will significantly augment a contender’s championship odds.

Grade: C-

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