From the moment the Washington Capitals hoisted the Stanley Cup for a first time last June, they started thinking about how they could do it again this year. General manager Brian MacLellan has typically spent his summer trying to identify what the Capitals were missing, but now that his club seemingly had all the right ingredients to win, he just tried to hold onto to most of them — and he did. There are just two players, fourth-line center Jay Beagle and backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer, from Washington’s Stanley Cup finals lineup that aren’t on the team anymore.

MacLellan had hoped that bringing back a near-identical roster from last season would mean the chemistry carried over, too, but it’s possible that the group has grown stale with eight losses in the past 10 games. Perhaps the success has caused the Capitals to take for granted how hard they worked to get that championship.

MacLellan has said he doesn’t favor tinkering too much this late into the season — that blockbuster for defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk in 2017 is a good example of how it can be hard to incorporate a big-name player on an accelerated timeline. But he is looking to make some kind of change before the trade deadline on Feb. 25. Expect it to be in the forward group.

“We’re active,” MacLellan said Monday. “We’re always active. We’re trying to see what’s happening in the market. You like certain guys, are they going to be available? Are they not going to be available? Does it fit your long-term plan? Does it fit cap-wise? We continually talk to teams and monitor what they’re thinking, and you try and find matches. ...

“I like to think our chemistry’s stayed the same, but it’s changed a little bit. And if we can affect the forward group, we try and affect it, if we thought we could make a move that would solidify it.”

Speaking to reporters less than a month ago, MacLellan said he was interested in swapping one forward for another with comparable salary, but when asked Monday if he would do a deal for future assets, like draft picks, MacLellan seemed open. “I think we look at everything,” he said. Winger Andre Burakovsky is the forward most likely to be on the move, and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Capitals have asked for a pair of mid- to high-round picks for him. Those could then be packaged in a separate deal for someone to play in Washington’s middle-six forward corps, where the team hoped Burakovsky would be.

The 23-year-old has struggled with six goals and six assists in 46 games this season, a healthy scratch earlier in the year and now a fourth-liner. The organization’s 2013 first-round pick, Burakovsky is set to become a restricted free agent this summer, and retaining his rights would require tendering him a qualifying offer of $3.25 million, steep for his current production. That hurts his value in a trade, because while he could flash his considerable skill and offensive upside with a change of scenery — it wasn’t that long ago that he scored two goals in a Game 7 against Tampa Bay during the Eastern Conference final — a team would have a short window to evaluate that before making a decision on keeping him or risking him signing elsewhere in free agency.

“I want him to do well,” MacLellan said. “He’s a good young player. He’s got upside. We’ve all seen it where he’s played in the playoffs in a top-six role and played well. That’s the player we want to have here. We still have two more years of rights on him and we’re hoping that he gets back to that level as soon as we can get him there.”

When the Capitals traded winger Marcus Johansson to the New Jersey Devils before last season, they got a return of a second- and third-round pick, and while Johansson was three years older than Burakovsky at the time of the deal, he was coming off a career year with 24 goals and 34 assists. He was also under contract for two more seasons with a $4.583 million cap hit, reasonable for that 58-point season. Burakovsky’s cap hit is lower ($3 million) and it expires at the end of the year. Washington also would be selling low: Burakovsky has played fewer than nine minutes in each of the past three games.

“He’s getting some chances, but I think he’s a player that we need to get more from,” coach Todd Reirden said.

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