Opening night prediction

Created by: qc14

Team: 2022-23 Washington Capitals

Initial Creation Date: Oct. 3, 2022

Published: Oct. 3, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Legend

Left Handed

Original Team

Waivers Exempt

Right Handed

Position

Trade Clause

Max Perf. Bonus

Expiry Status

Term Remaining

McDavid, Connor

$12,500,000 ( Performance Bonus

$250,000)

NMC

UFA - 5

Description

Protas and Snively IMO have played their way into a spot. They both look like NHLers and based on Lavi's comments especially on Protas I expect them to be on the 23-man roster at the very least. McMichael has looked ok but not good enough to grab a center spot, and while I think a McM - Dowd - Hathaway line would be great, I don't see him initially beating out Sheary or Johansson for that spot. MoJo has been a bit better than Sheary and gets the last forward spot.

On D Johansen has played well but Gustafsson gets the benefit of the doubt to begin the year. Johansen is right on his heels though I think.

This risks losing AJF, Leason, and Irwin on waivers but I think all 3 of them are replaceable and have been passed by other internal options. AJF especially looked like he did not take a step forward, and his ceiling was always going to be as a direct Hagelin replacement. Leason was a bad pick at the time and while he has panned out better than many of the projections post-draft, he once again has been passed internally for that bottom-6 wing role by a lot of guys.

Draft	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Round 5	Round 6	Round 7
2023
2024
2025

ROSTER

LONG-TERM OUTLOOK

EMBED

TEXT-EMBED

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
23	$82,500,000	$68,813,334	$100,000	$82,500	$13,686,666

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Ovechkin, Alex $9,500,000$9,500,000 LW M-NTC, NMC UFA - 4	Kuznetsov, Evgeny $3,900,000$3,900,000 C M-NTC UFA - 3	Brown, Connor $3,600,000$3,600,000 RW, LW UFA - 1
Snively, Joe $800,000$800,000 LW UFA - 2	Strome, Dylan $3,500,000$3,500,000 C UFA - 1	Mantha, Anthony $2,850,000$2,850,000 LW, RW UFA - 2
Protas, Aliaksei $789,167$789,167 ($82,500$82K) RW, LW, C UFA - 2	Eller, Lars $2,415,000$2,415,000 C UFA - 1	Oshie, T.J. $5,750,000$5,750,000 RW M-NTC UFA - 3
Johansson, Marcus $1,100,000$1,100,000 LW, RW UFA - 1	Dowd, Nic $1,300,000$1,300,000 C UFA - 3	Hathaway, Garnet $1,500,000$1,500,000 RW, LW UFA - 1
	McMichael, Connor $863,333$863,333 LW, C RFA - 2	Sheary, Conor $1,500,000$1,500,000 LW, RW UFA - 1

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Fehérváry, Martin $791,667$791,667 LD/RD RFA - 1	Carlson, John $8,000,000$8,000,000 RD M-NTC UFA - 4	Kuemper, Darcy $5,250,000$5,250,000 G M-NTC UFA - 5
Orlov, Dmitry $1,275,000$1,275,000 LD M-NTC UFA - 1	Jensen, Nick $2,500,000$2,500,000 RD UFA - 1	Lindgren, Charlie $1,100,000$1,100,000 G UFA - 3
Gustafsson, Erik $800,000$800,000 LD UFA - 1	van Riemsdyk, Trevor $950,000$950,000 RD UFA - 1
Johansen, Lucas $762,500$762,500 LD UFA - 2

Scratches	Injured Reserve (IR)	Long Term IR (LTIR)
	Wilson, Tom $5,166,667$5,166,667 RW M-NTC UFA - 2	Bäckström, Nicklas $9,200,000$9,200,000 C NMC UFA - 3
	Hagelin, Carl $2,750,000$2,750,000 LW UFA - 1

Top Comments

Oct. 3, 2022 at 2:04 p.m.

capsfan2121

Tintin over 1122

Joined: May 2021

Posts: 15,932

Likes: 10,168

That sheary Dowd Hathaway will never change imo. I’m hoping snively make the opening line up. He deserves it. Protas making a push. Honestly if Mikey plays well enough maybe protas mikey Oshie line is possible.

qc14 and NoVaSpartan liked this.

Oct. 3, 2022 at 7:58 p.m.

MVC

Joined: Apr. 2021

Posts: 334

Likes: 134

Edited Oct. 3, 2022 at 8:03 p.m.

One minor thing I would change would be Mantha-Strome-Protas, and Snively-Eller-Oshie. I think Protas has been the most impressive so far, so I would reward him with the second line on opening night. JMO. But Definitely could go either way, and I definitely wouldn't be upset with either lineup.

Oct. 4, 2022 at 8:17 a.m.

NoVaSpartan

Craig Laughlin Fan

Joined: Nov. 2019

Posts: 5,324

Likes: 5,748

Should Protas make the roster, I think he would get the 1st line job over Brown, since the Ovi-Kuzy-Protas line looked good last year and they've already seemed to have bonded well. I'd go Ovi-Kuzy-Protas, Brown-Strome-Mantha, and Snively-Eller-Oshie personally, but I don't mind the lines currently proposed. If MCM is scratched, I can see him being sent down in favor of AJF or Leason so the Caps don't have to immediately risk both to waivers, and gives one of them a final chance to make the team.

All_Knowing and qc14 liked this.

Oct. 4, 2022 at 11:33 a.m.

All_Knowing

Joined: Aug. 2020

Posts: 1,761

Likes: 1,104

Completely agree with @NoVaSpartan's comments, from Ovi-Kuzy-Protas to MCM possibly being sent down. MCM has been given ample opporuntiies this preseason and has not really stood out.

Side note: imo, Sheary should never be a healthy scratch. He is an all around solid player, wins board battles, fits all 4 lines, and certainly fits the Caps system. He also is practically a 20 goal scorer (19 last season). How can you sit a guy like that?

If anything, MoJo should sit (although that will probably not happen with Lavvy at the beginning of the season).

qc14 and NoVaSpartan liked this.

Oct. 4, 2022 at 11:37 a.m.

qc14

Joined: Sep. 2020

Posts: 3,517

Likes: 1,993

Quoting: All_Knowing

Completely agree with NoVaSpartan's comments, from Ovi-Kuzy-Protas to MCM possibly being sent down. MCM has been given ample opporuntiies this preseason and has not really stood out.

Side note: imo, Sheary should never be a healthy scratch. He is an all around solid player, wins board battles, fits all 4 lines, and certainly fits the Caps system. He also is practically a 20 goal scorer (19 last season). How can you sit a guy like that?

If anything, MoJo should sit (although that will probably not happen with Lavvy at the beginning of the season).

I think Sheary was really good last year, and ultimately think that its most likely that Protas and Snively both stay up but are scratched for the opener. However I do think that given there are at least 15 forwards that have played like they deserve NHL time (not even counting Wilson and Backstrom!), it will come down completely to form this year and not last. Sheary (like McM) certainly hasn't been bad during preseason, but IMO Johansson, Protas, and Snively have all been noticeably good.

All_Knowing liked this.

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