Flames ship Mangiapane to Capitals for draft pick

*Photo from Sportsnet*

   Moving and shuffling continues to take place. The Washington Capitals have acquired LW Andrew Mangiapane from the Calgary Flames in exchange for a 2025 second round draft pick, according to both teams.

   The draft pick in the trade originally belonged to the Colorado Avalanche. Mangiapane is entering the final year of his contract and is due $5.8 million before being able to test the free agent market for the first time. His deal also contains a modified no trade clause for the coming season in the form of an 8 team no trade list.

   Mangiapane is coming off his 7th season with the Flames as a 6th round pick of the team in 2015. He picked up 14 goals and 26 assists for 40 points to his name, averaging exactly 16 minutes of ice time while posting a +7 rating in 75 games.

   The best year of Mangiapane's career came in 2021-2022 with the Flames. He set career highs in goals with 35 and points with 55, playing in all 82 games as well. He's gotten at least 40 points a season in each of the last 3 seasons. The coming season will be his age 28 season.

   Calgary GM Craig Conroy said of trading Mangiapane that "Today’s trade provides us with an increase in valuable draft capital and we have continued to emphasize the importance of how upcoming drafts will influence the future of our franchise. Additionally, this move affords us with more salary cap and roster flexibility to make decisions after July 1st."

   Debuting in 2017-2018, Mangiapane has been a steady scorer in the middle of the Flames lineup. He has racked up 109 goals and 106 assists for 215 points to his name, posting a +52 rating while averaging 15:05 of ice time per game over 417 games. He also has 6 goals and 6 assists while averaging 14:58 of ice time across 27 playoff games.

   With the trade, the Flames now have just under $29 million in cap space ahead of free agency opening Monday afternoon. The Capitals are now $2 million over the cap but can free up approximately $9.2 million if center Nicklas Backstrom remains on LTIR and is unable to play.

   The move for Mangiapane is the Capitals latest attempt to add more scoring punch to their forward group. Last week, they made a one for one trade with the Los Angeles Kings to acquire center Pierre-Luc Dubois.