Ovechkin will get his record, and his money. He didn’t want Orlov traded, but he was.
Wilson is a great trade asset at next years deadline.
I just don’t see any trade that will undo paying $9m to Backstrom for 2 more years.
Management also assured him that trading Orlov and the others wasn't the beginning of a rebuild but rather a short-term retool. I suspect that if he was told that they were going to undergo a long, proper rebuild that he would ask out sooner rather than later.
I realize the Backstrom deal is an anchor but it's not a death knell for the team's chances to become competitive again. They’ll need to optimize the rest of their lineup which will mean saying goodbye to Mantha, Oshie, and especially Kuznetsov but it’s doable. They won’t be in the top tier again until they do a proper rebuild but they should be able to return to the playoffs and make some noise even with Backstrom on the roster. But they’ll need to be aggressive with the assets they currently have.