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Capitals offseason primer


yave1964

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FINAL RECORD 49-26-7 105 points won the Metro. Defeated the Jackets, the hated Penguins and the Bolts before winning the Stanley cup for the first time in team history by besting the Knights in five games.

 

  What a difference one goal makes. After falling down to the CBJ 2 games to nil they went to double overtime in game three, if the Jackets win the series is over Trotz is hoping for a job somewhere, Ovechkin catches even more Hell and another summer of discontent begins. Instead Eller scores swinging momentum in the series, they go on to win their first ever title and a celebration for the ages begins.

  Ovie had a monster year continuing to cement his name as the premier goal scorer of his generation with 49 to lead the league by 5, then scored another 15 in the postseason to win the Conn Smythe. Kuznetsov had a very nice bounce back year, Backstrom sliped a bit but was very solid, Oshie at least for year one of his long term deal justified it in both regular and postseason and in mass transit, Eler and Wilson were solid in complimentary roles, Smith Pelly had a meh regular season but a solid postseason in fact the role playing forwards, Beagle, Stephenson, Connolly and Vrana all did more or less what was expected from them a very professional job contributing the occasional goal while playing sound hockey at both ends.

  The defense was led by Carlson who picked the right time to have a career year with 68 points entering his free agent season, Niskanen was solid, Orlov is as underrated a player as there might be in the conference capable of scoring while playing tight sound shut down defense, The rest of the blueline was adequate.

  In net Holtby had for him a disappointing season but still won 34 games, he was outplayed for much of the year by the cheaper Grubauer. Grubauer earned starting the playoffs in net but when he faltered and Holtby took over he owned the net like a boss.

  As far as what went wrong, again Holtby was ordinary, Orpik looks old and slow and Chiasson brought in for secondary scoring didn't do much. it is being nitpicky tho, overall the team was well built from top to bottom and produced well all season.

 

 FREE AGENTS

Carlson is the top defender available and the Caps really want him back. They believe that Orlov hasn't yet reached his potential but I don't see a 68 point season ever out of him, Carlson will be tough to resign but they will make every effort.Beagle is a very valuable 4C who they want back, Chiasson and Kempny are goners. As for RFA, the Caps have 11 million in cap space to resign Wilson and Grubauer with as well as Smith Pelly leaving very little if any for Carlson.

 

TOP PROSPECTS Ilya Samsonov is a top flight goalie prospect who is coming to America to play at Hershey or to push for a job in Washington. Madison Bowey will claim a spot on the back end of the defense this year. Chrsitian Djoos and Lucas Johensen are good solid defensemen down on the farm who are in the mix for ice time with the big boys.  Riley Barber and Travis Boyd will fight for bottom six winger ice time. All are solid role p[ayers who fit in well with what Washington has built, two way players who know to stay in their own lanes. Samsonov and possibly Johansen are the only top tier prospects in the bunch but all can contribute.

 

OFFSEASON QUESTIONS

DO YOU TRADE GRUBAUER?

 IMHO no, you make a clinical decision instead of thinking with your heart you think with your head and trade Holtby and sign Grubauer/Carlson instead. If you trade Grubauer all it allows is you to resign your own RFA, possibly keep Beagle and bring someone like Cam Ward in as a veteran backup while insuring that Carlson is unaffordable. Trading Holtby and his 6.1 million dollar a year deal frees up enough money to try to keep Carlson. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Holtbeast and his contract is really a bargain in todays game but the cap savings allows for flexibility. Plus factor in the return, a middle first rounder possibly, I think it is the way to go. Not saying it is what Washington will do but I would, Grubauer outperformed him most of the year for pennies on the dollar and will certainly command a decent salary but in the cap world a penny saved is a penny spent to fill other holes.

 

CAN YOU RESIGN BARRY TROTZ?

 Trotz was bnot given an extention last offseason, was not given one this regular season, if he had lost to the CBJ or the Pens he would be scrambling, instead he is an UFA as a head coach and the Capitals as of today have not made an offer to resign him in spite of saying all the right things days after winning the cup. There are few teams still ISO a head coach but Trotz does not need to sign, he could take the summer off, wait until early in the year when Edmonton or Anaheim or whoever starts slow and starts looking around to see who is available. When they look around and see no neck sitting on his couch with a cigar waiting on a call, his phone should get busy. He demands a good deal, he deserves a good deal, the Caps need to get it done soon or move on. either way, sooner or later he is gonna get paid.

 

CAN THEY REPEAT?

 Repeat??? Hell it took them 44 years to win once!! 

  In todays day and age of parity, repeating is difficult at best, Pittsburgh was the first repeat champ in nearly 20 years. They could, I doubt it but anything is possible. 

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8 hours ago, yave1964 said:

CAN YOU RESIGN BARRY TROTZ?

 Trotz was bnot given an extention last offseason, was not given one this regular season, if he had lost to the CBJ or the Pens he would be scrambling, instead he is an UFA as a head coach and the Capitals as of today have not made an offer to resign him in spite of saying all the right things days after winning the cup. There are few teams still ISO a head coach but Trotz does not need to sign, he could take the summer off, wait until early in the year when Edmonton or Anaheim or whoever starts slow and starts looking around to see who is available. When they look around and see no neck sitting on his couch with a cigar waiting on a call, his phone should get busy. He demands a good deal, he deserves a good deal, the Caps need to get it done soon or move on. either way, sooner or later he is gonna get paid.

 

Man, what a difference 4 hours or so makes, huh? 

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