We Cant Have SamsonovVanecek

Team: 2020-21 Washington Capitals

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 2, 2020

Published: Sep. 4, 2020

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

I've seen a lot of ACGMs that have the Caps rolling with Samsonov and Vanecek next season. That's a bad idea for a lot of reasons. 1) We aren't positive Samsonov is ready to be a full-time starter. 2) We don't know that Vanecek is ready for a backup spot. 3) We're probably looking at a very condensed schedule for next season, which means goalies are going to burn out quicker and potentially get hurt more. If Samsonov were to go down, I'm not comfortable with Vanecek and Copley for any amount of time. It wouldn't surprise me if there's a handful of 3 games in 4 days scenarios next season, and I think that's a great opportunity to get Samsonov, Crawford and Vanecek all playing time. If we sign someone like Crawford to a 1 year deal, it doesn't hurt us moving forward when Vanecek could take the backup role. But he needs a few NHL games first.

I didn't spend any time on what the full trades would look like for Puljujarvi and Hjalmarsson, but the point is that we move out Jensen, Kempny and Panik and bring in Vatanen, Hjalmarsson and Puljujarvi. We still have some money to play around with come the deadline if we feel the need to make another move.

If Gerard Gallant was coaching this team next year, I think we have a great shot at winning another Cup. It's a team built to play with the pace and structure that he executed so well with Vegas the last couple of years that can do some serious damage in the postseason.

1.

2.

3.