Updated Best Trade Landing Spots for Capitals Forward Evgeny Kuznetsov

A lot can change with time when it comes to trade speculation, but when it comes to the Washington Capitals and Evgeny Kuznetsov, the one thing that's changed is the sense of urgency to trade him out of D.C.

You may recall it was just more than a month ago we kicked around six teams to which the Capitals star could wind up in a trade. The Vegas Golden Knights had just won the Stanley Cup and the offseason was about to begin in earnest for everyone across the NHL. Fast forward to now, and Capitals GM Brian MacLellan confirmed Kuznetsov requested a trade and he's been "aggressive" in trying to find a trade partner.

Rumors about Kuznetsov wanting to get out of Washington have kicked around for a few years now, but now that his request has been confirmed by the GM, it changes the tone surrounding the situation. Instead of mystery about it all, there's a resignation that his time with the Capitals is about to end.

Now that we've gone through the draft and free agency signings have been taken care of for the most part, which teams could/should be interested clears up just a little bit. Our crystal ball might be foggy, but we're going to examine which teams should definitely be interested in the 31-year-old highly skilled centerman.

We realize it's easy to toss the Coyotes' name into the hat when it comes to making trades for players with juicy salary-cap hits. And make no mistake, Evgeny Kuznetsov has quite a luscious one at $7.8 million over the next two years.

Keeping the Coyotes above the bottom line isn't an issue right now, but accumulating more talent to help lift them up is and Arizona could use the help. Yes, they have a growing prospect pool and even have some super-skilled forwards that should be at the top level within a couple of years. But young players take time to acclimate and if the Coyotes want to climb the ladder with a more direct approach, adding Kuznetsov would address that.

A cursory look at what the Coyotes' forward lines could be next season highlight what an issue they have regarding the center position. Unless Clayton Keller is playing center more often than the wing, they don't have a pivot who could crack most teams' top-six forward unit.

If ever there was a team to who Kuznetsov could go right away and be able to resurrect his statistics and consistency, it's Arizona, and, goodness, they desperately need help up the middle before Logan Cooley arrives (next season, maybe?). He might wind up having to go it alone trying to give the Coyotes a top-six forward group to be feared and, for however good Cooley might be, he's not Superman. A veteran like Kuznetsov would give them another player to cause matchup problems.

It sure seems like the Carolina Hurricanes wind up in the mix of trade speculation often and why not? They've proven to be aggressive in the offseason under GM Don Waddell and they're never shy about going for a big move when they find the opportunity to better themselves.

Carolina is already a very good team, they score a lot of goals and generally make life miserable for opponents. But when you look at their forward group, it feels a bit off. Sure, having Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov and Martin Necas packs an offensive punch, but the majority of their group has role players that play their part very well in their system. But wouldn't a little more help scoring be useful?

This is where Kuznetsov comes into the picture, but it's a complicated situation. He's best used in scoring or attacking situations and beyond Aho up the middle, guys like Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Jordan Staal and Jack Drury (among others in competition) don't grab your eyes to make you believe they can light up everyone, every night. The way Rod Brind'Amour coaches up his team to bottle teams up and counterattack would lend itself well to Kuznetsov's abilities.

Kuznetsov's salary-cap hit would be difficult to manage, as would the fact the Hurricanes and Capitals are division rivals, but considering Carolina is heavily in rumors for San Jose's Erik Karlsson, if there's someone the 'Canes want to get, they will find a way to do it.

A lot of what we said regarding Chicago and Kuznetsov about a month ago still holds true, as does our stance they should be in the race to bring him aboard.

Chicago had a very strong draft and some of the moves they've made this summer like adding Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno and Corey Perry address their absolute need to get some quality veterans in the lineup, But they're still terribly thin all over the place.

Yes, Connor Bedard will be there and that's a great thing for years to come, but goodness, their scoring center depth is severely lacking. Tyler Johnson has had a rough past few seasons, Jason Dickinson showed solid flashes last season, and whether it's Ryan Donato or Colin Blackwell helping their bottom-six group of forwards, they're not packing a big offensive punch.

They're going to need more scoring beyond a handful of guys and a quality center behind Bedard would provide a huge lift. Trading for Kuznetsov would help ease the burden.

The idea of adding him makes a lot of sense and it's not as if his cap hit is going to put the Blackhawks in a bind this season or next, nor would it hinder any of the young players' development.

One thing the Montréal Canadiens should have going for them better this season is health.

Injuries wreaked havoc on the Habs and made a tough year a lot more difficult. Still, while they have Nick Suzuki to run their top line, they don't have a standout player to center their second unit.

Players like Christian Dvorak, Jake Evans, Alex Newhook and Sean Monahan all figure to be in the mix for a role there, but if the Canadiens are going to be serious about improving this season, they're going to need a little more 'oomph' than that.

The Canadiens have a complicated mix of players. They have a fair number of youngsters champing at the bit to get more minutes in the lineup or to make it to the NHL. They also have a large number of veteran players who would appear to have concrete roles on the team throughout the lineup.

It's a bit of an uncomfortable mix in that regard, especially when there are younger players who would otherwise have clearer opportunities to get more ice time. Adding Kuznetsov would solve the No. 2 center issue for the next couple of seasons and give them another creative player for coach Martin St. Louis to work with.

In a vacuum, the Nashville Predators adding Evgeny Kuznetsov to their lineup makes all the sense in the world.

But for a Predators team that's made the storyline regarding their lineup restructuring about improving not only their salary-cap crunch but also the character of the group...that gets a little tricky.

Asking for a trade is something teams tend to look very down upon. It's sometimes viewed as being selfish and going against what it means to create a winning atmosphere. What helps smooth out queries like that are previous relationships. You know the kind. Like having your former head coach be the new GM of another team.

Barry Trotz would know Kuznetsov as well as anyone and given how well he performed under him in Washington on the way to winning the Stanley Cup. Kuznetsov had a career year in 2017-2018 setting high marks in goals (27) and points (83) and he was the postseason's top scorer with 32 points.

If there was anyone who would know best how to make use of Kuznetsov, it's Trotz, but there is an obvious catch. The Predators spent on adding Ryan O'Reilly and Luke Schenn as well as re-signing Cody Glass and did so after they bought out Matt Duchene and traded Ryan Johansen.

They've got the cap space to add Kuznetsov, especially if it involves moving another NHL player out in return. If the Preds want to have a better shot to sneak into the playoffs, Kuznetsov shoring up their forward units would be a big boost.

After another tumultuous offseason, the Jets need to get refocused if they're going to get back into the playoffs and make sure to not get torn down by their own hand.

They parted ways with Blake Wheeler in a buyout and traded Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Kings for three solid players in Alex Iafallo, Gabriel Vilardi and Rasmus Kupari. The problem with Winnipeg trading Dubois is it meant the Jets didn't have a ready-to-go center to fill the void left behind.

The Jets look thin at center and this is why finding a way to add Kuznetsov would be a great idea.

Winnipeg has quite a few wingers who could get a lift from having a player of Kuznetsov's caliber feeding them pucks and while replacement candidates from within the roster range between Kupari, Vladislav Namestnikov and even 2022 first-round pick Brad Lambert should he make the team out of camp. It's asking a lot of any of those guys to take the big leap forward to playing second-line minutes. Not to mention if they want to find a way to help convince goalie Connor Hellebuyck that sticking around is the best thing, a bold move to improve the team immediately ought to help.

The Central Division will be very competitive and if the Jets aren't careful, they could get knocked down the ladder to the point of missing the playoffs if they don't do something to fix things up the middle.