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Capitals’ Schultz publicly confirms his trade request

Jeff Schultz

Jeff Schultz #55 of the Washington Capitals tends net against the New York Islanders at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on March 9, 2013 in Uniondale, New York. The Islanders defeated the Capitals 5-2. (March 8, 2013 - Source: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America)

Defenseman Jeff Schultz is tired of watching his role in Washington decline. He believes another team might use him more and he wants the Capitals to send him to such a home.

“My agent and I thought there has got to be somewhere else where a team needs a player like myself and I can be utilized a lot more than I was here,” Schultz told the Washington Post. “It was like I was a young first year player again with them.

“They didn’t have that trust in me that they could put me out there in tough situations or even in the third period.”

Schultz went from averaging 19:47 minutes in 2010-11 to 15:18 in 2011-12 and just 14:15 this season. He wasn’t used at all in the 2013 playoffs.

As previously reported, this trade request was apparently first made in mid-March. He obviously wasn’t dealt before the trade deadline, but agent Jarrett Bousquet remains confident that he can be moved over the summer.

“Playing in the National Hockey League now supersedes playing for the Washington Capitals,” Bousquet said. “I think he can still play in the National Hockey League. He’s played almost 400 games, almost 30 playoff games if he’s playing 20-22 minutes a night like he was when they signed him he’s not a huge cap hit.”

He will come with a $2,750,000 cap hit next season and is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2014.

The Capitals don’t have much cap space, so they probably want to trade him and might even resort to buying out his contract if they can’t. Washington has both of its compliance buyouts available and using one would get his cap hit off the books.