The Capitals will not trade veteran winger Max Pacioretty will not be traded ahead of the 2 p.m. CT trade deadline, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports.
Pacioretty is in the midst of an impressive comeback season, returning from the second tearing of his right Achille’s tendon in less than a year. The injury weighed heavy on the veteran forward, who told the Associated Press that rehab limited his ability to live a normal life. But a return to the NHL was always the goal, with Pacioretty sharing,”It’s important for me to do this for myself but also for my family and my kids to kind of show them that we can get through this together… I know I have so much more hockey in the tank.”
He’s proven that statement to be true this season, returning to a consistent role in Washington’s top-nine and scoring 15 points in 26 games. That puts him on pace for 47 points across 82 games – a particularly impressive feat given this season also marked the 35-year-old’s first time playing consistent games with a new team since his four-year stretch with the Vegas Golden Knights. Pacioretty has totaled 881 games through his 16-year career and continuously overcome barriers, winning the Masterton Trophy in 2012 after returning from a broken neck. He’s a flashy, scoring-winger who has passed the 30-goal mark six different times in his career, and scored 60 or more points in five times. Much of his career came during a decade with the Montreal Canadiens, where his 448 points in 626 games ranks third among all Canadiens in scoring since 2000, behind Tomas Plekanec and Andrei Markov.
Pacioretty was a tantalizing trade candidate, given his past precedent of dominant scoring, but teams decided to stay away – despite his $2MM cap hit being one of the cheaper on the open market. His next chance to move will come this summer, when Pacioretty becomes an unrestricted free agent. While he considered retirement after his second major Achille’s tendon injury, his claim that he has plenty of hockey left in the tank could continue his pursuit of 1,000 NHL games into next season.