Is Dylan Strome the answer for the Capitals? Could he have been for the Blackhawks?

When Dylan Strome steps onto the familiar ice at the United Center on Tuesday night, walking out of an unfamiliar tunnel from the visitors dressing room, what will he be, exactly? Is he the one who got away for Chicago? Unlikely. Is he a long-term answer for Washington? Perhaps, perhaps not. Is he an upper-echelon, top-six player or a too-slow, one-way stopgap? Hard to tell.

Will he ever be more than a skilled-but-flawed, proven-yet-doubted player who’ll continue to bounce around the league on short-term contracts but never find a long-term home? That’s still to be determined.

Since the start of the 2018-19 season, Strome has the same number of points as Nico Hischier and T.J. Oshie, one more than Alex Pietrangelo, two more than Anders Lee and three more than Erik Karlsson. He’s a proven, viable, NHL center. The guy can play.

But seven years after the Arizona Coyotes made him the third pick in the 2015 NHL Draft and more than a quarter of the way through his fifth full NHL season, the jury is somehow still out on Strome.

He’s good. But is he good enough?

Brendan Perlini was the guy the Blackhawks were most excited about. Or, at least, most sure about.

After all, Perlini had scored 31 goals over his first two seasons with the Coyotes; a terrific skater who was picked 12th in the 2014 draft. Strome? It wouldn’t be accurate to call him a mere throw-in in the Nick Schmaltz trade, but he was little more than a flier, a shot in the dark, a why-not. Picked third behind Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel in the 2015 draft, Strome already was verging on bust territory, with just seven goals over parts of three seasons with the Coyotes.

Dylan Strome with the Coyotes in 2017. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

But then Strome scored a goal and set up another in his first game with Chicago. He spent the season centering either Alex DeBrincat or Patrick Kane — sometimes both — and put up 51 points (17 goals and 34 assists) in 58 games. His deft playmaking was evident, and the old ‘change of scenery’ trade worked wonders.

Until it didn’t.

Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton never bought in on Strome, never embraced him, never truly believed in him. He was slow. He was weak at the dot. He was defensively deficient. His points were empty calories. Instead of seeing Strome as someone who could play with elite players, Colliton saw him as someone who needed to play with elite players. He wasn’t wrong — Strome needed to be put in a position to succeed in order to actually succeed — but it was a failure of imagination to not realize that it’s actually quite difficult to play with elite players, to keep up with them, to think like them and play like them and produce like them.

When Strome’s production dipped in 2019-20, Colliton shoehorned him into the bottom six, or on the wing, in roles that simply didn’t fit his skill set. He flat-out didn’t have that kind of versatility, another mark against him. Then when he didn’t produce in those roles, it became a self-perpetuating spiral, which often found Strome benched or scratched. By the time the 2021-22 season started, Strome was barely on Colliton’s radar. He eventually — after some fits and starts — won over Derek King following Colliton’s firing and had a very productive second half of the 2021-22 season centering DeBrincat and Kane. He even had worked to turn himself into an above-average faceoff man and a competent enough defender. But by then it was clear the Blackhawks didn’t see him as a part of the long-term future, and they allowed him to walk as a restricted free agent.

“He’s a good player,” Kane said. “I think everyone knows that he kind of got the short end of the stick at the beginning of the year last year, not playing. He definitely should have been in the lineup. Then he gets a chance with (DeBrincat) and I, or Ovechkin — if he plays with good players, he’s going to produce.”

Was it the right call to cut Strome loose? Depends on your purpose. Strome’s continued production and strong underlying numbers in Washington certainly back up the idea that he’s a viable top-six center in the NHL, something the Blackhawks clearly lack this season. Of course, the point of this season for the Blackhawks is to be as bad as possible in order to land a potential true No. 1 center such as Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli or Leo Carlsson. Having Strome and Kane rack up points together would have run counter to that aim. Every lost point in the standings counts.

Yes, re-signing Strome might have kept Kane happy, and perhaps made Kane more likely to want to stick around Chicago through the rebuild (and sell some tickets and jerseys in the process). But at 34 years old, the Blackhawks seem to prefer the idea of dealing Kane at the trade deadline for another high draft pick to add to their arsenal.

Yes, Strome is only 25 and in the prime of his career, but the Blackhawks believe they’re four or five years away from being truly relevant again and don’t see a 29- or 30-year-old Strome as part of that future. It’s the same reason they were willing to part with a 24-year-old DeBrincat in order to draft 18-year-old defenseman Kevin Korchinski.

Yes, it would have been far better to flip Strome at last year’s trade deadline — or even re-sign him for one year, have him boost Kane’s numbers to keep his value high, and flip him at this year’s deadline — than to lose him for nothing. But the Blackhawks tried for more than a year to deal Strome and had no serious takers. The fact that Strome only managed to get a one-year deal this past summer despite his production underscores how difficult it is to shed a negative reputation as a player.

Strome is one of the more curious cases in recent Blackhawks memory — an obviously talented and demonstrably productive player who could never win over his two coaches or his two general managers. Would the Blackhawks be better with him this season? Certainly. But that was never the point, anyway.

With Nicklas Backstrom’s NHL future unclear, the Capitals went into free agency in need of a top-six center.

After not receiving a qualifying offer from the Blackhawks, Strome wanted a team that could bookend him with quality wingers.

But even after the Caps signed him to a one-year, $3.5 million ‘prove it’ contract on the second day of free agency, Strome was not guaranteed a spot on Washington’s first or second line as he had to push past 2019 first-round draft pick Connor McMichael in order to earn it.

Which he did with a strong preseason underscored by four points (three goals, one assist) in four exhibitions.

He’s been proving general manager Brian MacLellan and coach Peter Laviolette right ever since.

Strome has six goals and 16 assists in 30 games, putting him on pace for 60 points, which would be a career high. His 22 points are tied with Evgeny Kuznetsov for second on the Caps as only Alex Ovechkin has more with 30. Meanwhile, Strome’s 11 points on the power play are second only to Ovechkin’s 13.

Strome has centered the first and second lines, he’s found his fit on a star-laden power-play unit and, on occasion, has drawn tough defensive assignments, such as matching up against Connor McDavid in Edmonton last week. He’s also shown the ability to mesh with Ovechkin, which isn’t the easiest job.

Most importantly, though, Strome has been good where Washington needs him to be: driving offense.

Per Sportlogiq, he ranks among the top three on the Caps in a number of key offensive areas:

–Per Sportlogiq’s data

What does the impressive start mean for Strome in D.C. going forward?

It’s too soon to tell.

Strome is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. Internally, the Caps’ decision-makers like what they’ve seen but uncertainty abounds. Backstrom is working his way back from major hip surgery and, if he’s successful, that could crowd the center position and make things tight on the cap. They’ve also got McMichael and 2020 first-rounder Hendrix Lapierre marinating in the minors.

Then there’s the matter of winning (or the lack thereof). Though Washington pulls into the United Center having won four games in a row to claw back into the wild-card picture, a ninth consecutive playoff berth is anything but guaranteed. And MacLellan told reporters recently that he’d have a tough time bringing back the team as currently constituted should it fall short. The roster features 13 UFAs and three RFAs, including Strome.

“It’s important that our team is successful for us to continue down the same path with the same guys,” MacLellan said last week, without singling anyone out. “If it’s not going the right way, we have to naturally look at making some changes.”

So, yeah. Like a lot of things with the Caps these days — and like Strome’s perpetually questioned ceiling — his future can be summed up by three letters: TBD.

(Photo: Geoff Burke / USA Today)