GM Chris Patrick pulled off a little rush-hour surprise tonight, bringing back Capitals’ legend and forever Stanley Cup champ Lars Eller from the Penguins for a fifth-round (2025) and third-round (2027) pick.
Eller last played for the Caps back in 2022-23, when he was jettisoned to Colorado at the trade deadline as part of the team’s mini fire sale before signing with the dreaded Penguins that summer. Now, a year and a half later, he’s back with the team he won it all with…so why did the Caps make this move?
Let’s be honest, Eller isn’t here to fix the power play (although he did get about 19 minutes of power-play time in Pittsburgh…somehow) or provide a ton of offense (although he was the Penguins’ fifth-highest scorer before the trade and is currently on about a 20-goal pace). Eller is probably here, first and foremost, to shore up a third line that has never quite clicked to start the season.
Yes, Mike Sgarbossa has been a decent stop-gap – thank you for your service, sir – and that trio hasn’t been bad, per se, but Eller brings something that the current 3C, Hendrix Lapierre, really doesn’t have (yet) and that’s strong play on both sides of the puck.
Here’s a look at their numbers as comparison:

Sure, the xGF/60 takes a hit – but for a team that is scoring plenty already and occasionally gets a little too loose defensively, it’s the right side of those graphs that should interest us. It’s worth noting, too, that Eller earned those defensive stats on a Penguins team that currently has a goal differential of -21 and that gives up the third-most shots per game in the league. They’re very, very bad defensively, but they’ve been better with #20 patrolling the ice:


Defensive chops aside, while Eller is almost surely coming in to play on the team’s third line (again), he also provides the team with options in that bottom six group. You can never have too much center depth, after all, and he gives the coaching staff flexibility that they maybe didn’t have before, both at even strength and on the penalty kill. Can’t spell “versatile” without “Lars”, after all!
Most importantly, of course is just…vibes, baby. There’s something to be said for buying so early in the season – even with a relatively small move – to show that management believes in this team and the direction they’re going, and wants to get them there as fast as possible. Bringing back a fan favorite and a guy who seemed to be pretty well-liked in the room, a veteran presence and another guy with a Cup ring? Not a bad idea, especially for the price.
None of this is to say, of course, that this move is 100% perfect – or that it will pay off.
Eller isn’t getting any younger and wasn’t great leading up to his trade back in 2023, so there is reason to question this move, if only just a little. The team was clicking along pretty well already and there’s always the risk of messing with a successful locker room when someone new (or new-ish) is brought in; as familiar as he is with some of the guys on the team and the city itself, he’s never played for Spencer Carbery.
It also kind of stinks for Lapierre, who seemed poised to make the leap to the Caps full-time after his up-and-down, Calder Cup and MVP-winning season last year; he is undoubtedly the odd man out here, and it’s hard not to feel for him in this situation.
If anyone has earned the benefit of the doubt, though, it’s GM Chris Patrick and the Caps’ front office – particularly after the team’s offseason and stellar start to the season. Time will tell whether its deserved, but for now, with Eller on an expiring contract, this feels like another low risk, potentially high reward move for the Capitals…and they’ve certainly gotten plenty out of moves like that in the past.